Matrix Group International

Month: December 2009

  • Why Matrix Group Didn’t Send Paper Holiday Cards This Year

    Why Matrix Group Didn’t Send Paper Holiday Cards This Year

    For the past ten years, it’s been a Matrix Group tradition to send out holiday cards to clients, partners and friends and have staff sign the cards personally.  This year was different.  For the first time ever, we didn’t send out snail mail holiday cards and instead sent a holiday e-card.

    You’d think that sending out an e-mail over paper would be an easy choice.  But the holiday cards were a big deal.  Each staff member signed the cards for all the clients they supported and partners they worked with.  The new biz, net admin and administration teams signed every single card.  I am famous for signing every card and writing notes on many of them — yep, nearly 900 of them last year!  Clients and friends have told us that they love the Matrix Group holiday card precisely because they are signed by the staff who support them.

    So what happened this year that we abandoned a decade-old tradition? I was meeting with Jaime, my Director of Administration, to pick the card design and go over numbers.  It hit me that we were about to spend close to $2,500 on cards.  It seemed like a lot of money.  I also thought about how many of our charities and non-profit clients struggle to raise every dollar and consider gifts of $250, $500 or $1,000 major gifts.
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  • Forget Blu-Ray Discs? Movies on Demand is Here

    Forget Blu-Ray Discs? Movies on Demand is Here

    Blu-Ray disc The Washington DC area is expecting a huge snowstorm this weekend but I’m not worried.  I have a fridge full of food and an endless supply of movies through my Apple TV and PS3.

    Over the past year, content on demand has matured a lot.  I can now rent and purchase movies, many of them in HD, using iTunes on my Mac, on my Apple TV, and my PS3.  The Apple and Sony networks each have a large database of movies, although the Apple inventory seems larger and the shopping and viewing experience is far superior on iTunes and the Apple TV.  Movies become available on my devices the same time they become available through Netflix and my  neighborhood Hollywood Video.

    Which makes me wonder if the Blu-Ray vs. HD battle almost missed the mark.  Blu-Ray is a storage format and scripting platform and it’s fabulous.  But when I purchase or rent an HD movie from a content on demand network, Blu-ray is irrelevant because I don’t need a storage format; I get the movie directly to my drive.

    Don’t get me wrong.  I love Blu-Ray.  My new Sony VAIO laptop plays Blu-Ray discs and I love, love, love the clarity of the audio and video, as well as all the cool extras on the discs.  So for now, I will continue to buy my favorite movies on Blu-Ray, but for the random movie rentals, I will likely go online and have my movies of choice downloaded to my Apple TV or PS3 in 20 minutes.

    How about you?  Are you buying or renting movies online?  Who is your preferred vendor?  Are you still buying movies on disc?

  • Matrix Group’s Gift List for the Techies In Your Life

    Matrix Group’s Gift List for the Techies In Your Life

    Techie opening a giftIt’s the holiday season and if you’re looking for the perfect gift for the techie in your life, have no fear. I polled the Matrix Group staff and they came through with these terrific suggestions:

    • Mini USB Monitor – Need a little more real estate on your monitor? You’ll love these mini monitors.
    • Lego Death Star – If you have a little one who loves Legos and you love Star Wars, you’ll enjoy making the Death Star together.
    • Our Network Administrators say that NetBooks are super hot this season.  NetBooks are a class of laptops that are super small, lightweight and inexpensive.  You can get them from Dell, Acer, HP and Sony.
    • WikiReader – This little device puts the 3 million+ articles from Wikipedia in the palm of your hand, along with regular updates.

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  • What I Learned About Marketing From The Candy Man

    What I Learned About Marketing From The Candy Man

    bar of chocolateWhat do you do if you make candy, most of your sales in grocery stores are from the checkout lane, and RFID is poised to eliminate checkout lanes?

