The Newell Manufacturing Company, founded in 1903 in
Ogdensburg, N.Y., originally produced curtain rods of superior quality. Newell
went public in 1972, and in 1999 acquired Rubbermaid and changed to its present
name. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, the company (headquartered
in Atlanta) offers a wide range of high-quality consumer and commercial
products such Rubbermaid, Sharpie, Calphalon, Levelor, Paper Mate, Waterman,
Aprica, Graco, and Goody. The main About Us page (“Our Company”) is here.
OVERALL GRADE: C
minus
Products/Services: D
Where are the products? The “Our Company” section of the
Newell-Rubbermaid site has 6 sub-pages. The company’s products are mentioned in
a one-sentence list on the main page (“a strong portfolio of leading brands,
including Rubbermaid®, Sharpie®, Graco®, Calphalon®, Irwin®, Lenox®, Levolor®,
Paper Mate®, Dymo®, Waterman®, Parker®, Goody®, Rubbermaid Commercial Products®
and Aprica®”) ... and nowhere else in the About Us pages except in the timeline,
Our
History. Even on that page, one has to scroll down to 2008 to find a
product mentioned.
From Awards (buried
under Press
Room), it’s clear that Newell Rubbermaid products are industry leaders. Why
aren’t these mentioned on other pages, with photos? Even a background to the
page showing the logos of Newell Rubbermaid properties would remind us why we
care about this company.
In the
News is nicely designed, with the article’s title (linked to the online
article), publication, date, a brief summary, with space for an image at the
left.
A brief rant: our First Commandment
of About Us pages is “Know thy audience.” That star graphic on Our
Purpose and Values incorporates a central purpose, five values, and an
overarching vision. Our
Growth Game Plan (the next page on the submenu after Our Purpose and
Values) has a different diagram with 5 sections, the last of which has 5
subheads. Who are these for? We doubt even MBAs would appreciate such abstract,
complex diagrams.
Personality: B
Rubbermaid’s bios of management (Our
Leadership) offer more than the usual resume-without-paragraph-breaks
content. For example, “Michael Polk [President and CEO] is building
Newell Rubbermaid into a larger, faster growing, more global and more
profitable company.” Well done. We would have given an “A” here if there had
also been links to speeches or articles by the CEO and others.
Accessibility: D
The lengthy second paragraph on the Contact page,
in italics, is a dire warning to those who want to submit inventions. For legal
reasons it’s obviously important to include that information - but why not
segregate it below and to the right, in a box, under the heading “To
Inventors”?
Below the warning paragraph, the Contact page offers only an
address and phone number for each division (Levelor/Kirsch, Aprica, etc.) On
the pop-up menu at the right (“Product Contact Information”), at least one of
the links is broken. Others require loading two or three separate pages in
order to actually contact the division. If you want to hear from your
customers, make it easy. It costs nothing extra to put a direct link to further
contact information on the Newell-Rubbermaid page.
TAKEAWAY
In printed works, duplicating information is costly and
usually unnecessary. On the web, repeating information across a site
(particularly contact information) is a good thing, if it allows visitors to
accomplish what they want with less frustration.
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. We do buy and use pens made
by Sharpie and Paper Mate.
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