EVERYTHING TEXAS BRAND
branching out attracts tourists from all over
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NEW STRATEGIC PLAN
chamber drafts plans for 2014-2016
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Mount Pleasant
Mount Pleasant wins “Best City”
Retail Marketing for Produce
Guaranty Bond Bank earns Top Corporate Team Honors during the 2014 Total Resource Campaign
BI-MONTHLY BUSINESS REPORT
MAY/JUNE ISSUE 09 2014 1
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Table of contents partners Everything Texas “Best City� TRC Success New Strategic plan Happenings Marketing strategy Everything Texas brand Retail marketing for produce Calendar
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Partners continuing to take Everything Texas to the next
LeveL! March– April 2014 AEP-SWEPCO Alamo Mission Museum Brown’s Glass & Mirror Conroy Tractor Co. Country Cottage Florist Rickey Crane Designin’ Women Designs By Lisa East Texas Broadcasting Expert Computing Solutions, Inc Hale Electric Hansen’s Collision Specialist
Heav’nly Foods Homer Holt IHOP Restaurant Jordan Health Services Living Truth Fellowship Mardi Gras Seafood Medical & Surgical Dermatology Center Mid America Pet Food Mill’s Flower Shop Morrison Supply Company Mount Olive Baptist Church Mount Pleasant Delta Waterfowl
Mount Pleasant Eye Care Center, PA Northeast Texas Women’s Health, P.A. Shae Ochoa Rychlik Auto Wrecker Service Spruill Honda Kawasaki Super Plaza Tennison Learning Center Texas A & M University-Texarkana Thai Lanna Thompson Air Conditioning & Heating, Inc. Tumey Mortuary
New Partners Rustic C Boutique Kathryn C Dunn DVM Mount Pleasant Tire and Brake, Inc. Billy Craig’s Mobil Templo Cristiano Fuente de Agua Viva A/G Ron’s Health Foods Timber Creek Designs Bustin’ Out Cancer Bradfords LLC
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Little Rascal’s Daycare and Learning Center Total Lawn and Fence Diamond T Outfitters Mid America Flight Museum Angel Paws Pet Resort Taqueria Daysi’s y Mariscos CASA of Titus, Camp & Morris Co. Oasis Liquor Freedom Vapes
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Gary’s Gun & Pawn Shop NAPA Auto Parts Star-Mart #2 Lil Man’s Boutique Spencer Miche Mayben Realty, LLC Gladewater Baptist Church Mays Home Health, TX The Landing
Hospitality earns Mount Pleasant “Best City” award Mount Pleasant’s businesses, attractions and the Everything Texas hospitality of its people put this Northeast Texas city solidly on the Texas tourism
Whatley Center and the Northeast Texas Community College campus, a tour of the candy-making process at Sweet Shop USA, the Country Club of Mount Pleasant, local city parks, cemeteries, Town Lake, and Mount Pleasant’s “Main Street” designated downtown area, which Phillips said was his favorite spot. map. Chamber CEO Faustine Curry said the 40 Named “Best City” by the Texas Travel Coun- volunteers who planned and executed the tour selors during a five “worked very hard to put -day study tour Mount Pleasant in its best sponsored by the light.” “More importantly, we Texas Travel Inwanted to show what typical dustry Association, tourists see when they come Mount Pleasant to Mount Pleasant,” she said. will be featured in “We wanted to make sure a tourism report distributed to highway information they got the full meaning of ‘Everything Texas.’” centers across the state. “The purpose of the tour is to allow the travel counselors to visit these cities and be able to tell visitors that come into their centers that they’ve been there and they’ve seen it,” said Bob Phillips, the TTIA’s study tour coordinator. The 38th annual tour travels through a different region of the state each year. The group visited Mount Pleasant and 20 other cities in Northeast Texas October 6-11, 2013, eating at 15 restaurants and visiting 36 attractions. The group also named local realtor Diana Kennedy, a member of the Mount Pleasant-Titus County Chamber of Commerce tourism committee, as Best Step-On Guide. “It’s wonderful when you see a community like Mount Pleasant that really understands the importance of tourism, and better yet, how to market your city and go about promoting yourself,” Phillips said. Some of the highlights of the bus tour Curry, Kennedy accept top honors for Mount Pleasant through Mount Pleasant included visiting the at Texas Travel Industry Association Conference.