    I attended the holiday reception of the Grocery Manufacturers Association earlier this week.  In addition to mingling with GMA staff and other sister association staff, I got to meet reps from several GMA members, including Tom from The Hershey Company.  I told Tom that Matrix Group has got to be the biggest buyer of the dark chocolate Hershey’s kisses (the dark chocolate kisses are wrapped in purple foil).  Purple kisses are a staple at nearly every Matrix Group meeting because a) they’re purple and b) meetings always run better when there’s chocolate involved.

    Tom reported that Hershey’s chocolate is doing well because even during (or perhaps because of) the recession, chocolate is an indulgence most people can afford.  I asked him what’s new in the business of candy/chocolate marketing and he said candy makers are in for a rough ride in the next few years because the grocery store user experience is changing dramatically. Consider this:

    • Most candy sales in grocery stores come from the checkout line. Why? Because most people avoid the candy aisle, especially if they’re moms with kids.  So the checkout line becomes the most important place to market candy.
    • Grocery stores have been experimenting for years with self-checkout.  Shoppers Food Warehouse has had self-checkout for years.  Tom says we should expect self-check-out to be more common in the future.
    • Even with self-checkout, there’s a check-out lane.  BUT, RFID promises an end to the checkout lane as we know it. Last year, for example, Microsoft announced a digital grocery cart that lets shoppers access grocery lists created at home, receive targeted coupons, and scan products as they go into the cart.  With the digital shopping cart, the checkout lane becomes a payment lane; no more waiting, no more scanning.

    Yikes and wow!  So if you’re The Hershey Company, Mars or Wrigley, what do you do?  What kind of R&D and marketing initiatives do you start developing now — for the day when checkout lanes are gone forever or at least changed dramatically?
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  • Top Tips for Creating a Great Facebook Page

    Top Tips for Creating a Great Facebook Page

    Facebook logoOver the past year or so, I’ve seen more and more non-profits and companies create Facebook fan pages for their organizations.  Facebook calls fan pages “a customizable presence for an organization, product, or public personality to join the conversation with Facebook users.” Fan pages are great because they are designed for organizations, but they work a lot like personal pages.  You can customize them; you can post status updates, links, photos and videos; and updates show up on fans’ streams.

    So, you’ve set-up a Facebook fan for your company, now what?  Here are some of my favorite Facebook fan pages and reasons I think they’re terrific and effective.

    Stanford University – http://www.facebook.com/stanford

    • The status updates are a mix of campus news, alumni news, sports updates, research and university news.
    • The page has a good mix of updates, links, photos and videos.
    • I love the office hours with world-renowned professors.  Each week, there is a short video of a professor discussing some important work; the professor takes questions from fans throughout the week.
    • I also appreciate the handy list of Stanford Web sites and the photo albums.

    Dunkin Donuts – http://www.facebook.com/DunkinDonuts

    • When you visit this Facebook fan page, you are not taken to the Wall by default, but rather to a promo.
    • This fan page uses a custom Tab for Maurice, the Dunkin Donuts mascot.
    • Dunkin Donuts encourages fan posts to the Wall; there are even videos posted by fans.
    • To manage fan posts, “DD Facebook Etiquette” is posted right on the front page; this makes it clear that DD welcomes fan interaction, but within specific parameters.

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  • Investor Protection Trust Microsite

    Investor Protection Trust Microsite

    Matrix Group partnered with The Investor Protection Trust (IPT)  and Georgia Investors Education Program to design and launch a microsite.  IPT’s goal was to provide resources to help consumers make more educated decisions on investments on a state level, while maintaining content that also applied to a national audience.

    Matrix Group:

    • Incorporated a Content Management System enabling IPT staff in Washington D.C. to post general information as well as investment practices, laws, and educational information relevant to residents of Georgia
    • Worked closely with Georgia Investors Education Program’s advertising agency to ensure the site reflects the program’s branding and print campaign

    Visit InvestaLittleTime.org

  • Carnegie Middle East Center Bilingual Web site

    Carnegie Middle East Center Bilingual Web site

    Matrix Group recently worked with Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to launch a bilingual Web site for the organization’s Middle East Center.  To communicate with its multilingual audience, Carnegie needed to enhance its Web site to provide content in both Arabic and English.

