I chose two companies for a corporate blog analysis: Whole Foods Market’s Whole Story blog and Edmund’s Straightline blog. I chose them because I frequently shop at Whole Foods Market and when I’m looking to purchase a car, I rely on Edmund’s car buying advice. Their blogs are also very informative and touch on various subject matters.
The goal of the analysis is to provide the reader insight on how each corporate blog connects with the audience aesthetically and by content.
Whole Foods Market
Whole Foods Market is a major provider of natural and organic foods as well as skin care and wellness products. I will focus on two of its corporate blog entries from the ‘Healthy Tip’ category: Meet Your Health Goals and Eat a Hearty Breakfast.
The intended audience is health-conscientious consumers interested in incorporating sound advice that are important and helpful to their daily lives. The goal of these blogs is to connect with the consumer on health awareness matters. Meet Your Health Goals advises to make a list of the healthy things that one would need at the grocer to avoid the possibility of forgetting to purchase these items. This is great advice for the consumer who only remembers to buy Vitamin C when he/she reaches the cash register. Eat a Hearty Breakfast explains the importance of eating breakfast and how it affects those who choose not to. The consumer who may never feel hungry or is always too busy to have breakfast may reconsider and make breakfast a priority.
Figure 1
Whole Foods Market “Whole Story” Blog
The Whole Story blog encourages comments. The readers are more responsive to advice and the subject of food more than other areas. The two entries in analysis received a decent amount of feedback. On average, the Whole Story blogs are about four (4) paragraphs long, which is not too long, considering the font size and spacing. The visual design elements utilized are a green and white color scheme, where green is the primary color for the background and white is used for the text. The text consists of a font type that appears to be Arial, a font size of about 14 and 1.5 line spacing. There are links to social-networking sharing of the blogs. Photos, videos, podcasts, and charts are used to visually identify the contents of the entries. The photos are in line with the text so that the reader has an example alongside the reading content. I really appreciate the use of large icons and a ‘search’ tool. Readers are able to view entries by categories or by the most recent post. There are links to archived posts as well as Whole Foods Market pages on social networking and image/video hosting websites.
The overall Whole Foods Market corporate image that is presented to me is the element of human connection to educate consumers and for consumers to feel that they not only provide products but solutions. Whole Foods Market does a fantastic job of presenting their blogs as if the reader is browsing through a magazine article. Their entries are personable and I feel as though Whole Story has successfully related to its readers on a human level.
Edmunds
Edmunds is an organization focused on providing consumers a comprehensive collection of automotive information ranging from car reviews to car buying advice. How Ford Avoids the Chicken Tax on the Transit Connect and Comparison Test: 2009 Ford Fiesta Titanium vs. 2009 Honda Fit Sport are two of Straightline's blog entries that I will use in my analysis.
The intended audience is car enthusiasts that are interested in keeping up with automotive current affairs. The main goal of the blog is to engage consumers on what's to come, but it is also a place for consumers to be informed about vehicle topics (i.e. GM’s plant closings) and concerns (i.e. high insurance rates on sporty vehicles). How Ford Avoids the Chicken Tax on the Transit Connect is about Ford finding a way to avoid a higher import tax bracket simply by the vehicle nomenclature 'Transit Connect Minivan', as opposed to 'Cargo Van', and replacement of some of its finishing. This entry is informative to consumers on Ford’s business practices. Comparison Test: 2009 Ford Fiesta Titanium vs. 2009 Honda Fit Sport gives a brief comparison of two small cars based on an article that was posted by Edmunds a couple days before the blog entry. This entry is exciting for the consumers to see that the American-bred Fiesta may be Fit’s foreign contender.
Figure 2
Edmund’s Straightline Blog
Straightline posts several entries a day and receives feedback from its readers almost immediately after the post. The average length of the entries is two paragraphs. The visual design elements used are a white background with a Times New Roman font, text color is black, text size is either 10 or 12 and single spaced. Entries can be viewed by recent posts, car manufacturer, auto show, and other categories. Archived entries are also available, dating back almost four (4) years ago. Straightline uses advertisement of Edmunds’ services as part of the blog layout. Technorati is used for other authors that discuss the same subject matter as Edmunds. There are also links for the reader to subscribe to Straightline RSS feeds or add the blog as a favorite using Technorati, Yahoo! or Google. Large images are used to visually describe the content. My only gripe with the Edmunds Straightline blog is their layout. If you look at the right hand side of Figure‑2, you will notice a bare gray background. I would have appreciated less gray space with either more content, centered alignment of the blog, or a wider layout of the current blog.
I would rate the Straightline corporate blog as average only because it lacks in human element. I didn’t get a sense of personality in the entries, but more of an informative feel, as if reading from the Edmunds corporate website. Although it lacks the human connection presented in Whole Story, Straightline's content keeps the readers engaged.