“We wanted to make sure they got the full meaning of ‘Everything Texas.’”
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2014 Executive Board Shannon Norfleet, TRMC -Chairman Richard Witherspoon, Herschel’s Restaurant-Chairman-Elect David Hooper, Echo Publishing—Vice Chairman Brian Niblett, American National Bank—Treasurer Martin Bell, Guaranty Bond Bank - Past Chairman
2014 Directors Beverly Austin
Brad Lowry
Northeast SBDC
Pilgrim Bank
Stephen Curry
Dennis Newman
Capps Insurance
Newman Electronics
Rob Hedges
Tommy Shumate
Republic Services
Sisk Motors
Diana Kennedy
Mitchell Walker
Century 21
Dekoron Wire & Cable
Matt Klump
Jey Yancey
Expert Computing
Offenhauser Insurance
on Social Media
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Kristy Crooks
Kim Crabb
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Jey Yancey
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and Mount Pleasant business community unite for Total Resource Campaign success The unity of Mount Pleasant’s business and community leaders forged strong ties that led to another successful Total Resource Campaign for the Chamber. The TRC generates sponsorships from local businesses that support chamber events, programs, networking and business promotion throughout the year. It allows the Chamber to map out a complete year of chamber activities and gauge the success of an event. At a victory party for the 2014 campaign, TRC Chair Steve Capps thanked the teams who fanned out across Mount Pleasant during February. “Unity makes us stronger together,” he told the crowd at 80 Acres. Chamber CEO Faustine Curry said the campaign surpassed its sponsorship goal, generated 30 new chamber members and had a nearly 90 percent retention rate among its 2013 membership. Among those, most either chose to stay
Suzanne Walker, part of the Everything Texas Winning Team, cheers on her team mates during a rewards session
ter, the current Chairman of the Chamber; Brad Lowry of Pilgrim Bank, Jey Yancey of Offenhauser Insurance, Troy Sellers of Luminant and Danny Muskrat of Guaranty Bond Bank. Norfleet said The TRC Campaign enables the Chamber to reach, influence and unite more at the same level or increase their sponsorships. people in the business community. “I’m overwhelmed with how generous peo“I think this changes some of their percepple are and how much support Mount Pleasant tions about what the chamber is all about and gives to the business community,” Curry said. builds stronger teams and stronger businesses,” The TRC Campaign teams were led by she said. “It helps build that feel good community Shannon Norfleet of Titus Regional Medical Cen- that you are proud to be a part of.”
“Unity makes us stronger together,”
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Strategic Plan 2014-2016
The Mount Pleasant/Titus County Chamber of Commerce has drafted its long range Plan for 2014 to 2016. The Chamber board of directors met December 19, 2013 to review and update the strategic plan it developed in 2011. The vision for the three-year strategic plan is to be “Everything Texas” while the mission is “to build economic prosperity by engaging businesses and the community.” With its values defined as trust, economic prosperity, X marks the spot, awareness and sustainability; the Chamber’s core beliefs create the acronym TEXAS.
