November 19, 2021

11/19/2021

BUILDING THE BRAND…Most Ponca City products are sold to other businesses, meaning that marketing and brand recognition are not top priorities. Dorada sells to McDonalds, CME sells to contractors, Mertz sells to energy industries customers and so forth. Ponca City has several notable brands, however, that are well known in the marketplace. Whether you are talking about Phillips 66 gasoline, Head Country bar-b-que sauce, Cookshack smokers, VacuMade products or other goods, these products roll out of Ponca City under their own brand name and serve as ambassadors to our community.

The PCDA Board of Trustees recently approved an agreement with Vortex Alley Brewing earlier this month to launch yet another brand to venture out into the big wide world. You probably know Vortex as that great micro-brewery on the corner of Central and Third that is open Wednesday through Saturday nights. Under the agreement, Vortex will become a manufacturer too. The agreement is entirely focused on a new manufacturing operation that Vortex will set up. The retail operations are firewalled since PCDA cannot provide incentives to retail. Vortex will soon begin manufacturing canned product (beer) and “export” it outside of Ponca City. The Vortex Brand will join those mentioned above, spreading the good news about Ponca City, along with a little cheer.

KEEPING IT SMALL…You know about Black Friday and Cyber Monday but do you know about “Shop Small Saturday?” On Saturday, November 27^th, Shop Small Saturday will encourage you, us, them and others to shop at small business. The definition of small is up to you but it really means shopping local and keeping money in our community. Rumor has it that some people shop on line for items they could easily buy in a Ponca City small business. Hard to believe, we know.

Shopping small particularly on Shop Small Saturday, which is wedged in between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, helps make sure that the Mom and Pop stores that used to define main street can continue to be the very important heart of business in our community. If you can’t get out that day due to COVID or some football game somewhere, Ponca City Mainstreet and PCDA partnered to develop an online portal for downtown businesses, poncacitymarketplace.com that will still allow you to support small business.

The demand for employees continues to spike across the country; Wages are increasing - according to the DOL – with productivity decreasing. While an increase in the minimum wage has been a long time coming, this little data set provides some depth to the story. A pay wage increase is not the only thing that employees are wanting.

According to another article in Inc., employees just want to have fun! Not just party type of fun, but a good work environment, people that care about them as human beings, motivation which does include pay. As this pandemic continues to change the way we work, Ponca Works is here to help you navigate. Maybe this week – start by asking your employees what motivates them. This nugget of information will be helpful to know and also show them that you care.