Dockers: “About Us” Evaluation by Corporate History.net

Dockers, established in 1986, is the division of San Francisco-based Levi Strauss & Co. that’s devoted to khakis and casual accessories. It’s a leading brand of business casual clothing for men and women. We were curious to look at Dockers because it’s part of a larger company, but has its own brand. The main About Us page is here.

OVERALL GRADE: C minus

The biggest flaw in this set of About Us pages is that we found them via a Google search, and can’t find a link to them on Dockers’ own site.

The main page has two headings, each with a distinctive tagline: Our Products (“Well-crafted comfort to help conquer the day,” with links to pages on size and fit) and Our Company (“A rough and tough work ethic is deeply rooted in our family tree”). Below these are links to Contact Us and Careers. It’s a simple, clear layout that works almost as well on a desktop as on mobile. (In fact, these pages are among the least offensive mobile-friendly pages we’ve seen, in terms of layout, because the header images are much less high than wide. Hence on a desktop screen, they don’t fill all of the prime above-the-fold real estate.)

Products/Services: A

Under the Our Company heading on the About Us page are links to About Levi Strauss & Co., History and Heritage, and Social Responsibility.

About Levi Strauss & Co. has a pithy statement linking the current brand to the long corporate history of Levi Strauss. One minor glitch: this opening statement says the first blue jeans were created in 1853. Further down the page, under “Our Values,” the “Originality” blurb gives the date as 1873. Our Commandment 9 of About Us pages is, “Worship clarity.” An error such as this leaves the impression that someone isn’t minding the details.

The Timeline (“History and Heritage”) is good corporate storytelling. It focuses on the long history of khaki pants at Levi Strauss, then offers nostalgic glimpses of pop culture (Seinfeld) and advertising history (“Nice pants!”). Haute couture and culture are represented by names such as Alexander Wang and Vanity Fair. Each timeline entry has an intriguing headline, a short blurb, and an archival image – all large enough to see easily. Having done a timeline or two ourselves (such as this one for California’s State Compensation Insurance Fund) we appreciate the design and content of the Dockers example.

Personality: D

The Timeline is excellent for showing where the company has been, but not for showing what its current goals are. No information or links are given for the company’s leadership. Mentioning Levi-Strauss as a parent company doesn’t fill this gap, since there are no links to Levi-Strauss’s leadership team, either.

Accessibility: E

The Contact Us page (accessible via the main About Us page or the Help link in the footer) is elegant in layout but quite confusing. The options are “Find a Store” or “Get Help.” Clicking “Get Help” sends us to a page with the options “Contact Us,” “Send Feedback,” “Find a Store,” or “Top Reads” (a FAQ). But clicking either “Contact Us” or “Send Feedback” takes us right back to the Contact Us page. So in fact, the only ways to reach Dockers are via the 800 number in the footer and the online email form that is (we eventually noticed) below the fold on the Contact Us page.

Our Commandment 8 of About Us pages is, “Remember to make yourself and your organization easily accessible.” Dockers, do you really want to hear from us?

TAKEAWAY

Have a fresh pair of eyes (or two or ten) look at your About Us pages for obvious errors, including whether those pages can be easily discovered and whether visitors to the site can contact you easily.

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.

3 Lessons Learned from a Painful Public Speaker

1. Match the speaker to the occasion. A rat-a-tat military man may not be the right choice for a roomful of benign trustees at the annual meeting of a co-operative organization.
2. If the bad match is a fait accompli, build a bridge. The speaker made no effort to localize, customize, or otherwise bridge his (supposedly) motivational presentation. No corporate storytelling. No mention of the org's 100+ years of company history and community support. I suspect this fellow didn't make even the most basic inquiries. 
3. Never, ever phone it in. Public speakers are actors, performers, professionals. When we step to the podium, it's show time, every time. A loud voice and speed do not equal energy. If we don't project true energy and interest, we shouldn't be speaking. Barreling through a PowerPoint doesn't cut it.

I won't name names because the evening was presented in good faith. But I felt pain as I watched fellow audience members wincing, feigning interest, or snoozing. Best I can say is that Mr. X provided a wake-up call for my next presentation and, I hope, for yours.

Yiddish Book Center: “About Us” Evaluation by Corporate History.net

In 1980 Aaron Lansky, a 24-year-old grad student in Yiddish literature, realized that thousands of books in Yiddish were being destroyed by Jews who could not read the language of their parents and grandparents. He set out to rescue these works, to disseminate them, and to promote wider understanding of their content and their place in history. Today, after recovering more than a million volumes, the Yiddish Book Center (based in Amherst, Massachusetts) is a leading Jewish cultural organization, primarily responsible for the current revival of Yiddish studies. The main About Us page is Who We Are.

OVERALL GRADE: A

Products/Services: A

Bravo to the Yiddish Book Center for an About Us page that begins with a pithy summary of the organization’s mission: “The Yiddish Book Center is a non-profit organization working to tell the whole Jewish story by rescuing, translating, and disseminating Yiddish books and presenting innovative educational programs that broaden understanding of modern Jewish identity.” Then come specifics of the organization’s activities (fellowships, translations, oral histories) and a summary of its status (“one of the world’s largest, liveliest, and most original Jewish organizations”). For those who want more, the page ends with a link to Our Story. A lovely photo shows the Center in its rural setting. A sidebar offers information from the founder and ways to join the Center’s mailing list or follow it on social media. All this is elegantly laid out to fit into less than 2 screens on a laptop. (The goat silhouette, which recurs throughout the site, is a nice light-hearted touch.)

