One of the possible (?) benefits of the "commercial" model for bus operation has been that companies have begun to learn that they are selling a product, not just "providing a service". Maybe operators have not quite grasped Jack Cohen's (boss and founder of Tesco) original mantra, namely, "pile it high and sell it cheap"!
There are some who would suggest that post-privatisation bus companies have been more towards the "pile it low and sell it expensive" as fares have increased well above the rate of inflation, sometimes by a factor of two or three!
The early pioneers in route branding with distinctive route colours and names were Trent under Brian King ...
... and Go North East led by the late Peter Huntley.
Now there are plenty of good examples.
Go Ahead's Wilts and Dorset became Salisbury Reds, initially for City services only, but then the brand was diluted as the company name and used for everything. But their new electric buses for the city are bright, red (surprise) and very noticeable.
Even dowdy First has moved from Barbie II via coloured front-end "wedges" to specific route brands as here for a Potteries service ...
... and here in the remote extremities of Cornwall.
First Kernow has a design "theme" of cogwheels, but in different bright and breezy colours.
Note that, despite the Squamatum illustrated on the buses, the extremity of Cornwall has nothing to do with any form of amphibian or similar. Wikipedia suggests that the Lizard name comes from Cornish "Lys Ardh" meaning a High Court which ruled the area in times past.
Transdev have blessed Burnley with a double dose of bright and breezy orange ...
... please pass the sunglasses.
Ray Stenning advocates the mantra of "Creating Desire", which the designs may well do, BUT - the Jury is out as to whether such luxuries create profits!
There have been a number of honourable failures where brand and promo have not delivered the required bag of sovs for the bottom line. We have just heard of the demise of First Bath's Discovery D3; and Reading's (ex Stagecoach) Tiger route 7 ...
... will roar less loudly in the future.
Back in his Grammar School education days, fbb learned a lot from his economics teacher, Peter ("Slash" - no idea why!) Harris. The antithesis of Jolly Jack Cohen's sales philosophy was the attitude of Marks and Spencer. M&S operated a policy of "if it doesn't sell well, ditch the product - get rid of it! - If it does sell well, stock even more!"
Maybe it is this approach that decrees that successful brands need to be revealed, refreshed, rejuvenated and re-promoted in much the same way as London Transport has changed its image since creation in 1933.
Or not!
fbb was invited to the two recent First Bus launches, but respectfully declined. Portsmouth was "too tight" a schedule and Norwich was a little too far to go. Even the joys of a First Bus goody bag have to be declined as the years tick by.
But in Portsmouth there was a First Bus goody gazebo ...
... complete with nice nibbles neatly nestling on the napery. It was Portsmouth's "Star" routes (numbered 7 and 8) to Waterlooville and points north that were to get a whole new fleet and brand refresh.
Out goes the old ...
... and in comes the new with a zappy new-look "star" ...
... with an obviously "trendy" letter "A" with a bit missing. Now if fbb had done that in Junior School, teacher would have, at the very least, made him stand outside in the rain for 24 hours after a thorough thrashing! Education was real tough back then!
The buses come with the latest craze, some outline sketches of Portsmouth landmarks ...
... with the tourist idea continued on internal panels.
Is the print a bit small?
Sadly, this rebranding exercise has not been extended to the route equipment, provided when the Star routes were originally introduced.
Even the shelters are branded.
It does seem such a pity that a small chunk of the £24 million invested in this group of routes could not have been used to stick some new Stars on flags and shelters. First will bleat that the infrastructure is the responsibility of the Councils, but ...
Would it have cost too much to order a few pages of sticky-backed plastic? The rebrand should be totally rebranded by the rebrander, surely?
Bottles of "Cif" did not grace the shelves of Tesco stores ...
... whilst bottles of "Jif" were advertised on the telly.
Nevertheless the launch successfully made the pages of the local rag ...
... and, in doing so, helped the image of First Bus in Portsmouth no end.
More new colours tomorrow.
Just Two Tailpieces
This was rail travel in the Highlands yesterday, twittered by a Scotrail conductor.
And ...
