7 ms·

How not to design a landing page: Tazo Tea

116 points by mjfern 16y ago

Veera 16y ago
The message in that page reads: "this site appears in a popup. So, if you have a popup blocker, please turn it off while you visit". Now, how am I supposed to know this information, if my pop-up blocker has already blocked this page? :P This reminds me an old joke where one person writes a letter to his friend saying "Please write me back if you are not getting this letter". :)
dholowiski 16y ago
All I get on my iPhone is a nice prompt to install flash, and no link to a non-flash version so I can't even comment on the horrible-ness of the landing page.
- Semiapies 16y ago
  Ain't much better on the desktop - there's a broken javascript link to the front page. I had to look at it and type in the actual URL: http://www.tazo.com/tazo.asp?init= http://www.tazo.com/tazo.asp?init= ETA: Mind, this looks like a neglected old-school ASP site that hasn't been touched in years.
  - elbrodeur 16y ago
    You probably have chrome -- or some other popup blocker. I had to allow popups for Tazo.com for it to work.
    - Semiapies 16y ago
      Quite right. Mind, a site in a popup is a batshit insane/silly concept.
- samratjp 16y ago
  That's the point the OP is trying to make. Btw, on a browser with Flash, you get a popup with flash content instead of actual content on the main page. And the back button breaks (at least to me in Safari in OSX 10.6.5.)
- ja27 16y ago
  I get bounced to a "please install Flash" page so quickly that I don't get a chance to enable plugins (in Chrome). http://www.tazo.com/noflash.html http://www.tazo.com/noflash.html
fleitz 16y ago
It ok for Tazo to have a crappy landing page because they have excellent placement at point of purchase (aka. physical landing page). They have placement and packaging that converts, and built in defaults that result in sales. (eg. if you order tea you're ordering Tazo at a large number of coffee shops) They also have excellent testimonials by having a large chain such as Starbucks serve their teas. Tea is generally an instant gratification purchase, and not something you'd wait 2 days to arrive over the internet. (Yes, perhaps there is an opportunity for a Zappos of tea, but internet retailing is not a core competency of Tazo) If you're ordering tea from the internet, it's probably specialty and not something you can pick up from one of the hundreds of coffee shops you can find within a few miles of where ever you live. Hence if you are 'really really obscure hipster tea' then you need a good landing page, Tazo does not. In the world of people who buy tea Tazo has the #1 ranking in terms of 'google for tea' (aka. starbucks). Designing a proper landing page and website will add almost nothing to their bottom line where as changing their packaging would have a much bigger impact, or sweetening the deal for distributors so the local mom and pop coffee shop is more likely to carry Tazo. People often forget that 98% of purchases are made offline. No one is going to order Tazo tea from the internet, nor will they decide to order Tazo tea the next time they are at the coffee shop because of a landing page. Therefore from the perspective of their bottom line their landing page is as good as it needs to be. Also it appears that their 'landing page' is: http://www.facebook.com/tazo?v=info http://www.facebook.com/tazo?v=info and not tazo.com
- Umalu 16y ago
  But how much would it cost Tazo to upgrade their landing page to be merely mediocre-but-usable? I would think that for a company of Tazo's size and success, the cost of doing this would be trivial.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - sudont 16y ago
    While the monetary cost is trivial, the amount of effort to turn around management is huge. This happens in a lot of corporations, where the best known subsidiary may have a radically different methodology. In this case, it’s Tazo’s approach to the web. Remember, Tazo is owned by Starbucks, which designs HTML5-featured sites around the iPad. They’re no stranger to a forward-thinking web presence.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
smanek 16y ago
I know people who would think that is good ... (Based on the fact that they think flash pages with intro animations are good, because they 'clearly take more work, and are so much more unique.').
- younata 16y ago
  They, clearly, do not have any type of smartphone.
- Vivtek 16y ago
  Those people aren't using Chrome.
chrismealy 16y ago
I'm still waiting for Starbucks to answer my question: are the tazo berries fresh-picked?
bobds 16y ago
It's pretty impossible to use this on Firefox with NoScript.
flip 16y ago
It just says my patience will be rewarded with tea... I'm on an iPhone. I'm going to have to be patient for a very long time to get this tea. And I'm thirsty now. Is this how marketing is supposed to work?
- Vivtek 16y ago
  Yes, because you're sitting at Starbucks. If you go get tea, you'll be buying Tazo. Mission accomplished!
ryanjmo 16y ago
Maybe they just really want people to have pop-ups allowed on their site and have AB tested the landing page to this... Maybe not...
binspace 16y ago
Clicking on the "Click here" doesn't even work for me. I'm running ubuntu.
- preek 16y ago
  Does not work on OS X 10.6/Chrome, too.
earino 16y ago
That flat out fails on my iPad. Just a blank screen.
jrockway 16y ago
Yeah, this website is bad. But I agree with the comments that say it doesn't matter, because it doesn't. You are not Tazo's customer; Starbucks and other coffee shops are. Presumably nobody googles for tea and finds Tazo, instead they see it at other coffee shops, see it at trade shows, etc. It Just Doesn't Matter. (Why have a website at all? No idea. They wanted one, did a bad job, didn't see it affect their sales, and just left it. Or something.)
- Bud 16y ago
  Bzzt. I am Tazo's customer. I buy their products. If they had a great website, such that I could learn more about their products which I haven't tried yet, I might just buy more of their products.
  - philwelch 16y ago
    Bzzt. Stop doing that. It's obnoxious and makes you come across as a smug asshole. HN guidelines say, "Be civil. Don't say things you wouldn't say in a face to face conversation."
riffic 16y ago
This company apparently doesn't want me to see their site. too bad.
cubicle67 16y ago
how it should be done http://www.fivesenses.com.au http://www.fivesenses.com.au same market, but different approach
Raphael 16y ago
The stupidity. Just use the popup as the home page! http://www.tazo.com/tazo.asp http://www.tazo.com/tazo.asp
dagw 16y ago
Given that their noflash page tell you to go download flash version 7 and the source code of tazo.com says © 1999-2004 I think we can safely assume that no one at Tazo has seriously looked over their website for many years, and it obviously plays zero role in their sales and marketing strategy. By the looks of things they're focusing on their facebook page rather than their website as their main online presence.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- pbhjpbhj 16y ago
  >"It obviously plays zero role in their sales and marketing strategy. By the looks of things they're focusing on their facebook page rather than their website as their main online presence." Does any of their packaging include the website address. Does Facebook link to the website? If either of these is true then they are using it as part of their marketing strategy. I don't expect much from a tea company, just an image with their product range and possibly a list of suppliers along with the usual boiler-plate and statutory obligations. Are they a public company, trying to win investment? I didn't notice their landing page linking to a Facebook page which at least says that they didn't tell the person in charge of the website that Facebook is their main online contact point.
blacksmith_tb 16y ago
As an amusing bit of background, the Tazo site was designed by Sandstrom, who have done some other doozies in their time: http://www.sandstrompartners.com/work/tazo http://www.sandstrompartners.com/work/tazo It's even more poignant that Tazo hasn't changed much at all in the last four years...

