Corporate Eye

...compare, compete, excel

Lucy Nixon

Lucy Nixon

My Networked Life

Cisco’s newsroom has featured topics; one of these looks at how technology enables people to thrive in today’s connected world.

The hero image is an interactive picture that allows you to expand and play videos of real people discussing how networks impact on their lives and businesses. The videos are from around the world, from artists to entrepreneurs, and the page provides further links to the subjects’ and/or their company’s social media.

We like this because it is an interesting and well presented way of showcasing the variety of ways that connective technology can be applied, and promotes Cisco as an authority in its field.

On Purpose: Detail and Tone

I invited Jordan Mendys to write a post for us today. His photos are lovely (do go and look at them) and I thought he’d have some interesting views about the visual aspects of the corporate website.

His point about intentionality, detail and tone is an extremely important one, whether you are considering your first corporate website or maintaining the latest iteration of a long-standing web position.

Visualizing Your Corporate Website

When it comes to web design, there is literally an unlimited possibility for what you can do. Of course, depending on what you are looking to do, there are directions you should steer clear of… Visual design for websites is very important. You want it to reflect the tone of your company and the business you do. Just as individual bloggers pay close attention to what is on their site, so should a corporate website. Every decision you make, from colors used, font of the text, and of course the layout all play a role in creating a tone for your business, and every role is just as important as the next. If you want to have a good, clean, and effective website, then you must take each of these into close consideration.

Layout

This is the basic starting point for your site. You want to know how to organize your information for effective reception of your audience, as well as make it look professional. Typically, a corporate website should have some symmetry and solid form. Symmetric webpages show order and professionalism, whereas asymmetric websites are typically more whimsical and art driven. That’s not to say it doesn’t work for businesses, but make sure it fits your company and what you provide. For instance, Wolseley gets to the point by heavy use of symmetry, even their links to deeper pages. The deeper pages have the same layout. As you see, all the information on the site is well organized and planned out, making the user’s experience (UX) very easy.

As mentioned, your site doesn’t have to follow that same layout, but you have to clearly define your goals before you start to build a site. Are you there to entertain visitors to your site? Then a non-traditional, artsy, unbalanced site might be visually appealing enough for them to come and stay on your site. However if your goal is to give information to your potential customers and clients, you want access to your information simply laid out in a good order.

Color

Color is sometimes overlooked, but plays a big role is UX. There has been a ton of research into colors and their effect on mood. Reds and yellows create anxiety and a need to move quickly. This is why so many fast food restaurants use those colors; they want customers in and out quickly so more can come in. Yet, look at McDonald’s website, and while you’ll see bits of their famous color scheme, a lot of the pages and images used are not that color. That is because while they want you in and out of their restaurant quickly, they want you to spend as much time on their site as you can.

Using comforting colors like blues, browns, and others will make people want to stay on your site. Of course you’ll want to use your company’s colors for brand identity, but if those are comforting colors, they might should not play a major role in your design. In other instances, look at your industry. Are you a company with a “green” product? Well, that color might resonate with your audience. Or maybe an aqua color reminding them of the ocean, a big role that green technology plays. Whatever the case is, do some research on color, and make sure it fits your overall mood. The aforementioned ‘anxious’ colors can even work if your site and product is centered around adventure and an adrenaline rush. Just make sure the colors you pick are intentional and in line with your goals.

Font and Text

This one is pretty basic, but nonetheless should be paid some love. Font is often overlooked in regards to web design. A lot of times, people will want to look into flashy and neat looking fonts. You see this a lot of times on blogs, but when it comes to a corporate website, keep it simple. There is no need to use flashy fonts or text. Not only is it not necessary (good content is), but you also run the risk of looking unprofessional or detracting from your message. Just look to use to trusty fonts. Pretend you’re writing a business email or memo. Would you want to use Comic Sans or Wingdings? Most likely not, so keep the same professional mentality on your website. It is not a hard task, but certainly one you will want to pay attention to.