Our Story is also top-notch. It focuses on the founder: the problem he saw (Yiddish books being destroyed) and his solution (send out volunteers to collect them). Then the narrative segues to the Center’s current activities and its plans for the future. The sidebar on this page links to the founder’s memoirs: an excellent choice, given that those who have read so far are clearly interested in the Center’s history.

We commend what may seem a minor detail of the layout: the caption beneath the video. It tells us what the video contains and that it’s award-winning, which helps us to decide whether to invest 13 minutes to watch it.

Given that Our Story  is a good narrative, we don’t miss headings and photos as much as we often do when confronted with a page of dense text. Still, images of some of the more spectacular of the Center’s “rescue efforts” would make great illustrations - and might even benefit the center by teaching people who are completely ignorant of Yiddish to recognize it.

Personality: A

Kudos to the Yiddish Book Center for keeping founder and president Aaron Lansky front and center. On the Staff page, he’s hauling a box of books. Images are crucial in setting a mood on any web page, and this image makes it immediately obvious that the Center is a down-to-earth organization run by a guy who’s willing to lend a hand to get things done.

Visually, the extra space given to his bio makes it obvious that he’s the Center’s directing force. Oddly, many corporate leadership pages are severely egalitarian: you wouldn’t know who the head honcho was from the space given on the page layout.

Our Commandment 4 of About Us pages is, “Don’t take your own name in vain.” Lansky’s bio mentions coverage of the Center by the New York Times, Time, and Smithsonian, as well as “numerous awards and recognitions.” Why not link to the articles and list the awards? That would reinforce the fact that the Center is doing a superlative job at fulfilling its mission.

We hoped to find links to such information on the News page, but found only a list of the Center’s blog entries – interesting and well laid out, but not the sort of affirmation that comes from outside recognition.

Accessibility: A

High points to the Center also for its Contact page, accessible via the footer and the top navigation bar. This page offers an impressive choice of 12 email addresses. Incidentally, the vintage typewriter is cute, but we’d still prefer to see some photos of the books the Center has rescued.

TAKEAWAY

Especially if your founder is still in charge, use his passion to set the tone for your About Us pages and to help explain your company’s mission.

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.

CorporateHistory.net book wins top-tier APEX Award

Superior Linen Service at 60: Stories of Teamwork, Technology, and Trust, written and published by CorporateHistory.net, won a 2015 APEX Grand Award in the Special Publications category. This is the eighth consecutive year that our business history books and history websites have won APEX Awards. Only 82 of this year's 1,900 entrants earned top-tier Grand Awards honors. Kudos to author Bernie Libster and book designer Ashley Tosh, Superior Linen’s marketing director and resident art maven.

We wrote Superior Linen’s history as a series of stories rather than a straight chronological narrative for a few reasons. First and foremost, it let us meet the client’s tight deadline. The format also showcases Superior Linen’s family-oriented culture, as well as the tech innovations that have twice placed it on Inc. Magazine's list of Top 5000 fastest growing privately held companies. We’re especially proud that our client agreed to run two spreads  both in English and Spanish, the first language of many of Superior’s employees. APEX regarded that as an good example of corporate storytelling for the 21st century.

Sponsored by Communications Concepts in Springfield, VA, the APEX Awards is a program designed to recognize excellence in publishing by communications professionals. The APEX Awards for Excellence are given in various categories based on outstanding quality in both graphic design and editorial content of print and online publications. 

Books-a-Million: “About Us” Evaluation by Corporate History.net

In Florence, Alabama, in 1917, Clyde W. Anderson set up a newsstand. With the profits from it, he bought a bookstore. His sons built more stores, incorporating them under the name “Bookland” in 1964. Bookland survives as a subsidiary of Books-a-Million, which since 1988 has become a chain of over 200 superstores, mostly in the southeastern United States. The company went public in 1992. It is the second largest book retailer in the country. The closest thing to an About Us page is Corporate Profile.

OVERALL GRADE: D

Products/Services: D

The Corporate Profile page provides a good summary of the current size and scope of Books-a-Million, along with its operating divisions. But the page consists entirely of small type and a few headers. Our Commandment 6 of About Us pages is, “Honor thy visuals.” Archival photos of early locations, early signage, or previous logos would liven up this page. More importantly, the page seems to be aimed at possible investors rather than customers. It conveys no sense of excitement about the products and services the company provides, nor its essential business history. Book people, especially, have an obligation to be corporate storytellers.

Personality: E

Completely missing from the Corporate Profile page is the story of the company’s century-long development. Who founded it? What was their driving purpose? What did they do right, and where and when, that helped make the company last so long?

At the foot of the page is a list of directors and corporate officers. Each is listed with name, title, and nothing else: no capsule bios, no contact info, no hint of their goals for Books-a-Million. According to Wikipedia, the company was founded by Clyde W. Anderson. On the Corporate Profile page, the first two names under Board of Directors are Clyde B. Anderson and Terry C. Anderson. Hey, bet there’s a family connection there! Why not tell us about it?

Accessibility: B

The contact page is available via a link on the top navigation bar. It offers a list of mailing addresses, emails, and (sometimes) telephone numbers for questions about retail stores, the website, the company, complaints, employment, and media relations.

TAKEAWAY

Your corporate history is a powerful tool for setting your company apart from the crowd. Use it!

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.