Pierce Mattie: Author Profile | Pierce Mattie

How to Deal with Beauty Lists

Are so-called Beauty Lists worth even a cursory glance? Can anything good come from scanning a slideshow about the 12 Best Ways to Massage Away Your Wrinkles? And even if you come away with a factoid you didn’t know before, how much better would it be to turn your attention to something more thoughtful, and less obviously geared toward making you a captive audience for advertising?

Branding on YouTube

YouTube was all fun and games until it became just another platform for selling stuff. Besides peep shows and online brides-to-be. With 100 hours of video added to YouTube each hour, how can brands avoid producing content that disappears amid all the white noise?

Bigger Stores Could Dent Retailers’ Holiday Profits

“He who has the largest store or number of stores will sell the most things between now and the end of the year.” Right? Maybe not. Bigger, alas, is not always better. But could larger operations with extra floor space actually result in lower sales numbers? Especially once the holiday shopping season stampedes into town? Is that even possible?

Covering the Fashions of the Times

Take in some stories about Paris Fashion Week and you might start to wonder what filters are being used to discern noise from news. You could randomly spray paint a poncho, walk down any Paris street – and some self-appointed expert would write a blog post about it. Here’s a glimpse at how these kinds of events get covered. And why the coverage might perfectly suit the events themselves. Or not.

Amazon and Wal-Mart Priming for the Grocery Business?

There’s $565 billion worth of sales in the grocery business every year, according to a report from CNBC. Problem is, profit margins have always been historically low. So why would the likes of Amazon and Wal-Mart rush headlong to get into the food business? Does either company believe that establishing a beachhead on Aisle 2 will be worth the effort? Not to mention the cost?

Facebook: Paid Model or Always Free?

A new poll says that Facebook users would pay $10 or more per month to like and share without the annoyance of advertisements. But would such a service be profitable? And how will businesses make use of social media for lead generation and customer retention if the paid model catches on? Will they simply adopt other methods for reaching consumers? Or exit the social realm altogether?

Saving the Many Faces of Paula Deen

TV cooking personality Paula Deen recently found herself in a bit of hot water, after having admitting under oath to making racist remarks long ago. Her few flailing attempts at damage control indicate that Deen faces a difficult road back to public respectability — if, indeed, that ever comes. The process looks to depend on how much Deen has actually revealed thus far and whether any unsavory surprises remain.

Policing the Fashion Police

The Fashion Police blog looks to be an old-fashioned irreverent take on a world that’s long been known for taking itself far too seriously. The blog’s subtitle says it all: “Fighting crimes of fashion and solving style dilemmas.” But is the blog fashion ownage or failage? Could it be that the Fashion Police take themselves and their mission every bit as seriously as those they skewer?

Why Should Anyone Care About the Internet of Things?

The Internet of Things looks to take the Internet of Machines one giant leap further. To the point where an insulin pump could respond to remote commands aimed at managing blood sugar reactions. Which is all fun and games until a hacker threatens to sabotage that pump unless a ransom is paid. At which point, things could turn into an intergalactic struggle between geeked-up yuppies and the NSA.

New Labeling Laws Have Meat Industry Up in Arms

In case you haven’t already, forget about Europe’s horsemeat problem. The U.S. has troubles of its own. Groups like the National Cattlemen’s Association don’t want you to know what country your store-bought pork chops came from. Why? Possible retaliatory trade sanctions. And expensive new labels. Isn’t there a real food safety problem, though? Shouldn’t everyone have the right to know where their food came from?