Values:
T.E.X.A.S Trust Economic Prosperity X marks the spot Awareness Sustainability The board set five goals for its new long range plan: to be the voice of business
by advocating for public policy that benefits business, economic growth and the community; to focus on its members by serving the needs of business through programs, events, services and connections; focusing on tourism and promotion, to foster leadership by identifying, developing and positioning leaders in the Chamber and the community; and to strive for Chamber excellence by maintaining a dynamic chamber through governance, management and resources. Under each set of goals, the board drafted strategies for meeting those goals and identified programs that should be emphasized, continued and developed. They are: The Voice of Business Build consensus on issues through member involvement and input. Create a city, county and statewide public policy agenda. Participate in coalitions and partnerships to best position business, the community and the chamber. Provide member access to forums and governmental issues in a non-partisan, non-political manner. Promote and increase participation in Titus County Days at the State Capitol. 9
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Focus On Our Members Grow chamber membership and the unity of business through recruitment and retention. Utilize an annual Total Resource Campaign to provide value and opportunity for members. Promote supporting Chamber members by increasing “Shop Titus County.” Continually explore and provide valueadded benefits and services to serve members’ needs. Facilitate business opportunities and connections through meetings and networking opportunities. Improve member awareness of programs, services, opportunities and the strategic direction. Tourism and Promotion Firmly establish and promote the Chamber’s brand, “Everything Texas.” Protect the intellectual property (trademark, etc.) Implement the certification plan in 2014. Focus on local awareness in 2014. Create a growth strategy and target audiences after local awareness and implementation is underway. Improve tourism through public and private relations. Promote the infrastructure and resources in
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Mount Pleasant that draw tourism, meetings and professionals to the community . Support tourism through a central source by expanding existing events and festivals. Develop a long term tourism plan for Everything Texas. Foster Leadership Expand access to leadership development and leadership training through Leadership Mount Pleasant (LMP) and other sources. Strengthen emerging leaders through Junior Chamber and others sources. Promote successes of LMP and the impact of graduate leaders in the community. Chamber Excellence Develop and maintain a flexible committee structure that enhances the work of board and staff, engages members and services the unique needs of members (i.e. agriculture, education, etc.) Obtain accreditation of the Chamber by the US Chamber in 2014. Improve the governing documents and policy manuals for the Chamber. Conduct annual Total Resource Campaign to support the goals of the Chamber and benefit business. Maintain a dynamic leadership team and professional staff. Identify ways to benefit from experiences of Past Chairmen and keep them engaged.
Happening at
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Hey, over here! Getting a visitor or guest’s attention
Have you noticed? The louder that brands and businesses shout to be heard, the more their visitors, guests and customers turn to social channels that aren’t so full of hype and noise. By Shiela | www.tourismcurrents.com
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The name of the less noisy channel come and wonderful guests. People who aldoesn’t matter. It’s the trend we’re seeing. low you into their email “In” boxes; that is For some it’s leaving (or at least starting to such a gift of trust. People who give you acignore) Facebook. For some it’s Snapchat, cess to their mobile devices like the phone in Path or Google+ Communities. For us at their purse or pocket; that is a precious route Tourism Currents lately, it’s been LinkedIn. to their time and attention. Yesterday’s announcement about Instagram If you crank up the hype and noise Direct – sending photos and video only to machine, they are OUT of there. certain people, not your whole follower Your visitors and guests are learning stream – made us think even more about this how to shut off the online clutter just like they movement toward controlling one’s online Mute television ads and ignore unknown interactions, netnumbers thanks to works and experiCaller ID. “Focus instead on telling stories ences. So ignore they’ve never heard before and the siren calls for People don’t want to hear delivering a marvelous visitor buying this or that what they don’t thing that shouts at experience that they can’t get want to hear, and your customers. Let anywhere else.” as a marketing the desperate pleas person, you have for “more, more, zero control over that. more!!” go unanswered. You can start pouring ad money into Focus instead on telling stories Facebook, for example, to overcome the they’ve never heard before and delivering a problems that so many Pages are having marvelous visitor experience that they can’t with getting their updates seen in fan News get anywhere else, and you will earn their Feeds….but is that really the answer? attention, trust and business. Step back. Remember the few digital marketing properties that you actually control: 1) Your website 2) Your self-hosted blog 3) Your email list 4) Your permission-based list of phone numbers to send text messages That’s it. That’s it, but that’s incredibly valuable. People who stay on your website looking around and reading your blog; they are wel-
