WEBSITE

The 58 year old gas and charcoal grill and accessory company is anything but old — or single market-focused. Go to weber.com to choose from one of 30 global markets where it does business. For the purposes of our virtual tour, we’ll take a look at this American brand’s U.S. consumer website.

The homepage features over 40 mini pictures of real people posing with their Weber grills, this “Wall of Flame” collage all but tells visitors to the website that, yes, the Weber product is one that resonates with real people. Today’s consumers can identify with Weber and, and even more importantly, customers are proud to declare their loyalty to the Weber brand.

Weber’s tagline “Ready For Some Fun? Come And Get It” is featured in bold red letters immediately above the photos, implying that grilling can and should be an activity, not just a means to an end. Grilling on a Weber should be about having fun and getting together with friends, not merely used as a device for cooking burgers.

Weber reminds visitors that grilling is not only for summer by offering an array of holiday recipes. For Thanksgiving, it provided plenty of turkey recipes for the grill, and has shifted gear into more festive, seasonal fare with holiday menus.

The bottom right corner of the homepage features tabs to connect with Facebook and Twitter. Above it is a tab offering visitors to sign up for the recipe of the week. For those who are not interested in subscribing, the recipes are also accessible on the website in the Grill Out section under Recipe of the Week. Featured recipes are from Weber’s grilling books, a smart way to encourage good cooking as well as potential cookbook buyers to eventually open their wallets. The highlighted recipe is accompanied, to the left, by a link to Weber’s Facebook page as well as by options to Tell A Friend via email, IM, social networking pages, and blogs.

The Explore tab allows consumers to check out Weber grills, accessories, and other Weber products including a backyard fireplace. It is divided by type of grill: gas, charcoal, smokers, portables, and electric and allows visitors to find out more about each kind by clicking on that tab. In keeping with its “Ready for Some Fun” motif, the Spirit grills ask buyers, “which one will you grow to love?” The Genesis models promise to “launch you into a world of grill-happy euphoria,” and the Summit Series caution that “these babies will make even seasoned grillers blush.”

In the Grill Out section, Weber presents Recipes and Videos, Recipe of the Week, Grilling Tips for every aspect of grilling from start to finish, and Grilling books, all by Weber. They also offer Freebies, downloadable booklets which include Steak Boot Camp and Weber’s Girls’ Guide to Grilling, a pamphlet that cautions the men, “Move over, guys. The ladies are taking over. This fun and informative grilling guide is tailored for all the gals who want to grill with the best of them, no matter how high their heels.” This is a clever way for Weber to make its products more accessible to women and to increase its core base of customers from the typical male to include women, and not just tomboys.

Naturally, the Weber site also has Shop and Help sections. The Explore, Grill Out, and Shop sections all include tabs for purchasing the Weber On the Grill iPhone app, so there’s no way of perusing the website without noticing it. The iPhone offers 250 recipes, and allows users to create a grocery list to take with them to the store. It also has a timer so that grillers know when their food is ready.

Weber’s Facebook page at facebook.com/weberbbq and Twitter page at twitter.com/webergrills can be accessed from its homepage. For some reason, there is no icon for either one elsewhere on the site, other than in the Recipe section. With nearly 43,000 fans who like it, Weber’s Facebook page has a substantial number of fans, but its moderator could stand to be more interactive. A recent post by a visitor to the Facebook page notes her surprise at Weber’s product being made in China. When there is no response from the moderator, another fan writes “Hey Weber, why no comment on this? What’s going on? Consumers want to know since we are the ones buying your products.”

The website’s homepage is a Wall of Flame derived from its Facebook page, where fans were encouraged this past summer to “Smile and Say Heat,” and submit a photo of themselves with their Weber grill. In the Photos section of its Facebook page, there are almost 1,000 photos that have been uploaded by fans, showing off their proud display of Weber-made food and accessories.

Weber’s Twitter feed (@webergrills) page is a good platform for reminding grillers of what it has to offer. Its tweets include proud notices that its iPhone app was launched in the US, that it will soon be available worldwide, and, of course, links to grilling recipes and tips. It also highlights good publicity for the brand, as when its grills were featured on Top Chef. There are also a number of Tweets that encourage its 2079 followers (as of the end of November) to visit its Facebook page and submit photos and votes on grilling-related questions.

The Twitter page also sends visitors to its clip on YouTube, a thirty second commercial featuring happy people of all ages dancing and jiving to a song as they stand by their Weber grills. It’s a catchy tune that will have viewing tapping their feet, and hopes Weber, itching to have that much fun with a Weber grill of their own.

MOBILE

In July the brand introduced an iPad app, called “Weber’s On the Grill,” for a one-time $4.99 price in the iTunes store. According to the press release, it boasts more than 250 “triple-tested recipes” from cookbooks such as best-sellers Weber's Way to Grill™, Weber's Real Grilling™ and Weber's Charcoal Grilling™—all written by 2010 James Beard Award nominee Jamie Purviance.

iPad users can tag favorite recipes; view videos; create and share master shopping lists from selected recipes to easily take to the grocery store; and browse by the app's wide variety of recipe food categories (appetizers, red meat, pork, chicken, seafood, vegetables, fruits and yes, even desserts). Forty sauces, marinades and rubs are also part of the repertoire. Weber's On the Grill app also features a handy grilling timer that sounds off when food is done.

The new Weber's On the Grill app for iPad has additional elements from the iPhone app: There are more than three times the videos (27) that include instructional grilling techniques demonstrated by Purviance and those that show how to set up gas and charcoal grills for direct or indirect heat methods (which any experienced outdoor griller will tell you is the first thing to know). It also allows users to make notes right on the recipes—such as substitutions for ingredients, flagging recipes best for a crowd, or any other observations—just as one would do on the pages of a cookbook.

Eager to shake its association as a summer-only brand, Weber is working hard to make itself relevant year-round. Through a thoughtful array of digital and social media aimed at equaling Weber with fun, this brand’s strategy is, well, sizzling hot.