So these are the basics to getting your corporate website up and running. Make sure that you have a clear goal that you want to achieve with your website, then execute those tasks accordingly. Every little thing that goes on your site is important, as every little detail will be scrutinized. Pick colors, fonts, and even pictures with complete intention, and don’t let anything fall through the cracks. You want visitors to come to your site and stay there, so make sure is a welcome environment once they make their way over.

Jordan Mendys is a media professional and blogger. He is also a freelance photographer and filmmaker who lives in North Carolina with his wife. Jordan is also a content creator and writer for Digital Satellite Dish TV.

Finding the Hook – More on Marketing and Investor Relations

In marketing there is a concept known as the “hook”, which is the theory that a product or service needs to have a catchy saying or phrase to grab customers’ attention. An extreme example of this is the story about American popular/country singer Mac Davis who after one of his songs was rejected by his record label because it didn’t have a hook, got mad and wrote the song, “Baby Don’t Get Hooked On Me” which went on to become a number one hit for him in America in the 1970s. The relevance to this in investor relations comes in two forms. First, a company’s stock is marketed by the sell side to the buy side through very compressed information bytes followed by extensive research. Second, differentiating your company often requires that you find a simple way to express complex strategies.

If you read the blog post preceding this one, you may recall that a sell side analyst, after much work to produce an industry piece, has exactly 3 – 5 minutes on the morning call to compress his investment findings to a viable investment thesis to his sales force. The sales people, in turn, usually have 60 – 90 seconds to present the idea to buy side analysts and portfolio managers when they call them to pitch the idea. If the investment idea can’t be expressed succinctly within those compressed time spans, chances are that investors will move on to the next investment idea.

So the takeaway here is to find a concise, pithy description of your company that captures its most salient points and work at getting the Street to think of it when they think of your company. It’s another form of branding, but expressed in a more subtle way. To take an example from the energy industry, if your company has the engineering technology to take on exploration in the harshest environments and situations that other companies can’t approach, then that is the first thing you want investors thinking of so that you can stand out from a crowded field.

This concept should also be applied to other differentiating aspects of your business. Sometimes the product offerings of companies are clearly differentiated by price or service levels, but other times the difference is not as clear-cut. For example, many years ago I worked for a drugstore chain, a retailing concept that has many competitors that sell much the same merchandise. Discount chains such as Wal-Mart and supermarket chains such as Kroger all offered not only the same types of general merchandise and over-the-counter medications but even offered prescription departments where you could get your medications.

The question that constantly came up was “If everyone is selling the same products, what makes you different?”

In this case the hook is not so much about getting information out quickly, but more about creating a phrase that will stick with the investor. The catch phrase we came up with to describe the differentiating point of our business was “We sell healthcare and convenience.” We followed it up with factoids that showed how our customers were in the store 15 minutes or less and bought fewer than 5 items. This clearly set us apart from the big box retailers and gave investors a mental picture of why customers viewed our stores as a different shopping experience.

In short, snappy catch phrases are not just for the marketing department. Marketing also occurs at the investor level.

Saudi Arabia’s unique direction | CSR Around The World

Think Saudi Arabia: think oil.

Which isn’t surprising.  The country’s home to Al-Ghawar, the world’s largest oil field which pumps out a stonking 5 million barrels of crude oil per day.  Ironically (or perhaps fortunately?) it lies under the world’s largest single stretch of sand, the Rub’ al-Khali or “Empty Quarter” which covers over a quarter of the country.

The country has some other more surprising “world’s largest” facts: it’s the world’s second largest country without any major permanent water sources and the world’s twelfth largest country overall.

All of which gives me pause for thought.  Part of CSR and the business sustainability agenda is to create robust and socially inclusive economies.  Saudi Arabia’s economy is pretty well single industry and, to put it delicately, it’s not renowned for being particularly socially inclusive.

So when I “met” Bushra Azhar on Twitter, founder of Middle Eastern business sustainability consultancy Good Business Sense and based in Saudi Arabia … well, I just had to get hold of her and ask her all about it!

[Read more…] about Saudi Arabia’s unique direction | CSR Around The World

Conveying Corporate Stewardship

A company’s website is its shop window and how well that window is dressed is critical.