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brand branches out Johnny Longof Guaranty Bond legs is two-stepping Bank, said the his way across Mount Pleasant and Titus idea is to spread the already popular brand to County. attract tourists from all over. The Mount Pleasant/Titus County “I envision a day when Chamber & Visitor’s Center’s mascot, somebody stays in an Everyfeatured on the Everything Texas thing Texas hotel suite, orders brand is the focus of a new program the Everything Texas certified to establish Everything Texas certified entrée at local restaurants businesses, products and services. and participates in Everything “The Everything Texas certified activities,” Bell Texas Certification Prosaid. gram was created to The Everything Texas allow businesses the brand itself started in 2011 after Curry and opportunity to create a Colby Parker, the marketing director the product or service or Mount Pleasant Economic Development item that fits with the Corporation, represented Mount Pleasant Everything Texas conat the State Fair of Texas. After looking at cept as a way to spread how other cities were branding the brand,” said Chamthemselves, they thought, “We ber CEO Faustine Curry. have all of that in Mount The program was born out of Pleasant and Titus County,” so the Chamber’s tourism committee at the idea that Mount Pleasant the beginning of the year with two is “Everything Texas” was cregoals in mind. “For the Chamber, it’s ated. an additional marketing push for our For a small fee of $20 businesses not only for people localper year, a business can apply ly, but for people coming into town,” Curry said. for Everything Texas certification by completing “From a tourism perspective, an application available at it provides us something else the Chamber office. to promote, like an attraction, A retail business, res“The possibilities are such as an Everything Texas taurant, bank, organization limitless.” trail.” or attraction presents an Martin Bell, past idea for a certified product Chamber chairman and executive vice president and how they would use the brand. Guaranty 15
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Bond Bank, for example, is rolling out an Everything Texas debit card. Echo Publishing is using the certification logo on specialty printing products, such as an Everything Texas playing card box and a golf ball holder. “Maybe a retail store has an Everything Texas section or an Everything Texas gift card; a hotel decorates an Everything Texas suite in a Western theme; a cleaners has a special on
“We’re starting small, but the goal is for it to eventually go worldwide to bring people to Mount Pleasant,” cleaning denim,” Bell suggested. “The possibilities are limitless.” Bell also pointed out that the ideas businesses come up with are not exclusive. “Just because one business is already using the certification on a product or service doesn’t mean another business cannot do the same thing. Just because we have an Everything Texas debit card doesn’t mean other banks can’t,” he said. “I would love to see multiple restaurants have multiple Everything Texas certified entrees. The concept is not a naming rights con-
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cept. We’re trying to create a brand for the entire community.” Bell said certified businesses will receive an Everything Texas Certified sticker to place in their store window and a digital version to use in their own marketing efforts. The Chamber also plans to create an Everything Texas self-guided tour. “When people come to town they will get a list of all of the businesses that are certified Everything Texas and they will be able to experience all of the different things that Mount Pleasant and Titus County have to offer,” Bell said. With Mount Pleasant recently being named “Best City” in the Northeast Texas region by the Texas Travel Industry Association, Bell anticipates tourism will increase in the coming months. Curry said there is going to be a lot of promotion of the Everything Texas certifications in publications such as Texas Highways and Texas Monthly. “I’m excited about the opportunity to promote the Everything Texas brand,” Curry said. “We want to promote Mount Pleasant products across the state of Texas and get more people aware of what Mount Pleasant has to offer,” Curry said. “For such a nominal cost, there is going to be a tremendous upside to being an Everything Texas certified member,” Bell said. Curry said the Chamber’s initial goal is for 20 businesses to sign on, but while the program is still in the beginning stages, Bell envisions it having an international reach. “We’re starting small, but the goal is for it to eventually go worldwide to bring people to Mount Pleasant,” he said.
