Matchstic

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO for Board of Child Care, a nonprofit organization. Our national organization runs everything from foster care homes to outpatient clinics. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Matchstic?

We engaged Matchstic to run a renaming project for us. There was a bit of brand confusion surrounding our previous name, and it didn’t feel like it described our company, so we decided to bring in Matchstic. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Matchstic conducted interviews with our executive team and visited our campus to tour our classrooms and meet volunteers and board members for a focus group gathering. Their process included an in-house counsel that reviewed our name as well. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with Blake (Co-Founder & Creative Director), Dee (Brand Strategist), and Melissa (Director Project Management). 

How did you come to work with Matchstic?

Matchstic was a referral. We conducted a competitive interview process to select a firm, and they were our best option. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $30,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together between February–June 2023. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

We successfully chose a name, and our key metric was getting our board of directors to support a single new name. We were pleased with their team. 

How did Matchstic perform from a project management standpoint?

They deliver on budget and have followed through on all of their promises. We had a set schedule for our meetings, which were organized at the beginning of the engagement. We primarily communicated during these meetings. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team was thoughtful and clear in their approach to naming. Matchstic listened to our goals and was a joy to work with. We were impressed with their process in general. Naming is difficult, and Matchstic had a successful process and was positive throughout the engagement. They also collaborated effectively with our agency on record, which we appreciated. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing we can come up with. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Set up your meeting dates as far in advance as possible. This helps everyone stay on pace for what you need. Ensure you also have enough time in the project plan to reflect on everything they’ve given you. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of Meptik. We’re a film studio that focuses on technology in film production and broadcast, referred to as virtual production and extended reality. My role at the company is commercial development and strategy.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Matchstic?

We were looking for someone to help us refresh our brand marketing strategy because our market changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Essentially, we wanted to put a new face to our company and put a new brand message together effectively.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Matchstic created our brand identity and brand voice. Initially, we gave Matchstic our company’s information, including information about our competitors and marketplace. Matchstic then realized a brand analysis and conducted a discovery phase, where we had a few calls with Matchstic’s founders to discuss the project’s scope. Matchstic asked us what we were looking for before working on the brand identity. 

What is the team composition?

I mainly worked with Craig (President & Co-Founder) and Blake (Co-Founder & Creative Director). We also worked with Patrice (Senior Project Manager) and John (Designer). 

How did you come to work with Matchstic?

I've known Matchstic for many years because their office is close to where my kids go to daycare. I was looking for a company that could design our visual identity and also create our brand voice since I knew I needed both aspects to launch a new brand. We interviewed other companies and chose Matchstic because they could do both things. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $125,000 with Matchstic. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Matchstic from November 2021–October 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Our industry is deeply relational, and we were interested in improving our brand awareness and messaging. Matchstic’s team was great to work with and had a solidified working process, which impressed me. 

Overall, Matchstic’s work was impressive and delivered what we asked for — we didn’t need to ask for any changes. 

How did Matchstic perform from a project management standpoint?

Matchstic was punctual and honest — they were on track with the project. Matchstic’s communication through Google Meet was excellent.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed with Matchstic’s ability to do brand design and voice messaging. Both were incredibly important pieces for this project since I knew we couldn’t have one without the other.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything for Matchstic to improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend you make the time and headspace for your project before approaching Matchstic. You need to go into the process knowing exactly what you need from them because Matchstic can help you focus your project, but they can’t answer the question if you don’t know your project’s goal. Only you, as a client, know the importance of your service. You need to know your value proposition, and Matchstic will help you achieve what you want.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of brand and marketing at Brightwild, formerly known as One of One. We’re a travel company that designs and develops hotels. We also manage vacation rental properties across Florida and will develop an online travel product.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Matchstic?

We needed a complete rebranding of our company.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Matchstic created our company’s rebranding, including naming, brand strategy, and positioning, visual and verbal identity. They started with brand strategy and positioning and delivered a strategy deck that included our target audience, the company’s keywords, positioning statement, and an analysis of our competitors. 

We then moved into naming and visual and verbal identity. Matchstic designed our logo, color schemes, and overall visual identity. They also designed marketing materials, including advertisements, merchandise, and signage. Matchstic also created our taglines and key messaging copy. They provided art direction consultancy for our website. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with seven teammates from Matchstic, including Melissa (Director of Project Management), the creative director, the design director, the director of brand strategy, a senior designer, a copywriter, and a senior brand strategist.

How did you come to work with Matchstic?

I had known about Matchstic for 7–8 years and always wanted to work with them. I contacted them for this rebranding project. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $225,000 with Matchstic.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Matchstic in June 2022 and completed the project in March 2023.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

We haven’t launched our new branding to the public. However, our board members and staff were really happy with Matchstic’s work. I’m very satisfied with the project’s results, and this was the best branding project I’ve worked on in my entire career.

How did Matchstic perform from a project management standpoint?

Matchstic’s team was amazing and easy to work with. They were collaborative, met deadlines, and kept within budget. Matchstic was responsible and kept everything on track. 

