ABPI : Stating its business

A clearly defined picture of the organisation painted on the home page with commendably economic use of concise, unadorned English.

The Site

ABPI, The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, greets visitors to its website with a two-sentence, 46-word description of itself at the head of the home page. In full it reads: “The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) is the trade association for about a hundred companies in the UK producing prescription medicines. Its member companies research, develop, manufacture and supply more than 90 per cent of the medicines prescribed through the National Health Service (NHS)”.

Among other prominent features on the home page is a Find Out More About panel which includes concise, linked descriptions of the Office of Health Economics, Coalition for Medical Progress and The Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority.

The Takeaway

ABPI paints a clearly defined picture of itself with commendably economic use of concise, unadorned English. Not only do visitors to its home page learn what the association is, they also get an intimation of the significance of what it (or more precisely, its members) does. That this is rarer and more difficult to achieve than it sounds is witnessed by the general proliferation among organisations of all shapes and sizes of jargon-led ‘mission’ and ‘value’ statements. Yet on the web the importance of good characterisation is heightened.

Thanks to the popularity of search engines and the spread of related links on news sites many organisations are now ‘found’ by people who would otherwise never have come across them. The fact that most of these visitors will decide in less than a handful of seconds whether to linger or leave puts a premium on the clarity of the messages that greet them. Because even if they elect to move away quickly, those few moments of exposure will colour the impression they take with them – and pass on.

First published on 05 April, 2005