With millions spent on them, you sometimes get the feeling that brand identity is more important to operators than the services they operate. After all, brands can make or break a business. But so can unreliable services.Two branded-related things happened yesterday. One was partial brand destruction, the other brand creation.
Scottish Citylink coaches formally divested to Parks of Hamilton its so-called Saltaire Cross services, which link Aberdeen, Glasgow, Inverness and Edinburgh. This follows concerns from the competition authorities. Thus, the widely held view that the joint ComfortDelGro & Stagecoach Megabus Scottish Citylink venture had become a major force for good in Scotland was weakened. That the Parks services remain bookable via the Scottish Citylink website softens the blow.
The other was launching of National Express’ new corporate branding for its Travel West Midlands and Travel Coventry operations, on the very day that it managed to avert a proposed drivers’ strike. Imagine what a strike would have done for the brand at its launch.
Here's a picture of the new banding. Some argue that the current Travel West Midlands livery style is bland. Others feel the new National Express West Midlands application is worse. It certainly has a 1980s sort-of Gwynedd Bus feel, when all north west Wales buses irrespective of owner were treated to a forward-sloping red front diagonally from a third way along the roof to the front axle. In actual fact, the NatEx brand style is ‘clean’, fresh and uncluttered, if a little lean. And white is the new black (or green). As to whether all this marks a ‘new era’, as NatEx would have us believe, this is debatable.The electrical circuit board effect will help cement recognition across the brand portfolio as NatEx wishes to capitalise on its newly found superbrand status. The causality is the fall of yet another local identity, though only partially, as the name ‘West Midlands’ remains. Yet, buses are very local in nature. Can there really be an affinity between the vastly different markets of express coach travel, a commuter railway, a strategic railway and a regional bus operation?
Travel West Midlands pretty much enjoys a captive market in the West Midlands and is already a highly known and understood product. Is there anything NatEx can gain from such a rebranding? In the words of NatEx, it will ‘unlock’ the power of the National Express brand, and may yet move bus travel in the midlands upmarket, attracting more business from motorists, alongside its other products. On the other hand, get things wrong operationally and there’s the potential for the bus service to devalue the superbrand.
2 comments:
I agree with your doubts about the validity, effectiveness and necessity of these re-branding exercises. The original National Express livery (the 1972 version) was white with red and blue lettering, and looked bland and uninteresting in comparison with what went before. White is bland, clinical and uninteresting - that, of course is a personal opinion. The new livery is also white with red and blue lettering - a case of the bland leading the bland, perhaps? Incidentally, thank you for clarifying what those grey bits are - they reminded me of the tassels on some menu folders in some restaurants. Trouble is, I have no idea what either tassels or the electrical circuit board effect have to do with bus or express coach travel!
But is all this really necessary? No, definitely not. Buses are local, as you say, and, to my mind, so are the coaches associated with them.
The brand, and the image or livery are separate issues. For example, on a couple of occasions in the last few years I have booked flights through lastminute.com, but the planes I flew in were not painted pink and didn't have "lastminute.com" on the side. Lastminute.com have successfully created a brand that I have been encouraged to use, despite the horrible pink colour scheme they use! There are other, more important factors, which determined my choice of vendor. The livery of the planes was irrelevant.
National Express could have done the same with a little imagination, not only with the coaches 35 years ago, but also with the buses - so that, for example, Birmingham's local buses could have retained a more local identity. As far as I know, the buses in Birmingham have been blue or dark blue since the 1930's and possibly before - the 'ownership' in the real sense may no longer be local, but there is no reason why the people should not be encouraged to feel that they are still "Birmingham's buses".
This "livery" is dreadful. Who but some overpaid "design" expert could have come up with a scheme that (a) has the rear end an unpracticable white; and (b) a so-called integral part of the branding (the "circuit board") in a position that will be covered by advertising.
The coach version looks like a "dealer's stock delivery".
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