• Click With Me Now’s Unfair Advantage

    May 6, 2013 by Mike Behr

    When the boss’ son becomes the next CEO of the company, they call that nepotism. When the co-founder of a startup also owns a proven brand-engagement agency, they call that good planning. Three years ago, GRA | MATR worked closely with a health insurance company to launch the first online only Medicare Supplement insurance company. But in undertaking this engagement, we discovered a void in…

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  • Once Upon A Brand

    April 10, 2013 by Ben Noble

    Do you know the story about the Three Little Pigs? Could you recite the story if I asked? Could you tell me the moral? If I had to guess, I’d say you answered yes to all three questions. Let’s try another quiz. What was the last infomercial you saw? What were some of the features and benefits of that product? If I had to guess…

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  • Similar Strokes for Different Folks

    March 14, 2013 by Beth Handrigan

    A young single adult, living with two roommates—a stay-at-home mom with three children under six—a busy professional who works 14-hour days… What could these three types of people possibly have in common? Questions of this caliber haunt marketing executives day-in and day-out. They sit at their desks into the late hours of the night with a solitary lamp and a cold cup of coffee, unsure…

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  • The Ice Cream Man is Coming!: The Race to Radial Marketing

    February 13, 2013 by Jim Goodyear

    That song. Still as much a part of summer as swimming pools, picnics and sandlot baseball. A Pavlovian auditory announcement that a frozen, delicious treat is right around the corner…literally. Kids (some of us still are) hear that famous mouthwateringly melodic message and immediately slip into a state of euphoric, near-hysteria. Doesn’t matter if you’re sitting on the couch watching cartoons in just the top half…

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  • A Sip of the Social Soda Saga

    February 6, 2013 by Logan Ice

    Think back almost 40 years—the year is 1975. Coke has as much of a grip on the Cola market as Band-aid has on the adhesive bandage market or Kleenex has on facial tissues. While the company had only been around for 10 years longer than the newly renamed Pepsi, it still owned the lion’s share of the market. Pepsi did something unheard of at the…

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  • Stick Out

    January 17, 2013 by Logan Ice

    So you want to engage with your audience and expand your fan base, but your market is saturated with ads coming from every agency known to man, whizzing past you left and right with seemingly no target? Sounds like the same song every company around is singing right now. You can hardly go anywhere without seeing dozens of barely aimed messages barreling towards you. Logging…

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  • Git ‘R Done…the GRA | MATR Way

    December 20, 2012 by Ben Noble

    In his forum, twelve years ago, business consultant Jim Collins lamented that executives spend too much time drafting and perfecting value and mission statements rather than “trying to align their organizations with the values and visions already in place.” While defining your mission is important, the most visionary leaders focus on implementing their messages rather than crafting a perfect statement. In his book, Built to…

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  • Test with Purpose

    July 3, 2012 by Matt Jeter

    Make your Digital Marketing Tests a Learning Experience You’ve done your homework. You have defined goals, developed brand strategies, performed competitive research, identified your target audiences, etc… It’s all there. You get the right people in the room for strategy sessions. The brainstorming is fast and furious with meaningful breakthroughs popping up like lightening crashes followed by meticulous documentation. You continue with project schedules that…

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  • Know Thy Customer

    May 29, 2012 by Beth Handrigan

    Connecting with Consumers in a DVR World Have you ever received a phone call from a dear friend, but were in the middle of working on a deadline, so had to cut the conversation short? Or perhaps your child was telling you a story at dinner, but then your dealership called to conduct a survey about your recent service? Or maybe a colleague recently stopped…

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  • Death of the Dinostore

    May 21, 2012 by Jim Goodyear

    From Distinction to Extinction The old adage of “the bigger they are, the harder they fall” seems to be ringing true for consumer electronics behemoths like Best Buy, CompUSA, Ultimate Electronics and Circuit City. These traditional bricks-and-mortar retail giants are systematically being turned into showrooms, erased and replaced by their more evolved web-based and supermarket rivals. A key factor to note in the demise of…

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