    Our work included:

    • An enhanced  Content Management System, allowing Center staff to post content in both Arabic and English
    • Incorporation of a filter in the site search to allow visitors to search by language
    • Web friendly display pages to account for right-to-left reading

    Visit the Carnegie Middle East Center Web site

  • Accession Point Blog

    Accession Point Blog

    Matrix Group worked with Accession Point to design and launch a blog for CEO Jill Stelfox. As a recognized consultant, Stelfox wanted a platform to share her blunt insight on how to help companies and CEO’s take their businesses to the next level.

    Matrix Group work includes the following:

    • Designed a blog that reflected Accession Point’s identity, as well as captured Stelfox’s personality
    • Incorporated a content management system (CMS) to allow Stelfox to update her content on a frequent basis
    • Assisted on content development, ensuring posts were effective and worked well on the Web
    • Added a “share” function, allowing visitors to share Stelfox’s blog posts through social networking/bookmarking sites

    Visit the Accession Point Blog

  • Top Tips for Customizing Your Twitter Profile

    Top Tips for Customizing Your Twitter Profile

    Twitter logoI’m following over 700 people on Twitter so I’ve looked at a lot of Twitter pages.  Yes, I look at pages and tweets closely before making a decision to follow someone.  Some profiles are pretty sparse, while others are fairly elaborate.  What’s the saying? “You only have a few seconds to make a first impression.”   This is especially true on Twitter where people scan your page, then instantly make the decision to follow or not follow.

    So how do you customize your Twitter profile page to maximize followers? Here are my top tips:

    • Make sure you fill out your name so it’s searchable. This sounds so simple, but consider this:  The Humane Society of the United States is @humanesociety, but the profile name is listed as HSUS.  If you use the Find People search on Twitter and type Humane Society, the HSUS page does not come up because the Twitter search only searches the Name field, NOT the username.  A better name would have been Humane Society of the US.
    • Fill out the Bio and Web site fields. This is a perfect opportunity to link your Twitter page to your company Web site or blog AND provide a short elevator speech.  The bio and URL add perspective and credibility.  You can be formal, you can be clever, or you can be funny in the bio field.  Check out other bios for good ideas.  I like @pmohara and @neagle.  In addition, I hear from many, many people that if someone has not provided a bio or URL, they are much less likely to follow that person. (more…)
  • The Amazon Effect: What Amazon Has Done to the E-Tailing Experience

    The Amazon Effect: What Amazon Has Done to the E-Tailing Experience

    Woman shopping online surrounded by shopping bagsLike the rest of America, I went shopping on Black Friday.  However, I didn’t get up at 3am and I didn’t brave the crowds.  I did my shopping online, largely in response to promotional e-mails that I received throughout the day.  What struck me was how I compared the shopping and checkout experience on all other sites to Amazon.com. I call it “The Amazon Effect” (I’m sure I’m not the only one to call it that, btw).

    I actually hear it all the time from friends, family and clients: why can’t this (insert name of site here) work like Amazon?  Okay, forget for a moment that that Amazon has spent tens of millions on their site.  Here’s what I’ve come to expect from Amazon and would love it if other e-tailers followed suit.

    • Much as I hate to think that my shopping patterns can be predicted by a computer, the personalization on Amazon rocks. Yep, the site pushes all kinds of merchandise on me via e-mail and the Web site, but it’s not crap if I’m even mildly interested.  I’ve been introduced to new bands and authors, and I love that the related items often lead me to what I’m really looking for.
    • Amazon fulfillment is lightning fast. I placed three orders on Black Friday and they all arrived Monday morning.  Meanwhile, another retailer tells me I have to wait 7-10 days for regular shipping.  7-10 days, are you kidding?  What are the people in the warehouse doing? (more…)