Chevron: Learning centred

Showcasing themed material creates an attraction far ‘stickier’ than the sum of its parts.

The Site

Chevron’s Products’ website is an information site catering to trade customers as well as the motoring public. Its five main sections include a Learning Center which also covers a range of users under the theme of the science of exploration and oil refinement.

Topics such as What is Crude Oil? What is a Refinery? and an interactive Petroleum Prospecting Primer follow a progression from raw material to service station at a general knowledge level. Chevron History is a multi-faceted chronicle of the company that visitors can view by time period or any of eight topics (such as advertising, marine, community involvement). There are also links to the ChevronTexaco Employee Resource & Training Center, which runs courses for other industries and companies, and Best Classroom Practices, two sets of award-winning lesson plans for teachers.

The Takeaway

Elements of Chevron’s Learning Center can be found on many company sites, though often not without considerable effort. What singles Chevron out from the crowd is its creation of a section to showcase the material and the range of quality content it then packs into it. This creates an attraction on the site far ‘stickier’ than the sum of its parts, serving a potential audience ranging from children and parents in search of home learning material to teachers, other businesses and curious customers.

The other key to the center is the consistent high quality of the content in terms of presentation and writing. This cements the likelihood that users will bookmark the center and recommend it (and by extension Chevron) to friends, family and colleagues. The fact that most companies don’t follow suit probably reflects a lack of central co-ordination of their site content rather than a deliberate decision to forgo the benefits.

First published on 12 July, 2005