The Holy See Website | Non-Profit Organizations

The Holy See
In nubibus
October 27, 2003

The 25th anniversary of the Pontificate of John Paul II reminded us that one of the most emotionally-loaded celebrity brands in the world is no less than the Pope himself.

As both a spiritual and temporal leader, the Pope is present on the Internet at www.vatican.va, the website of the Holy See.

The site welcomes the visitor in no less than six European languages, which from a branding viewpoint, is an implicit reminder that Roman Catholicism is primarily a Western European religion. However, visitors may be disappointed to find that numerous pages are not translated in the announced languages. In fact, the Italian language largely dominates, limiting the reach of www.vatican.va to a narrow segment of the world’s population.

The splash page consists of a warm parchment-colored background, covered with a watermark of Saint Peter's basilica and the Holy See crest. Although its usability is low, the creativity of the Holy See's home page deserves high marks. On the surface, the site appears to follow many branding principles.

The texture connotes ancient manuscripts and the imagery leverages the architectural beauty of the Vatican. However, browsing the site leads one to question who the Vatican is hoping to reach with its message. For an organization as old and global as the Roman Catholic Church, the danger is that its website tries to be everything to everybody, which can only be a source of general disappointment. Only serious strategic work can answer the question of who should be targeted by this website, and prepare the ground for the resource allocation, planning and implementation stages to reach that target.

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


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