116 points by mjfern 16y ago

Veera 16y ago

The message in that page reads: "this site appears in a popup. So, if you have a popup blocker, please turn it off while you visit". Now, how am I supposed to know this information, if my pop-up blocker has already blocked this page? :P This reminds me an old joke where one person writes a letter to his friend saying "Please write me back if you are not getting this letter". :)

dholowiski 16y ago

All I get on my iPhone is a nice prompt to install flash, and no link to a non-flash version so I can't even comment on the horrible-ness of the landing page.

Semiapies 16y ago
Ain't much better on the desktop - there's a broken javascript link to the front page. I had to look at it and type in the actual URL: http://www.tazo.com/tazo.asp?init= http://www.tazo.com/tazo.asp?init= ETA: Mind, this looks like a neglected old-school ASP site that hasn't been touched in years.
- elbrodeur 16y ago
  You probably have chrome -- or some other popup blocker. I had to allow popups for Tazo.com for it to work.
  - Semiapies 16y ago
    Quite right. Mind, a site in a popup is a batshit insane/silly concept.
samratjp 16y ago
That's the point the OP is trying to make. Btw, on a browser with Flash, you get a popup with flash content instead of actual content on the main page. And the back button breaks (at least to me in Safari in OSX 10.6.5.)
ja27 16y ago
I get bounced to a "please install Flash" page so quickly that I don't get a chance to enable plugins (in Chrome). http://www.tazo.com/noflash.html http://www.tazo.com/noflash.html

fleitz 16y ago

It ok for Tazo to have a crappy landing page because they have excellent placement at point of purchase (aka. physical landing page). They have placement and packaging that converts, and built in defaults that result in sales. (eg. if you order tea you're ordering Tazo at a large number of coffee shops) They also have excellent testimonials by having a large chain such as Starbucks serve their teas. Tea is generally an instant gratification purchase, and not something you'd wait 2 days to arrive over the internet. (Yes, perhaps there is an opportunity for a Zappos of tea, but internet retailing is not a core competency of Tazo) If you're ordering tea from the internet, it's probably specialty and not something you can pick up from one of the hundreds of coffee shops you can find within a few miles of where ever you live. Hence if you are 'really really obscure hipster tea' then you need a good landing page, Tazo does not. In the world of people who buy tea Tazo has the #1 ranking in terms of 'google for tea' (aka. starbucks). Designing a proper landing page and website will add almost nothing to their bottom line where as changing their packaging would have a much bigger impact, or sweetening the deal for distributors so the local mom and pop coffee shop is more likely to carry Tazo. People often forget that 98% of purchases are made offline. No one is going to order Tazo tea from the internet, nor will they decide to order Tazo tea the next time they are at the coffee shop because of a landing page. Therefore from the perspective of their bottom line their landing page is as good as it needs to be. Also it appears that their 'landing page' is: http://www.facebook.com/tazo?v=info http://www.facebook.com/tazo?v=info and not tazo.com

