Alumni Magazine - Spring 2008 - (Page 57) the volleyball season because I just couldn’t let anything slip — ever. “The teamwork of playing a sport was huge for me too,” Matullo says. “I tend to do really well on things I’m able to work as a team on.” Matullo maintains strong ties with several of her former Tech teammates. Four of them surprised her at a recent bridal shower in Ohio and are expected to attend her April 27 wedding at Disney World. She met her fiance after relocating to Ohio to take the job with Limited Brands, which owns Bath & Body Works in addition to Victoria’s Secret. The company has sold off The Limited, Express, Abercrombie & Fitch and Lane Bryant. “Clothing for retail is much more volatile, a much tougher business. With intimate apparel, we certainly have people chipping away at market share, but there are really not a lot of people who play in the stuff that we do and the way we do it,” Matullo says. “I’ve worked on the five-year overall business plan for Victoria’s Secret Direct. At the category level, we look three years ahead. I’ve worked with the bras team to look at its three-year plan. I’ve worked with Pink and panties and intimate sleepwear. “We’re very driven by the fashion industry,” she says. “With footwear we hit the same thing. You’d hit peaks and valleys all the time. There’d be times when sneakers were really cool and everybody wore sneakers with everything. Then there were times when teenagers weren’t wearing athletic shoes as much.” In addition to researching industry trends toward pajamas and nightgowns, Matullo studies the competition. “When I’m doing competitive research, I’m mainly looking at what other Web sites are selling, what are their market strategies, how’s their business doing compared to ours.” Matullo also has a hand in a current project updating the Victoria’s Secret Direct Web site. “How do you make it as easy to shop online as in the store? How do you get the color swatches across? You try to give as many conveniences as you can,” she says. “It’s also about conveying our brand messaging. The photos are in the same sexy and sophisticated brand message that we try to build everything on. You’ll see the models in the clothes versus seeing a picture of just the bra itself.” Matullo’s engineering degree and ability to multitask do factor into her work at Victoria’s Secret Direct. “Engineering provided the base of what I did at Nike. The work was very project management heavy. My engineering still comes into play quite a bit. For the last six months I’ve been working at our new distribution center. We had some startup issues. Since I have an engineering background, I got pulled into this process as a temporary assignment to help them get started,” Matullo says. “Our projects are very technical right now. We’re talking about processing orders in our distribution center. It’s not so much about what the customer sees but what happens behind the scenes, what it takes to get an order out the door. We’re having to understand cycle times and how the machinery works, how to get from point A to point B. It certainly helps that I have an engineering background.” GT Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Spring 2008 57
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