Fact Sheet Critiques

Fact Sheet Critiques

The following are a few little improvements for some big companies’ fact sheets.  Our hope is that our critiques of these fact sheets will help make yours even better than it is.

Starbucks

Keep it current, Starbucks.  This fact sheet is dated February 2008, kind of old.  Also, Starbucks has gone full boar into the major social media venues from Twitter to Facebook and yet the company’s social media contact information is missing from their fact sheet.  The graphic quality is also poor and not up to par with the company’s top-notch image.  Another brand mismatch is the tone.  This full-on corporate fact sheet is cold and businesslike and seems apart from the Starbucks’ brand of being a fun, friendly, warm place.

Gap

This fact sheet has a nice, easy-to-read layout that looks consistent with their image, but where’s their contact information or even a link to their website and store locations?  It seems incomplete and stops before the bottom of the page.

Gatorade

Gatorade’s fact sheet contains good information, including some unexpected facts like the athletes they sponsor, but it’s dated 2006, much too old to be considered current.  It’s also a bit long at two full pages, though we like that it has all of their product web addresses at the bottom.  Links to those addresses would be even better.

St. Jude Medical

We like how this fact sheet is integrated into the company’s website and the reader can choose whether or not to click on the PDF version or not.  The links on the left and right to the fact sheet topic areas are all active, making it user friendly and the use of web links allows them to make the fact sheet brief while supplying a lot of information.  The only down side is that the PDF version of the fact sheet didn’t open up in our browser so we’re not sure if it contains the same information that’s available on the website fact sheet.

Before creating or revising your company fact sheet, take a look at other companies’ fact sheets to see what works and what doesn’t and let that guide you in perfecting your own.

For more information on fact sheets, see our recent blogs.  Also, do you need to create a fact sheet for your business and don’t want to start from scratch?

2 Comments
  • Salma
    Posted at 00:03h, 17 July

    Hey,
    Your article was really helpful and useful. I was wondering if you could provide me with some ideas of how i should write a fact sheet about a bank. A bank is kinda difrrent from the examples you stated in your article, so i need some ideas, can you help me out?
    Your copperation will be highly appreciated, thank you in advance.

    • joy
      Posted at 13:11h, 20 July

      Thank you for your question! Banks have lots of information to convey to their publics. You may want to create several fact sheets. One with general information about your company and others about specific products/services. Here’s a sample of a general fact sheet from Bank of America that we found online. Notice the link in the fact sheet that users can click on for more information (great tactic!). http://corp.bankofamerica.com/public/public.portal?_pd_page_label=products/abf/news/facts