We had a weekly team call with Melissa through Microsoft Teams, where she outlined the project’s process status. We also communicated through email, phone calls, and Zoom and used spreadsheets to keep track of tasks. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was most impressed with Matchstic’s work quality. They dedicated a lot of time to research before they designed our assets. We had a great process. Matchstic is an expert at what they do, and our company is happy.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything for Matchstic to improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Listen to their advice and directions about the project. They’re experts in their field, and we felt confident working with them throughout our engagement. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Managing Partner of Black Airplane

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We build digital products and experiences that solve business problems.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Matchstic to accomplish?

• Conduct brand discovery
• Develop a brand strategy
• New brand messaging

SOLUTION

How did you find Matchstic?

Referral, Other

Why did you select Matchstic over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

What was the size of Matchstic’s team?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

The goal of the partnership was to develop a brand story and messaging to elevate and bring clarity to the Black Airplane brand. This was accomplished through an in-depth, multi-level discovery process, the development of a brand strategy brief, and the creation of a new verbal identity. Final deliverables consisted of a Brand Strategy Brief outlining positioning, personality, target audience, and value proposition, and new messaging guidelines including brand voice, opening paragraph, key messages, headlines, and more.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Brand Strategy Brief
• Messaging Guidelines

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Outstanding project management. They had a well defined process, they were extremely intentional in their communications, and did a fantastic job setting, managing and delivering on expectations.

What was your primary form of communication with Matchstic?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Matchstic has its process down. They know what they're doing, they know what comes next, and they instill confidence in their clients through the experience.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Matchstic could have done differently?

We wouldn't change anything about the partnership. Outstanding experience!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former SVP of a nonprofit organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Matchstic?

We wanted to refresh our brand.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Matchstic provided branding services, focusing on our messaging as an organization. They created a detailed project scope, including the information we gave them, the research and interviews they conducted, and the benchmarking they did against other nonprofits. Their idea was to develop a new way of looking at our organization so new donors could feel integrated into it. It was a complex statement of work that took them about five months to create.

What was the team composition? 

We worked with two brand strategists, one content writer, and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Matchstic?

A board member who had previously worked with them referred Matchstic to us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $60,000 with them for this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June 2022–January 2023.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Our team and board members thought Matchstic’s work was superb, conscientious, organized, and responsive to our requests and needs. They even were detailed in the presentation of their work, making this an excellent experience.

How did Matchstic perform from a project management standpoint?

Matchstic’s project management was excellent; they kept everything moving forward and prodded me whenever I owed them something to complete a task, which I appreciated. In addition, their team was knowledgeable and personable when it came to providing feedback. Overall, Matchstic led an excellent relationship and kept everything on time and within budget.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciate that Matchstic was narrow and focused on their business model. Their team was also intuitive and profoundly good at brand strategy development.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I didn’t think there was anything they could improve on. Matchstic was great at their craft, and they listened well, which helped them learn. Their team showed me an exceptional skill set with great attention to detail and customer service, making us feel heard and considered.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief of staff for a moving, storage, logistics, and transportation company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Matchstic?

We’ve expanded our service portfolio, so we needed someone to help us explore formal brand strategies.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Matchstic provides us with expert guidance in the brand strategy arena. This includes internal and external research, identifying potential suppliers, conducting focus group discussions and interviews, executing client and customer surveys, and identifying and strategizing our visual and verbal identity.

The team also creates content templates for social media, such as graphic design, profile imagery, and video production. Moreover, they manage Gantt chart working sessions and are now working on a presentation for our board members.

What is the team composition?

Main point of contact throughout the project has been our project manager, Patrice, and Brand Strategist Tracy.

How did you come to work with Matchstic?

I was looking online for brand strategy experts across the country. I used a few different award recognition criterias which helped me narrow my search and ultimately select Matchstic.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership started in January 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We’ve only revealed success metrics to our internal stakeholders, but Matchstic has been a responsive, effective, and remarkable team to collaborate with.

How did Matchstic perform from a project management standpoint?

They perform well from a project management standpoint, as they’re consistently communicative throughout the partnership.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Craig has been instrumental in developing appropriate brand strategies for our organization. In addition, they’re the most likeable and responsive partner I’ve ever worked with in my life.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’ve consistently met the mark regarding our requirements and delivered more than I could ever ask for, but I do wish we could have more in-person meetings.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I don’t have any specific advise, except recommend them to anyone who may be in need of their services.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CMO of Bold Commerce. We're a B2B SaaS ecommerce technology company focused on the checkout experience. We're helping brands sell more, in more places with a customizable suite of checkout, subscriptions and price rules.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Matchstic, and what were your goals?

