In 1898, the Simon brothers landed at Ellis Island after
fleeing religious persecution in Eastern Europe. A transcontinental train took
them to Nebraska, which looked like their native Latvia. There they resumed
their profession as butchers, founding their own company in 1917 to provide
high-quality beef to restaurants and grocers. In time they expanded to mail
order, retail locations, and sales via telephone and Internet. Today the company
– one of America’s largest marketers of beef – is privately held and run by the
fourth and fifth generations of Simons. Its 1,800 employees are still based in Omaha.
The main About Us page is Our Company,
accessed via About / Company Info in the footer of every page.
OVERALL GRADE: A
Products/Services: A
Omaha Steaks has condensed most of their About Us material
into one page, Our
Company. It includes a pithy summary of the company: its business,
location, divisions (with links to each), and employees. Sidebars left and
right illustrate the company’s mouth-watering products, offer testimonials, and
provide contact information. Our Commandment 7
of About Us pages is, “Keep navigation easy.” Omaha Steaks does that.
Unobtrusively positioned on the top right of Our Company is a
link, “Read about our company’s heritage.” It takes visitors to a sequence of history
pages: Our
Beginnings, Customers Nationwide,
Reputation,
An Overview,
and Tradition
Continues. These pages make us giddy with delight.
First of all, they form a well-written narrative company history,
laid out in a way that makes it easy to get through them all. (If all this
information had been squashed onto one page, how many visitors would have made
it to the end?) Second, the text covers all the bases: the who, why, and where
of the company founders, the reason for the company name, the development of various
forms of distribution (mail order, phone, Internet), notable awards, company
divisions, and the current management. Each page is illustrated with an
appropriate photo. High marks to Omaha Steaks for their corporate storytelling!
Our only quibble is that the teaser and link to the business
history pages on the main About Us page
should be made more enticing, perhaps by using one of the vintage images used
on the history pages.
Personality: A
Our Commandment 3
of About Us pages is, “Reveal thy personality.” Surprisingly few companies
do as good a job of this as Omaha Steaks. Its personality comes through very
strongly in the History pages, which start by describing
the founders and finish by stating
that the fourth and fifth generations of the same family are now running the
company.
Accessibility: A
Omaha Steaks does much of their business online or by phone,
and they make it easy to order. The header has a toll-free number, store
locations, and a live chat option. The footer has a link to a Customer Care page that offers all these options.
TAKEAWAY
Let a well-written corporate history explain why your
products are so good and make visitors to your site eager to deal with you.
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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