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Does a Website’s Appearance Instill Corporate Confidence?

So I blogged about Donuts the other day on my Tweet Sweet blog. Heaven knows that I love donuts. Thank goodness for a fellow employee that brings them into my work every-other Friday (You rock Joe!).

In the blog post, I mentioned Glazies, a donut location paired with several Hogi Yogi/Teriyaki Stix food locations. The eating locations (Hogi Yogi is all about Sandwiches and Yogurt, Teriyaki Stix serves rice bowls) are franchised by Hyats, LLC. To become a franchisee, the cost is about 300K which is pretty typical for a shop like this. The Hogi Yogi headquarters are located in the Riverwood’s area of Provo, Utah located in a nice brick building above a large Hogi Yogi/Teriyaki Stix location. When trying to find a link for Glazies (which doesn’t exist) I headed over to their home page at HogiYogi.com and found a page that has not been updated since 2002, uses terrible outdated design and frames. (Does anyone use frames anymore?) At first I thought I had landed on the wrong page, and tried doing other searches. But THIS IS their corporate page. Here’s a company that is obviously not taking advantage of the power of the web, or doesn’t think that their online presence has much to do with their offline business.

Take a look at another franchise in the area - Cold Stone Creamery. If you visit their website, you’re greeted by an attractive site with a red background reminiscent of the wallpaper in their stores, and pictures of their yummy desserts. Not only does their website give the history of the company and franchise information, customers can also buy gift cards, sign up for their birthday club, and view tastefully photographed pictures of their desserts (notice the reflection effect that I blogged about the other day on their ice cream page).

How does your company’s website fit into your overall image, your brand? A well-designed website can:

  • Share Information About Your Company (Who we are, what we sell, what locations are out there)
  • Increase Public Interest (show not only potential customers, but also potential franchisees what your offering is)
  • Obtain New Business (Catering opportunities, enhance sales with gift certificate options, etc.)
  • Improve Customer Service (Provide menus, contact information, feedback opportunities)
  • Sell Products or Services (if you can’t carry food products online, carry coupons to buy the food)
  • Increase Time In Front of a Customer (customer loyalty programs such as the birthday option offered by Cold Stone)
  • Offer 24-Hour Access to Information About Your Company
  • Answer Frequently Asked Questions
  • Provide Changing Information Quickly (new locations coming?)
  • Test a Market or Product (”Coming soon”, online coupons?)
  • Put You on Equal Footing with Competitors Already Excelling on the Web
  • Network Your Company with other Businesses or Organizations that Provide Complimentary Services
  • And most of all, instill confidence in visitors that your company is professional and well-managed

    • This entry was posted on Saturday, October 28th, 2006 at 11:35 am and is filed under Branding, User Experience. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

    One Response to “Does a Website’s Appearance Instill Corporate Confidence?”

    1. Brad McCall Says:
      November 1st, 2006 at 3:25 pm

      I ran across this link while searching for Glazies on Yahoo? Could this be a redesign that was never finished?

      http://www.hogiyogi.com/test/