LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT A company that is completely charming.
Before entering its office in the commercial center of an art-directed New York suburb, you first walk through a restaurant courtyard that's been set with tables for two. After picking your way through diners who are raising their glasses, be sure to raise your hand in greeting to the boss, who will be sitting just inside the entrance. While peering over his reading glasses, he'll return your greeting with a warm, French-accented hello. After turning the corner you will be met again by a chorus of French-accented hellos, this time by a roomful of bright young women wearing stylish summer dresses.
If the office windows are open, you'll know the chef next door is busy because you'll smell the proof of his industry. Inside, you'll see that the office has been well appointed with dried flowers, candles and photos of people having a good time.
If you visit this company on the Web, though, there's a disconnect between the physical and the virtual. Charm is difficult to code. One is hot, the other is cold. Alas, a company's culture can't be easily translated into bits and bytes.
Nevertheless, I believe we can begin to make the virtual a truer approximation of the real by adding a new Web discipline. Between the team that writes code and the one that designs graphics, we must insert a third group that captures personality. These will be the charming (of course!) men and women who, after first auditing a company's charm, will serve as chaperones as they escort this charm to the Web. (Such a move also can add to domestic payroll, which will be good for our 401(k) investments. That's a two-base hit.)
Not all the tools needed by this “charm squad” are presently available. You can't scratch and sniff a Web site, for example. But there's a lot we can do.
Case in point: I am now sitting on a breezy porch while listening to tuneful avian chirping that's being mixed with a Tommy Dorsey trombone solo. Both sounds are evocative. Both sounds can be added to a Web site.
Sounds, of course, are as plentiful as herring in a barrel at sound-effects shops like Sounddogs.com. Giggles, roars, wind and squeaky gate hinges — these sounds and hundreds more can be scooped by the bucketful and charmingly added to a site. Besides packaged solutions, custom sound can be purchased from companies like Audio Visions (www.audiovisionsonline.com/hindex.html).
Of course, podcasting — a means of publishing sound files to the Internet — offers many opportunities to add charm to a site. Remember Wendy the Snapple Lady? Her New York voice and handmade stories added charm (there's that word again) and personality to the Snapple brand. The same can be done to a fare-thee-well by adding voices to Web sites. In the case of my client, all of the following may someday bring a touch of charm to their site — the founder's reassuring voice, the clinking of glasses and the scraping of flatware on plates, the sounds of a Parisian street or a Riviera beach, a Piaf ballad, the voices of their own happy clients.
Pictures, too, are wonderful tools for imparting personality to a site. Candid photos of the staff, suppliers and customers can all be used. I remember the first time I visited Stew Leonard's, the theater-cum-supermarket with locations in New York and Connecticut. I was charmed indeed to see photos of customers standing before landmarks from around the world while clutching Stew Leonard's bags. These photos help to define the Stew Leonard's experience, and management wisely has placed a selection on its site (www.stewleonards.com/html/bags.cfm).
Go to www.gurneys-inn.com/Beach/Live.htm for another example of imagery that's well used on the Web. At this site, Gurney's Inn, a beach resort near the tip of Long Island, runs live video of the beach. I am looking at it right now. Foggy with rain on the way, I'm afraid.
Let's linger a moment at Gurney's surfcam shot, which is a brilliant charm device. One of my favorite inns, the Red Lion Inn in Massachusetts' Berkshire Mountains, lays a cozy winter fire in its public room. I would run a video loop of this fire on the site. What about vineyards? Introducing the vinocam shot, coming to you live from a charming hillside in Napa Valley, CA. What about Volvo Motors' brand-new, first-ever V-8? I would throw open the hood and show that baby pacing within the confines of its assembly like a caged tiger 24/7.
Restaurant chain Carl's Jr.'s site (www.carlsjr.com/home) can be used as a tutorial on the effective use of images to capture a company's charm. Start with the home page, where flash animation shows a hamburger being eaten. Notice the product being used in the comfort of the prototypical customer's home. You can enter a sweepstakes promotion. You will see the smiling face from the logo throughout the site. Plus, management leverages its attention-getting advertisements by featuring them on the site. That's a lot. But that's OK. The young men who are so important to Carl's Jr.'s stock price have been trained to handle a lot by playing computer games. They expect it.
Copy, though old-school, can also be wonderfully effective at adding charm to a site. My favorite stop for this kind of work is www.panerabread.com/breadhomage.aspx. The following, lifted from one of its Web pages, goes a long way toward capturing the charm of the Panera Bread experience: “Our bakery-cafés are an oasis for our customers. A place to gather with friends or enjoy a quiet moment alone. Comfortable, friendly, fashionable. A place to recharge and feel rejuvenated, not drained.” That's terrific. Too bad the coffee isn't hot and the baked items can be overwrought. (Could this be the first — and you are there — documented instance of Web charm exceeding physical charm?)
Words. Pictures. Sound. Smell…not yet. But three out of four is enough to transfer your company's charming self to your Web site. Charm is one of the qualities that turns “like” to “love.” It's what consistently lands Derek Jeter's photo in the sports pages, lower upper-tier lifetime stats notwithstanding. (Effortless) charm keeps Tony Bennett at the top of the charts. Charm made Elvis Elvis.
When you've got charm at your physical location, flaunt it on the Web.
FRANK SALERNO (riverup@aol.com) is president of River Communications, a marketing and strategic services firm in Ridgewood, NJ.
