Brand Image

What’s in a brand? The implausibly titled Business Superbrands Council has named Arriva as its only passenger transport superbrand. To be a superbrand, you need to be among the finest in your sector.

Congratulations to Arriva, and we’d agree with the aforementioned council that "there are few brands in the transport sector that are as recognisable."

But there are unanswered questions, too. For example, why don’t Stagecoach, First and National Express feature as superbrands? Or TfL? Or Virgin Trains? Or Megabus.com? Or the Oxford Tube? They, too, are all recognisable and well known passenger transport brands. What has Arriva got that the others haven’t?

And then there’s the whole issue of brands themselves. If there are problems with one part of a brand – e.g. First Group’s recent difficulties – does this rub off on other parts, in the customers’ minds? Will they perceive the same failing bus service in one town when they move to another?

And finally, do bus brands work best as national or local entities? How do people engage with their local bus service? Do they identify their bus firm as being part of a national organisation?

Are bus services "local"? Are they part of the social fabric and the very social and physical geography of an area, as the buses themselves weave parochially along the local landscape? Or do they transcend local boundaries?

How do large groupings such as First engender a national following when each of its services is numbered locally, when each bus has a local destination on its front, when each of its timetables shows local journeys and when there's no universal (and sometimes quite patchy) coverage?

In the minds of the public, does a town’s bus service help identify that town? Or does the brand identify the operator?

Final, final thought. Not all national transport brands work as well as Arriva. What was arguably Britain’s biggest transport brand of all time? It was British Rail. Did it succeed?

Well done to Arriva.