It is after all the crucial interface through which businesses, big and small, market their products, build brand recognition and expand their client base.

However the digital interface is much more than a dry marketing and business development tool: it’s the company’s face, voice and personality. The medium through which the modern international can connect personally with browsers and express its characteristics, values, principles and outlook on the world.

By doing this the corporate can draw out brand admiration and build brand affinity, loyalty, consumer respect and a sense of rapport. The rewards for the company that does this well are great.

But how well are big corporates doing this and who’s setting the industry standard?

To answer this we’re going to have a look at a selection of the Most Admired Companies of 2012 as named by Fortune Magazine.

The subject of this first review will be the inimitable Starbucks Coffee Company which came 8th in this year’s Fortune rankings.

First Impressions

As we’ve discussed before, first impressions and aesthetics are crucial to the user experience.

The first impressions of the Starbucks site are pleasing to the eye: the web designers have given an open and relaxed feeling to the digital interface and its balance, ambiance and layout work well.

Content

So we know that the first impressions are critical and that Starbucks does this well.

But any website cannot rely solely on looks, but also requires the backing of strong digital content that engages and informs the user.

The content is the vehicle through which a corporate can deliver its message and portray its values and personality.

I have noted a few characteristics of Starbucks that really became apparent as I passed through the site and engaged with its content:

  • Firstly, the website makes Starbucks come across as personable and engaging: the site has an easy access video of one of their resident baristas, Jack from Romford, who provides a walk through guide on how to make the perfect cup of coffee.
  • Trendy and up to date: the Starbucks site offers a free weekly iTunes download which gives the impression of a company that is really ‘with-it’.
  • Innovative: Starbucks talks about new technologies including its new mobile payment system. It also introduces new produce which paints a picture of a company constantly thinking of new and exciting ideas for the customer.
  • Strong blogging content: this is important for any ambitious company and for a conglomerate the rule applies no differently. The blog content is engaging and relevant: discussing jobs, opportunities and the skills needed to be a barrista, as well as the personal stories of the workers – very engaging!The blog also talks about what goes into making fresh products which is very important for the customer conscious of what is in their food.

    However the blog doesn’t appear on the dashboard but can be found tucked down the side. The blog posts are also undated and this takes away a little from the integrity of the commentary as we don’t know if the content is fresh or stale. Remember it’s the simple things that matter!

  • Strong ethics and social conscience: corporate social responsibility has always been a big selling point for Starbucks and this is a big part of their website. But they go further than just providing ethically sourced coffee; they also work with the local community which adds real brownie points.
  • Social media literate: Starbucks has a strong social media footprint and they really get how it works. The range of social media channels, laid out very clearly, really complements the website. This shows not only a commitment to innovation and process improvement but it also shows that Starbucks is a company that wants to actively communicate with its customers.
  • Navigability: underpinning all traits noted above is easy navigation which adds to the user experience and gives a real bring-back-ability’

All in all Starbucks has ensured that their web team not only created a top website but maintain a top website with fresh, engaging and innovative content.

Remember a corporate website isn’t just for Christmas!

I was particularly keen on the range of media that the web designers use, from video, to blogs, interviews and social media. This versatility and range of digital tools really adds crunch, taste and bite to the palate.

However I did note a few points that I thought could be worked on.

The in-shop experience in Starbucks is certainly unique: a sort of refuge for the academic, bookish and artsy types. It also gives off real creative vibes.

However I didn’t exactly feel that they played on this point. They did offer the iTunes “pick of the week” but they could do more with this.

They could engage with book reviews, book offers, and a book of the week award, music reviews or even a recommended playlist. They could also produce online art galleries, showcasing the work of local artists; after all they do this in-shop, so why not online?

All things considered Starbucks ticks all the boxes for a strong corporate website very well: it does the simple things right, conveys its message with fluency, makes the company seem personable and gives the browser and prospective customer every reason to believe that Starbucks not only sells top products but that it’s a thoroughly ‘with-it’ company.