Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

From my “Even huge companies with huge budgets have terrible web sites” file.

Yvonne at Lip-Sticking recently posted re Kellogg’s stuck in the ’50s “marketing to women” for Special K. And, she’s right - it’s awful.

However, Kellogg’s web site is even worse.

- The navigation text on the main site is teensy-weensy. But the falling banana is huge. (Hello? People visit your web site for info - not to watch a commercial.)

- I have to HUNT to find Special K and there are both pages on the main site and another separate web site (and as far as I could tell, the Special K pages don’t link anywhere to the Special K site.)

- They offer “where to buy” prompting me to enter my zip…and the distance…and the product type…and the product…and the product sub-category (type, scroll, type, scroll, scroll, click, scroll, click, scroll, click) But, really, what store doesn’t carry Kellogg’s? An example of a web techie on the loose with no web strategy behind it.

“Where to buy” is a great idea if you offer limited products in limited distribution. When you sell a gazillion in a gazillion places - the feature is more confusing than anything (and makes the visitor work at finding the info. Nahh, I’ll just check the aisle next time I go grocery shopping.)

At the Special K site (complete with skinny 20-somethings measuring their waists. Wow, that’s motivating.)

- I see “Loading” on screens (and I’ve got high-speed)

- Before I can click on a button such as “design your plan” they’ve moved on to the next screen with a different button (and another skinny-meenie model.)

- They send me to Yahoo Health for “more information” (huh?)

- They send me to Amazon to buy cereal (!?)

- Apparently I can have an account (way down at the bottom in teeny-tiny print.) For what? where? why? You’re sending me to Amazon to buy things.

Plus, there’s snips of code ()on pages (oops)

There’s more - but you get the idea. Better to have a simple (no big bouncing bananas necessary!) web site that works well for your target visitors - than blow money on something that looks good and works badly.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and feel free to disagree! Debate is healthy. I moderate all comments, though, so it may take a bit for yours to show up.
Thanks for reading!

Tags: web sites, Kelloggs, Special K, emarketing, marketing, marketing to women, marketing troubleshooting