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JUNE 27 & 28, 2014 SPONSORED BY:
GOLF OPEN
MOUNT PLEASANT COUNTRY CLUB 1000 COUNTRY CLUB DRIVE MOUNT PLEASANT, TX 75455
MOUNT PLEASANT/ TITUS COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
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Market Local The incentive to consider retail marketing is obvious. The closer you can get to retail customers, the more retail dollars go in your pocket. However, it's not all profits. If you sell retail, you will be providing services the wholesalers, packagers, distributors, and retailers typically provide. As we approach another fresh produce marketing season, the key details of operating a direct-to-consumer marketing enterprise. Starts with a look. Visual Display Proper presentation of products increases sales. Shoppers receive a positive impression if products are top quality, clean, and tastefully displayed. Remember that high-quality products are the strength of produce markets! A lively, well-stocked produce department entices the customer to buy and increases sales and profits. Think of yourself as an artist, with several palettes of colors to choose from: visual color, contrast, shape, size; smell - herbs, fruits; and touch - soft or firm. Make displays that look like they came from the farm. Wooden crates or boxes work well. Baskets are beautiful; slant them toward the customer. Even an attractive tablecloth can add to your sales. Stair stepped displays create an array of depth, color, and texture; however, they may not be easy for the customer to reach or easy to restock. Utilize vertical space by hanging products from slings or hangers. Merchandising "Pile it high and kiss it good-bye!" Full, well-stocked displays make customers want to come back and get it. Customers don't like takMount Pleasant Business Report | Issue 09
ing the last of something from a bare, pickedover display; they want to choose the best. Remember to not overstock to prevent the risk of crushing tender items on the bottom. Make it easy for the customers to reach for the produce. Your display should be no more than an arm's reach in depth, and between knee and waist level in height. Don't put your merchandise on the ground. Instead of placing your boxes flat, try slanting your produce to give the customer a more pleasing visual sense of your product. Organize products in related groupings. Such groups might include dessert items, salad items, cooking vegetables, apples and pears. Displaying compatible products together serves as a suggestion for additional purchases and uses of the products. Research shows the use of color and texture greatly enhances eye appeal. People enjoy food with their senses, so displays that are eye appealing tend to increase purchases. Mix a row of radishes between the mustard and kale, tomatoes between the lettuce and cucumbers, or intersperse peaches with blueberries to create dazzling color displays. Price Signs Prices should be clearly marked. Most shoppers are in a hurry and will not search out the manager to find out how much something costs. Include a few product features and perhaps menu suggestions on signs to stimulate your buyers' thoughts on how to use the item. For more ideas on marketing give the Chamber a call at 903.572.8567
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Calendar of Events
May
23 1:30 PM– Ribbon Cutting Title Max
02 11:30 AM-Friday Burger Party
26 CHAMBER CLOSED-Memorial Day
Sponsored by Dekoron Wire& Cable The Chamber
28 8 AM-Chamber Board of Directors Meeting
05 12 PM-Eat Local Drawing
Sponsored by Priefert Manufacturing Co. Inc The Chamber
Laura’s Cheesecake
07 12 PM-Ambassador Lunch
29-31 7:30 PM Nightly-Mount Pleasant Rodeo
Noodle Grill
08 10 AM-Ribbon Cutting
June
Motel 6
08 2 PM– Ribbon Cutting
Workforce Solutions of Northeast Texas
01-30 GROW LOCAL
09 7:30 AM-Leadercast
04 12PM-Ambassador Lunch
Northeast Texas Community College
Taqueria Daysi’s y Mariscos
12 12PM-Agriculture Committee Meeting
06 11:30 AM-Friday Burger Party
The Chamber
Sponsored by Guaranty Bond Bank The Chamber
13 8AM-Tourism Meeting The Chamber
12 1:30PM-Chamber Executive Board Meeting The Chamber
15 1:30 PM-Chamber Executive Board Meeting The Chamber
18 8 AM-Board of Directors Meeting Sponsored by Two Senoritas The Chamber
15 5:30 PM– Business After Hours Sponsored by Holiday Inn Express
19 5:30-Business After Hours
21 9 AM-MPHS Academic Blanket Ceremony
Sponsored by Mount Pleasant Country Club
MPHS Gym
27-28 Everything Texas Golf Open
22 6 PM-CHHS Academic Blanket Ceremony
Sponsored by Pilgrim’s Mount Pleasant Country Club
CHHS Gym
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Mount Pleasant/ Titus County Chamber of Commerce 1604 North Jefferson Avenue Mount Pleasant, TX 75455 www.mtpleasanttx.com info@mtpleasanttx.com (p) 903.572.8567 (f) 903.572.0613
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