Steinway & Sons

Website: http://www.steinway.com/

Intended audience:
• Individuals who are interested learning anything about Steinway pianos – how they are made, how to purchase them, how to care for them, which schools and conservatories use them, and which famous artists play them.

Usefulness of content:
• For a website whose narrow focus is on pianos, it contains a tremendous amount of information. The site not only has photos and information about the current pianos available, but it also contains information about the process Steinway uses to construct the pianos and helpful tips on how to properly care for such pianos.
• It has a scrolling ticker with the latest news relating to pianos.
• For anyone looking for quality piano recordings, the website contains a listing of Steinway artists with links to their music on iTunes and Amazon.com.
• For background listening, visitors to the site can launch the “Steinway Legends,” which plays 72 selections from the Steinway Legends 10 Title CD Series, which is also available for purchase on the website.
• For students of piano, the website contains links to all of the universities, colleges and conservatories that exclusively use Steinway pianos.

Consistency of design:
• The website’s design is generally consistent and professional. The Steinway & Sons heading and the left-hand menu remain consistent throughout. The location, presentation, and size of photos of the pianos vary on occasion, but this does not detract significantly from the website’s overall presentation.
• However, the website’s design lacks the “wow!” factor that one might expect from a retailer that sells $675,000 pianos. The photos seem very small for “grand” pianos, and video links on the website to YouTube do not seem consistent with Steinway’s desired high-end image.
• There is a link on the website to Steinway Germany (http://www.steinway.de), which does a much better job of expressing the impressiveness and quality of these pianos.


Ease of navigation:
• The consistent and clear menu on the left-hand side of each page and the simple and direct menus along the top of the page for “Locate a Dealer”, “Request Literature” and “Artists” makes the website very easy to navigate. The ability of the left-hand menu to expand and contract depending on the page being displayed helps keep the numerous pages on the site clean, organized and manageable.