Pernod Ricard : Seeing double

Replication of banners undermines the usefulness of a home page.

The Site

Pernod-Ricard, a France-based drinks company, wastes valuable home page space.

Pernod Ricard’s corporate home page heads its central panel with a visitor-centric quick links panel. Next to the heading ‘You are’ is a set of tabs, for Shareholder, Investor, Journalist and Candidate, that controls the content of the panel below. In each case this consists of several quick links, to a mixture of secondary and deeper-level topics, and a graphic banner.

Three of the panel settings (Candidate is the exception) carry the same banner, a promotion for ‘Asia Conference’ that has headline details of the event reversed out in white on a blue background. The top of the banner aligns with a deeper replicate banner adjacent to it in the right-hand column that shows the same details.

The Takeaway

‘Same again’ is a familiar refrain from visitors to the bars where Pernod-Ricard plies its trade, but the company would do better not to make the same offer to visitors to its corporate website. No matter how much they might shake their heads, they really are seeing double and the company is needlessly repeating itself in the manner of someone who has been too long at the bar.

The relevance of the featured event to shareholders, investors and journalists is not in dispute, but the right-hand banner is more than eye-catching enough and close to the quick links panel not to need repeating within it – where it reduces the opportunity to promote other content. The element of distraction is magnified by the boldness of the banners, which makes their twinning a strong visual magnet (to the detriment of the rest of the page), and the use of a pale orange type for the links in the panel that means they are overwhelmed. On this evidence, Pernod-Ricard should steer clear of cocktails.

First published on 08 March, 2012