In 1967, Imperial Plastics was established in Evansville,
Indiana, where the company is still headquartered. After its acquisition by
Jack Berry, Sr., in 1983, the company expanded via the acquisition of more than
30 related businesses. Today Berry is one of the largest plastics packaging
producers in the world, with 80-odd manufacturing plants employing more than
25,000 people. Its annual sales top $5 billion. Clients include Walmart, Target, McDonald’s,
Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, and Procter & Gamble. The company went
public in 2012. Berry Plastic’s main About Us page is here.
OVERALL GRADE: D
Products/Services: D
The main About Us page, Corporate, offers
the briefest of summaries: when the company was founded and what its goals were
and are. Because the text is so short, the oddity of the final sentence stands
out: “Our impressive list of customers is evidence of our commitment to
provide, on a world-wide scale.” To provide what? Our Commandment
9 of About Us pages is, “Worship clarity.” Small errors suggest lack of
attention to more important points.
The Corporate page is not enticing: little text, no images.
Why not liven it up with a collage of images such as appears on the Products page? Or some
of the material in well-thought-out brochures such as this one?
Or the information on the Investors
page? In a printed book, repetition is boring. On the web, it’s a necessity,
since many visitors will jump unpredictably from one page to another.
The News
page consists of a list of press releases, but buried among them are mentions
of several awards. A separate Awards page would make these more impressive and
easier to find.
The introduction to the Company
History page is confusing: it says Berry welcomes the opportunity “to share
information regarding our success stories and continued support of our local communities
and environment.” Why say this if there are no pages on the site that offer
such stories? And if there are such pages, why not link to them here?
The same page has a timeline that’s of manageable length,
because it highlights only major events. So far, so good. But it’s basically a
list of acquisitions, so it falls rather flat as corporate storytelling. In
addition, some entries need to be rewritten for a general audience: what does
“Entered the closure market” mean? Here, too, images of Berry products or
vintage ads would make the page much more enticing.
Personality: E
Our Commandment
3 of About Us pages is, “Reveal thy personality.” There is no personality
here. Jack Berry, Sr., is mentioned in three timeline entries, but we’re given
no sense of him as a person or a CEO. The bio
of Jonathan Rich, the current CEO, is buried under Investors (top menu) /
Corporate Governance (side menu) / Management (link near top center). Once we
found his bio, it was boilerplate fare, without a single quote from Rich or any
indication of his management goals. Nor are there any quotes from division
managers or employees to create a sense of the company’s personality.
Accessibility: C
The Contact
page is standard: mailing address, telephone, and an online form. Including the
names of the heads of specific departments would give a sense that Berry
Plastic’s employees really do want to hear from us.
TAKEAWAY
If you’re too close to your site to evaluate it, have an
outsider check whether you’re making the best use of your content to express
your personality, show off your products, and stay in touch with your
customers.
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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