Take a look at coca-cola’s web site when you have a chance (http://www.coca-cola.com/).
It may be me, but I think something’s going wrong here. It’s like some deranged 20 something year olds started playing around with web development tools and tried to create a site. The graphics are interesting, but the site doesn’t make any sense.
To give just one small example, when you finally get into the site (which takes a while to enter even on my fast connection), you’re connected to The Coke Show. I clicked on “See the entries” even though I didn’t know what the entries were for. Then I clicked on the mini-challenge, “The Coca-Cola Company Theme Song” and I clicked on “See the entries” again. It first told me I had 54 days to enter my original theme song and then it said 53 days. There were no entries to see. I tried some other categories and they didn’t make much sense either.
I thought it was just me until I showed the site to 10 college students. None of them could make heads or tails of it and all expressed frustration with the site.
Where is Coke going with this. Shouldn’t the #1 brand in the world be able to create a functional website?
For a contrast, visit the www.toyota.com site. A functional site that is anything but dull.
I can’t let this one go without a comment. I agree that the Coke site is hard to figure out, and that having any part of the website that doesn’t work is inexcusablefor a company like Coca-Cola. But the more important question, I think, is what is Coke trying to do with its website? And, how is Coke driving traffic to its site? Apparently they have some kind of contest going, but I haven’t seen ads in other media encouraging people to enter. So how are people finding out about the contest? Why would people go to the Coke site at all? You’re not buying a can of Coke online.
A branding website is a different being from a pure selling website, and it’s obvious that Coke is trying to digitize their “Have fun, drink Coke” brand. But you’re right — the site has to work and it has to have some reason for people to want to view it.
It would be interesting to hear from people about websites that they think really reflect a brand well and are worth spending a little time on. Suggestions, anyone?