Breakfast at Tiffany’s
made the grand store at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street in Manhattan a household
word, even among those who don’t aspire to one of the company’s diamond engagement
rings. The original “fancy goods” store was established in 1837 by Charles
Lewis Tiffany, who soon turned the emphasis to jewelry, then made the name
famous by purchasing the French crown jewels and giving reign to the astounding
design talent of his son, Louis Comfort Tiffany. Tiffany’s is now a publicly
owned company headquartered in New York City. The main About Us page is The World of
Tiffany.
OVERALL GRADE: B
Products/Services: B
Tiffany gets high marks for visuals, but middling marks for
ease of use. The images on The World of
Tiffany page sprawl over a lot of screen
real estate. For the sake of luring visitors to view other pages (Pioneers
of Design, Dazzling
Discoveries, Magical
Windows, etc.), it’s more effective to have a collection of smaller photos
that allow a one-screen overview.
The left navigation bar on the main page
has numerous choices without an obvious sequence. It’s difficult to find one’s
way back to memorable pages – for example, the one showing the gorgeous diamond
necklace worn by Audrey Hepburn when promoting Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Sometimes further information on a piece
pops up with a mouse-over; sometimes (as on this
page) not. Our Commandment 7
of About Us pages is, “Remember to keep the navigation easy.” The photos
are the jewels of the Tiffany pages; their setting needs some polishing.
In other respects, the Tiffany’s site is a good example of
corporate history as marketing. The video
on founder Charles Lewis Tiffany (great archival photos!) segues at the end
into a promotion of Tiffany engagement rings. The Timeline
has great visuals, too, although it’s short on text.
Personality: A
The “personalities” on this site are the company’s founder
and the its famous designers, Louis
Comfort Tiffany, Jean
Schlumberger, Elsa
Peretti, and Paloma
Picasso. Each designer has at least one heavily illustrated page, with an emphasis
on innovative style and spectacular pieces. Well done!
Accessibility: D
There seems to be no way to contact the Tiffany’s except
through its retail stores and customer service.
TAKEAWAY
Even if your visuals are amazing, don’t neglect the other
basics, such as enticing text and well-thought-out navigation. And if your
business history overlaps cultural history, as Tiffany’s definitely does,
leverage that. Include some corporate storytelling on every page.
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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