Johnson & Johnson : Serving investors subtly

A coded signal keeps a home page on message.

The Site

Johnson & Johnson, the US-based healthcare group, manages to get an alert through to the financial community without disturbing its strong caring message.

Johnson & Johnson’s home page is notable for its single-minded messaging. It has three headlines, which rotate and change regularly but always tell a ‘caring’ story. Each headline leads to a text case study and to a high-quality video that takes over most of the home page when played. Currently the stories cover J&J’s earthquake effort in Haiti, a text service to spread health messages and how a girl is using an insulin pump.

The only other feature on the present home page is the word ‘Webcast’, with a picture of a microphone, in a small panel at bottom right. Mousing over it, the panel swells, and reveals the message ‘March 9, 2010 Webcast Analyst Conference 11:05 (ET)’. Clicking the panel leads to the Webcasts and Presentations page in Investor Relations. The first item is a speech at a conference on 9 March. An option to ‘remind me’ leads to an e-mail alert set-up page.

The Takeaway

Johnson & Johnson has put a great deal of thought into its website, and particularly the home page. It uses it as a billboard to get its ‘we care’ message across. And just as an advertiser would not put an extraneous element on a billboard, so J&J does not want to disturb this single message. Nor to come across as yet another share price driven multinational. On the other hand, it does want to alert the financial community to its upcoming presentation.

So it has taken advantage of the fact that the community would understand the single word ‘webcast’ is meant solely for it. (Webcasts are exclusively offered in the investor section, so act as a codeword for ‘this is something for you’.) The subtle opening of the panel reinforces the cloak and dagger feel – it is a crystal clear message for the intended audience, but one that most others would not glance at. Above all, the impact of the ‘billboard’ is undiminished: J&J continues to tell the rest of us that what it cares about is caring.

First published on 04 March, 2010