Remember B-Bus, originally promoted as Blue Bis? It offered demand responsive app-booked journeys from Luton Airport to somewhere quite obscure in West London. See blog (here).
The early pioneers in route branding with distinctive route colours and names were Trent under Brian King ...
Go Ahead's Wilts and Dorset became Salisbury Reds, initially for City services only, but then the brand was diluted as the company name and used for everything. But their new electric buses for the city are bright, red (surprise) and very noticeable.
Note that, despite the Squamatum illustrated on the buses, the extremity of Cornwall has nothing to do with any form of amphibian or similar. Wikipedia suggests that the Lizard name comes from Cornish "Lys Ardh" meaning a High Court which ruled the area in times past.
Transdev have blessed Burnley with a double dose of bright and breezy orange ...
Ray Stenning advocates the mantra of "Creating Desire", which the designs may well do, BUT - the Jury is out as to whether such luxuries create profits!
There have been a number of honourable failures where brand and promo have not delivered the required bag of sovs for the bottom line. We have just heard of the demise of First Bath's Discovery D3; and Reading's (ex Stagecoach) Tiger route 7 ...
Back in his Grammar School education days, fbb learned a lot from his economics teacher, Peter ("Slash" - no idea why!) Harris. The antithesis of Jolly Jack Cohen's sales philosophy was the attitude of Marks and Spencer. M&S operated a policy of "if it doesn't sell well, ditch the product - get rid of it! - If it does sell well, stock even more!"
Maybe it is this approach that decrees that successful brands need to be revealed, refreshed, rejuvenated and re-promoted in much the same way as London Transport has changed its image since creation in 1933.
fbb was invited to the two recent First Bus launches, but respectfully declined. Portsmouth was "too tight" a schedule and Norwich was a little too far to go. Even the joys of a First Bus goody bag have to be declined as the years tick by.
But in Portsmouth there was a First Bus goody gazebo ...
Out goes the old ...
The buses come with the latest craze, some outline sketches of Portsmouth landmarks ...
Sadly, this rebranding exercise has not been extended to the route equipment, provided when the Star routes were originally introduced.
Would it have cost too much to order a few pages of sticky-backed plastic? The rebrand should be totally rebranded by the rebrander, surely?
Bottles of "Cif" did not grace the shelves of Tesco stores ...
More new colours tomorrow.
Just Two Tailpieces
This was rail travel in the Highlands yesterday, twittered by a Scotrail conductor.
And ...
Remember B-Bus, originally promoted as Blue Bis? It offered demand responsive app-booked journeys from Luton Airport to somewhere quite obscure in West London. See blog (here).
Well, not surprisingly, it gave up the ghost way back in December.
Next Livery Delivery blog : Sunday 2nd February
The problem with all these fancy liveries is that buses don't always stay on their allotted routes. This morning I travelled on a CardiffBus vehicle branded for route 27 - except that it was on route 58! This sort of thing happens pretty often, especially on rugby days when 57/58 branded deckers run the R&R service instead of the usual X59 branded Citaros. Cambridge R&R used to have a nifty way around this: the basic livery style was the same for each route, however each route has buses in a different colour (red, blue, green). You never saw a red bus on the "green" route; however there was at least one spare bus, still branded for the P&R but grey. This worked well.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of rebranding the stops the question is whether it is better to have the high profile launch and then role out the new image more widely or to role out the new image more widely early and risk undermining the high profile brand relaunch. I suspect that you couldn't do it at the same time as the people rebranding the stops would be required to set up the launch event. Generally speaking any business keeps their brand as much under-cover as possible before the launch and then rolls out after that. In your example there were almost certainly products branded as Jif & Cif after the brand relaunch as you can't have that complete a switch without actually not having any product on the shelves for some days/weeks beforehand.
ReplyDeleteRoute branding does require management discipline to ensure correct allocation and this comes from the top. If the senior managers aren't bothered then the guys on the ground won't be, if the people at the top are questioning every incorrect allocation then the people on the ground will do it right. The best operators at doing this have managers who really keep an eye on what vehicle is on what route - if you aren't going to manage that closely don't route brand.
Not helped by the fact that the bus stop flags are presumably managed by the local authority rather than the bus company.
ReplyDelete