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Steinway Brand

 

  Steinway & Sons
Steinway & Sons
off key
by VG
April 14, 2003

The piano maker Steinway & Sons is commemorating its 150th anniversary this year. As it brags about its ancestry, the New York-based company wants to demonstrate all the value that a long heritage can bring in terms of experience and inspiration; not to mention that anyone who is someone in the world of piano music has performed on a Steinway.
 
At first sight, Steinway.com is positively marketing and sales oriented without sacrificing to brand. A small pop-up window is a dynamic way that Steinway has chosen to provide information -- from upcoming concert series to highlighting a section of the site. This dynamism shows that Steinway is not sclerosed by its 150 years. Unfortunately, the pop-up window keeps appearing each time the home page is refreshed.

 
 
Steinway & Sons Clean and simple, the home page displays a large picture of a Steinway piano, surrounded with menu buttons. On the top, a navigation bar lends access to the products and at the bottom, large buttons lead to the registration, dealer directory, boutique, and informational areas.

The online catalog is complete, with concise descriptions and clear images, but does not take advantage of interactive features that could have made it more user-friendly. It is mundane in terms of design and color palette.

The brand is reinforced with features like electronic postcards and a virtual tour. Users can read about the process of making a Steinway and view images of the process along the way. Unfortunately, these features are rather buried. They could be developed and made more prominent to support the brand image.

There is an option to register your piano and receive publications from Steinway, but the registration process is rather long compared to other sites; it requires an email address, mailing address, as well as information on the piano you own. The Find a Dealer feature is not particularly user-friendly either, as personal contact information has to be entered again before the locator searches the database. This connotes hard-selling techniques that do not fit Steinway's brand image.

 
*Due to the constantly changing environment of websites, some reviews may no longer reflect the current website for this brand.
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