Umalu 16y ago
But how much would it cost Tazo to upgrade their landing page to be merely mediocre-but-usable? I would think that for a company of Tazo's size and success, the cost of doing this would be trivial.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- sudont 16y ago
  While the monetary cost is trivial, the amount of effort to turn around management is huge. This happens in a lot of corporations, where the best known subsidiary may have a radically different methodology. In this case, it’s Tazo’s approach to the web. Remember, Tazo is owned by Starbucks, which designs HTML5-featured sites around the iPad. They’re no stranger to a forward-thinking web presence.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

smanek 16y ago

I know people who would think that is good ... (Based on the fact that they think flash pages with intro animations are good, because they 'clearly take more work, and are so much more unique.').

younata 16y ago
They, clearly, do not have any type of smartphone.
Vivtek 16y ago
Those people aren't using Chrome.

chrismealy 16y ago

I'm still waiting for Starbucks to answer my question: are the tazo berries fresh-picked?

bobds 16y ago

It's pretty impossible to use this on Firefox with NoScript.

flip 16y ago

It just says my patience will be rewarded with tea... I'm on an iPhone. I'm going to have to be patient for a very long time to get this tea. And I'm thirsty now. Is this how marketing is supposed to work?

Vivtek 16y ago
Yes, because you're sitting at Starbucks. If you go get tea, you'll be buying Tazo. Mission accomplished!

ryanjmo 16y ago

Maybe they just really want people to have pop-ups allowed on their site and have AB tested the landing page to this... Maybe not...

binspace 16y ago

Clicking on the "Click here" doesn't even work for me. I'm running ubuntu.

preek 16y ago
Does not work on OS X 10.6/Chrome, too.

earino 16y ago

That flat out fails on my iPad. Just a blank screen.

jrockway 16y ago

Yeah, this website is bad. But I agree with the comments that say it doesn't matter, because it doesn't. You are not Tazo's customer; Starbucks and other coffee shops are. Presumably nobody googles for tea and finds Tazo, instead they see it at other coffee shops, see it at trade shows, etc. It Just Doesn't Matter. (Why have a website at all? No idea. They wanted one, did a bad job, didn't see it affect their sales, and just left it. Or something.)

Bud 16y ago
Bzzt. I am Tazo's customer. I buy their products. If they had a great website, such that I could learn more about their products which I haven't tried yet, I might just buy more of their products.
- philwelch 16y ago
  Bzzt. Stop doing that. It's obnoxious and makes you come across as a smug asshole. HN guidelines say, "Be civil. Don't say things you wouldn't say in a face to face conversation."

riffic 16y ago

This company apparently doesn't want me to see their site. too bad.

cubicle67 16y ago

how it should be done http://www.fivesenses.com.au http://www.fivesenses.com.au same market, but different approach

Raphael 16y ago

The stupidity. Just use the popup as the home page! http://www.tazo.com/tazo.asp http://www.tazo.com/tazo.asp

dagw 16y ago

Given that their noflash page tell you to go download flash version 7 and the source code of tazo.com says © 1999-2004 I think we can safely assume that no one at Tazo has seriously looked over their website for many years, and it obviously plays zero role in their sales and marketing strategy. By the looks of things they're focusing on their facebook page rather than their website as their main online presence.

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
pbhjpbhj 16y ago
>"It obviously plays zero role in their sales and marketing strategy. By the looks of things they're focusing on their facebook page rather than their website as their main online presence." Does any of their packaging include the website address. Does Facebook link to the website? If either of these is true then they are using it as part of their marketing strategy. I don't expect much from a tea company, just an image with their product range and possibly a list of suppliers along with the usual boiler-plate and statutory obligations. Are they a public company, trying to win investment? I didn't notice their landing page linking to a Facebook page which at least says that they didn't tell the person in charge of the website that Facebook is their main online contact point.

blacksmith_tb 16y ago

As an amusing bit of background, the Tazo site was designed by Sandstrom, who have done some other doozies in their time: http://www.sandstrompartners.com/work/tazo http://www.sandstrompartners.com/work/tazo It's even more poignant that Tazo hasn't changed much at all in the last four years...