As part of its rebranding exercise, for the first time the Co-operative has brought all of its businesses – food, travel, pharmacy, legal services, funeral care, banking – together under one umbrella. To reinforce this message, and to support the Co-operative's membership drive, Redwood launched The Co-operative Membership Magazine in November 2006, which is mailed quarterly to 1.2 million Co-operative members.
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Its objective is to explain what Co-operative membership means, to help create an emotional engagement with the idea of membership, change perceptions of the Co-operative Group among members, communicate the Co-operative's ethical and social positioning, reflect and reinforce the new brand identity, create awareness of Co-operative businesses and, in turn, encourage customers to increase their spend.
Qualitative research conducted after every issue has demonstrated the magazine's success, both in increasing sales and altering the perception of a complicated brand.
"The magazine is helping to drive brand awareness, leading to improved corporate reputation scores, especially in the area of leadership and reliability – our key metric measure. Members are clearly more engaged and bonded with our brand and we're seeing real commercial benefits in terms of increased sales and profitability."
Jemima Tomlinson, director of brand development,
The Co-operative
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