Chobani was established in 2005 by Hamdi Ulukaya, a Turkish
immigrant. It’s based in New Berlin, N.Y., in what is fast becoming known as
the yogurt belt of the U.S. for all the Greek yogurt manufacturers
headquartered there. With sales approaching $1 billion, Chobani Yogurt is now
sold in the United States, Canada, and Australia. It has 600,000 Facebook fans
and was a sponsor of the 2012 Olympics. Chobani’s About Us page (“Our Story”)
is here.
OVERALL GRADE: B plus
The Chobani About
Us page is has a great casual tone, good focus, and excellent visuals. The
problem is the layout: it’s too large and sprawling. A group photo takes up
most of the space above the fold, and no links or teasers entice us to scroll
down.
A couple minor errors on the Our Story page should be fixed, since
they suggest a possible lack of attention to more important issues. “Chocked
full of health benefits”?
Products/Services: A
Chobani is a single-product company, and its About Us page is focused on the
product: why it was created (“How We Got Started”) and why it’s different
(“What Makes Our Yogurt Special”). Well done.
We are consumers of Greek yogurt, so we’d tried the product.
(Our regular brand is Trader Joe – but who knows? Maybe Chobani does
private-labeling for them.) Then we read a full-page
article in Entrepreneur (August
2012), which praised Chobani for its online presence. So what’s going on with
Chobani’s News page? The most
recent article is dated December 2011. If you’re going to have a media page –
and you should, since it gives you the chance to send site visitors to
favorable media coverage – then you must keep the page updated.
Accessibility: B
Chobani is very social-media oriented, and the text below
their Contact Us link on the main About Us page has a casual, comfortable
approach suited to that medium: “Our Customer Loyalty Team is ready and waiting
to handle your questions, comments and concerns. Get in touch.” The Contact Us page is an online
form (too sprawling for our taste), but emails are given for general inquiries
and media, and links to suggest
a recipe (nice touch!) or to see a FAQ.
Given the company’s extensive use of social media, we’re surprised that on this
page, the buttons for Facebook, Twitter, and so on appear only in the footer.
We wonder if the lack of mailing address is an oversight or
deliberate; and if deliberate, why?
Personality: B
The only person mentioned by name on the Our Story page is Founder and CEO
Hamdi Ulukaya. However, the group photo (clearly not Photoshopped) conveys a
sense that Chobani is run by a happy team of normal, yogurt-eating guys and
gals: not a suit or tie in sight. “How We Got Started,” toward the end of the
Our Story page, makes the founder’s quest one that all yogurt-eaters can
sympathize with.
TAKEAWAY
Chobani has the tone and content of their About Us page
right, but the layout needs to be adjusted to make visitors more likely to read
it.
Does your Web site’s “About Us” section
accurately convey your organization’s history and capabilities? Every two weeks
we evaluate one example, grading it in three areas that are key to potential
customers: Personality (Who are you?), Products/Services (What can you do for
us?), and Accessibility (How can we reach you?). Contact us if you’d like to
have your site evaluated—there’s no charge and no obligation. Today’s example
was chosen at random; CorporateHistory.net has no ties to this company.
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