OVERALL GRADE: B
One praiseworthy feature of IKEA’s About Us pages is the
frequent, enticing links between the pages. For example, when we finish reading
about Democratic
Design, we see a teaser (photo and link) to a page with more information on
IKEA’s
suppliers.
Also, the IKEA About Us pages have a wide variety of great still
photos showing “the many people” (as IKEA calls us) enjoying IKEA products. Bravo!
On the down side, the site’s videos don’t add much to the
text and still photos. Take “Find out how we work at the IKEA Group and learn
all about our value chain,” a six-minute video on the Company
Information. It shows a group of people in an IKEA factory watching a man
drawing a cartoon. The time-lapse drawing process was far more interesting than
the cartoon’s content. Well, better to have pointless videos supplementing good
still photos and text than to have only
videos, as many websites do.
Products/Services: A
It’s impossible to read the IKEA About Us pages without
getting a strong sense of the style, materials, sources, value, and
functionality of IKEA products. Well done - and all too rare!
Personality: D
The best way to convey a company’s mission is not through
noble abstractions: see our Commandment
2 of About Us pages (“Thou shalt not generalize”). It’s through the story
of what the company has done and why. In the area of corporate history, IKEA falls
flat. The About
Us pages refer to the fact that the first factory was in Almhult, Sweden
and that the company is over half a century old. They include a charming picture
of founder (and still advisor) Ingvar Kamprad with aisles of IKEA
merchandise looming behind him. But the site offers no narrative history of the
company and no timeline. According to Wikipedia, IKEA celebrates its 70th year
in 2013: there’s no mention of that milestone anywhere on the site.
Burrowing around, we eventually found the whole of Kamprad’s
1976 “Testament
of a Furniture Dealer” ... buried in a link halfway down the Working
at the IKEA Group page, where chances are only a few extraordinarily eager
potential employees will ever spot it. On the Company
Information page, though, the first statement under the “Vision and
business idea” heading is in quotation marks, and is taken directly from the
“Testament” – without attribution to
Kamprad!
Accessibility: A
IKEA does a great job of helping customers or potential customers
access the information they need. On the Customer
Service page, we’re offered a choice of shopping online, locating a store,
choosing IKEA services, contacting IKEA, becoming a rewards member, checking
return policy, checking warranties, or giving feedback. If we choose Contact
Us, we’re offered some of the same choices, but also the option of reading
a FAQ, sending an email, making a phone call, downloading assembly
instructions, or requesting spare parts or hardware. This level of detail on
the Contact Us pages makes us feel that IKEA really wants to help us and hear
from us.
TAKEAWAY
Work your visuals, especially the still photos: not all
visitors will want to invest time in watching videos. Also, make it obvious to
visitors to your site that you truly want to hear from them and help them.
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?). To talk about your About Us
page, contact us!
Today’s example was chosen at random;
CorporateHistory.net has no ties to this company.
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