Brands, whether successful or not, somehow become ‘hard-wired’ into our very consciousness. It takes significant resources to alter these perceptions. Take Stella Artois, mentioned yesterday on BBC R4. It’s now associated with an unfortunate violent tendency. That marketers are now trying to associate Paddington Bear with Marmite other than marmalade is surely doomed to failure, such is the power of the Paddington Bear brand.
A ’brand’ is a way of embodying a product, its perceptions and expectations. They take time to develop and mature. The idea of branding in the bus industry is a new concept, dating from 1972 upon the birth of National Express. It wasn’t till the early- to mid-1980s that another widely recognised brand developed, namely Stagecoach. It was more than ten years later that First and subsequently Arriva began to brand themselves. Even Go Ahead is slowly building a brand, particularly following its inability to woo councillors in Bournemouth at the sale of Yellow Buses.
An important part of brand development is the formation of a strapline. The strapline emphasises the brand in an easily remembered way and engenders wider product recognition and acceptance. Or it’s supposed to. This site has a strapline (some would say it’s somewhat obtuse). Again, go back 20 or 25 years and you won’t find a strapline anywhere within the bus industry, though a couple emerged on the railway – “This is the age of the train” being the most famous.
The trouble with transport straplines is that they can easily be open to abuse. Marketers need to be careful in inventing and using straplines.
The classic was Chesterbus’ “You can’t beat the bus”. In a sense, Chesterbus was right. If you live in the Chester suburbs, there’s no more convenient way of getting to the city centre than by bus, especially when you consider the price of parking and the congestion in that city. You can’t beat the bus.
On the other hand, “You can’t beat the bus” can simply be a stick with which passengers can beat the operator. If, like Chesterbus, you operate an oldish fleet with relatively poor frequencies, that is.
More on this, soon.
Thursday, 20 September 2007
Brands & Straplines
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
No straplines before about 20 years ago? funny that...I clearly recall "Alder Valley gives you so much more" jangling out of my TV, accompanied by the slogans usage on loads of leaflets, stickers etc - that must have been circa 1980...
And didn't the NBC run a fares fair campaign about that time?
Perhaps these are the exceptions that prove the rule. Any more exception, anyone?
(I cannot remember the Fares Fair compaign, other than the one in London, of course).
The Alder Valley gives you much more wasn't a strapline, it was a short term advertising slogan...
Post a Comment