According to an article in The New York Times, the site was recently retooled as part of “a
multimillion-dollar effort over multiyears,” according to Ashley Brown, the
company’s director for digital communications. To refocus on corporate
storytelling, Coca-Cola redesigned the site as an online magazine – an
encouraging move at a time when the magazine form, and especially corporate
magazines, are ailing.
OVERALL GRADE: B
Products/Services: C
A website can’t convey the taste of Coke, but this one does
a great job of visually evoking the brand, its corporate history, and all its
associations. That said, we found it difficult to settle down to read any of
the content on the About
Us page (“Our Company”). It has 3 menu choices at upper right, then 6 menu
choices across the top, then 10 more on a scrollbar. The main part of the page
has 14 sections, ranging from “Coke by the Numbers” to “Sustainability.” These
are not arranged in any particular order, and sorting through them tried our
patience. The overabundance of choices and lack of direction is a recurring
problem on the site.
On the Heritage
page, we were delighted to see vintage photos and advertisements used in the
timeline. But the timeline has the flaws we’ve often seen elsewhere. Reading the
accompanying text requires scrolling – a waste, given that the empty gray space
around the timeline could have been used for a larger box. If we zoom to
enlarge the text, the graphics pixelate. We thought perhaps the timeline was
geared to smartphones, but it doesn’t function well there, either.
Accessibility: A
The Contact
Us page, available in the footer, offers a “Virtual Agent” to answer
questions immediately, a FAQ, and options for email, phone, snail mail, and
social media: all standard, all good. We give our highest marks to whoever
conceived the “Rumors” section on this page. It’s the most direct and effective
approach we’ve seen to discrediting the sort of rumors that accumulate around a
long-established global brand, an excellent example of honoring Commandment 4
of our “10
Commandments of About Us Pages”: Don’t take your own name in vain. Two
discussions are memorable: one about the Coke for Babies ad and another
on whether a mirror-image of the Coca Cola logo carries a message in Arabic.
Personality: C
On the Leadership
page, each name is linked to a bone-dry, narrative version of a resume. Information
on the goals, motives, or attitudes of these leaders would make the text much
more interesting.
We do not recall ever seeing a mission
statement as long as Coca-Cola’s, with list after list in section after
section. We wonder how employees and managers can retain it, never mind apply
it.
TAKEAWAY
Coca Cola has a wealth of great content ... and far, far too
much of it is splashed around here. Kudos on the magazine format, but it needs
to be organized so that it’s less bewildering.
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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