Our origin story was routed in app development for SMB merchants -while our business and market opportunity had shifted upmarket and across multiple platform ecosystems. We needed to change how people thought of Bold. We hired Matchstic to lead us in developing clear, concise, compelling positioning - a brand strategy along with updated visual and verbal identity systems to connect with new audiences, while retaining our brand's personality.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We reached out to 6 boutique branding agencies to invite discussion and proposals. We evaluated them on relevant client experience, credentials, process, fit/chemistry and value for fees. Matchstic covered all these bases and were excited to about our mission and challenge.

Describe the scope of their work in detail, including any steps and the final deliverables.

Matchstic was ultra-disciplined in their approach and process, tackling the work in 4 stages: Discovery, Strategy, Identity and Launch. The began Discovery with immersion into our business - interviewing stakeholders and conducting a competitor and brand audit. They took findings into Strategy moving through a series of workshops and activities to create direction for brand strategy and to guide us to a "radically relevant" positioning and distilling insights to craft a brand brief.

From there they explored and presented concepts for visual and verbal identity using a logical approach of foundations > concepts > solutions - ultimately refining into guidelines for all visual and messaging components. Also they helped us think through launch and implementation, applying lessons learned from others to craft a phased approach to execution. Deliverables included the brand brief, identity and messaging toolkit and guidelines.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked closely with Blake- Co-founder and Creative Director as well as a Brand Strategist and specialized visual and messaging talent from the Matchstic team. Melissa, our PM kept us on track and informed and the core team was supplemented by other talent for the development phase.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The implementation of the new brand is underway - so quantitative measures of awareness/relevance to target market is yet to be seen. The feedback internally has been great - a first measure of sentiment - and our design team has fully embraced the visual identity system in planning forward work. We have started to experiment with some of the messaging - and it is resonating well - tradeshows, collateral and ad copy - showing more engagement. The Matchstic team has given us a great foundation to get us where we need to go.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We had weekly sessions with the Project Manager to review progress and outline next steps. Meetings were booked well in advance and T=they were responsive to accommodate our schedules. They hit their deadlines - their time to delivery was on schedule - even with flexing to add in facilitation of additional sessions for product positioning. Over all really impressed with coming in close to our initial, somewhat aggressive timelines.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They really are committed to helping brands uncover their "radically relevant" position - and brought a highly collaborative approach to dig deep and challenge our thinking. The energy they brought to the project was fantastic and the final assets - both visual and messaging are great.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

The only downside was the entire project happened virtually during pandemic travel restrictions - it would have been great to have them to our HQ in Canada. Also all our communication was via email - I do find there is a role for Slack vs email in sharing inspiration/updates.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CMO of a health and wellness company. We do research and sell devices around therapeutic hydration and water production.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Matchstic?

Our initial goal was to develop a set of brand guidelines: the identity of the company, our logo, our colors, and our global messaging. The second half of the engagement was a naming process to go with the now existing brand.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

All their work was from scratch, as our existing identity was very light, and we wanted them to have total freedom to do and propose whatever they wanted. It exactly the same for the naming. We started with a short brief about our company and our expectations, but it wasn’t very detailed. They quickly understood what we were going for.  They also created templates for us around messaging and positioning and copywriting.

What is the team composition?

We worked with around 6–8 people.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $50,000–$60,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project ran from January–December 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

We don’t have any quantitative results, as our products are going to launch in about two-weeks time, but everybody is very happy with the job that Matchstic did. They love the name, the brand, the identity, and the messaging. It’s hard to compare this to what we had before, as they truly started from scratch, but we’re now nearly at a 100% satisfaction rate.

How did Matchstic perform from a project management standpoint?

The communication was very good, and they were always available to us. They were highly organized. We had an account manager on their side who managed all the meetings and the schedule. Communication took place by email, and they were totally transparent. We appreciated that they had no hidden fees and didn’t surprise us with anything. The process was very smooth. We also communicated over Slack and Monday.com.

What did you find most impressive about them?

As a French company, we have a very different mindset than American companies. Matchstic deeply understood our approach and were very open to our discussion-based process. We value creativity more than performance, and they offered a lot of really creative ideas that were in-line with what we were thinking.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not that I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a gambling comparison website.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Matchstic?

We needed a company that could help us with our rebranding efforts.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired Matchstic to lead an entire rebranding process for our company. We started the engagement with a series of initial consultations, followed by the research phase, the design phase, and implementation. Matchstic created an entire brand package for us, including a new brand identity and tone of voice, logos, color schemes, and style.

What is the team composition?

We worked with six people from Matchstic throughout the engagement.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent a total of $140,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from September 2021–January 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Matchstic successfully delivered a fantastic new brand identity, which we’re incredibly happy with. Their process was brilliant, as was the end product.

How did Matchstic perform from a project management standpoint?
Matchstic performed well in terms of project management. Their communication was excellent, and they hit all their milestone dates throughout the engagement. Overall, it was a professional, efficient, and smooth experience.

We typically communicated through email and Zoom meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Matchstic definitely over-delivered. They did everything they said they would, and they did it to a really high standard. I was extremely impressed with the products and services they provided.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything they could have done differently.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure to think your brief through and be clear about what you want to achieve.