In stringent times, can or should operators spend scarce resources in changing their liveries? Is this money well spent? And do passengers care about the colour of their bus, anyways?
These are some of the comments arising from the recent post of Lothian Buses’ return to its traditional burgundy & white, something that rather bucks recent trends.
My experience suggests that passengers care more about punctuality, reliability, fares and frequency. Since the majority of passengers are making a so-called “distress purchase” (one over which they have little choice), for them, livery is no more than a distinguishing feature that marks their bus out among general traffic. In many (most?) parts of England, there’s no choice of operator, in any case.
These days, though, significant numbers are making “discretionary” not “distress” purchases. They may have other modes of transport at their disposal but have chosen the bus for at least some of their journeys. This is intelligent choice. Or they may choose one operator over another. This is for a variety of reasons: punctuality, reliability, fares, frequency certainly… and also brand image.
Aside from creating the right environment in which even distress purchase passengers can feel they can return, it’s here (with discretionaries) that a brand becomes so important. Livery plays a vital part in the creation and maintenance of a brand. Why else would some operators go to such lengths to create, nurture and protect their brand; and design innovative liveries? As Spaceman commented on Meet the MD, operators strive to present a product not just a service.
During many of the bus industry’s phases, livery has been viewed as important:
- During the 1930s, London Transport created a brand that still endures today. Its livery may be staid but it still evokes something, no matter where in the world you come from.
- During the heyday of buses in the early 1950s, even in monopolistic times, buses were immaculately and lovingly turned out in rich, hand finished glory.
- During the 1960s and beyond, liveries expressed local pride.
- During the 1970s, livery was but one method of creating a national identity for the National Bus Company. Whether this succeeded on buses is debatable but it certainly did so on the express network.
- During the mid-1980s, newly privatised or arms-length operators all rushed to show everyone that they were locally managed.
- During the 1990s, the new groups rushed to show everyone that they were building up nationally recognised brands.
- Today, livery is seen as but one element in a brand strategy that permeates an entire business. Livery thrusts the brand presence beyond traditional, “distress purchase” markets.
You’ve got to paint your buses somehow. Why not make it count?
10 comments:
I agree with all of your observations, but, you have made one big mistake.
When you say "if all other things are equal between two operators—fares, frequency, capacity, journey times, driving standards, punctuality—brand is the differentiating factor that will lead a passenger to chose X over Y (or X over the car)."
The livery is NOT the brand. The brand is what a individual thinks and feels about a particular company or product. And is personal to them.
The livery is merely a visual representation of the brand and every thing that creates it: fares, frequency, capacity, journey times, driving standards, punctuality etc.
The livery could be a differentiating factor, the brand is always the differentiating factor.
http://mhdmovingpeople.blogspot.com/2010/04/livery-is-it-money-well-spent.html
Great post though!
I happened to be following a Bristol RELH on Saturday in traditional Royal Blue livery.
It was noticeable that many older people were standing and staring as the coach drove past.
OK, the rounded ECW body is old fashioned now, but it as not as if it was a half cab which would draw people's attention.
I can only assume that it was the classic Royal Blue livery which people recognised and remembered.
The livery speaks of the "brand", and in the case of Royal Blue it probably speaks of sunny summer holidays in Devon & Cornwall...
2 comments showing at base of article, but nome actually to read.
Example of new invisible livery ???
Tis is one of my hobby horses.To my mind there are three facets.Firstly corporate image much beloved by advertising agencies.but does not work in the bus industry.it creates a public view of them as ttem and us.second comes livery.-in the early de-regulation days when take overs occurred almost daily it made sense to have company livery staandardised to enable shifting of cars from one area to another.there no longer that need so reverting to perhaps its pre nbc livery becomes more realistic.lastly branding is fine but has drawbacks .for instance there is one in worthing called PULSE.QUESTION,IS THIS BECAUSE IT SERVES THE HOSPITAL ARE ARE MOST WORTHING RESIDENTS PULSELESS..The other drawback is coloured route brands.you know the story .the red bus at stand 3 is a yellow one ,the bgreen bus at stand 2 is ablue one etc etc.you need to have spare vehicles painted up laying around waiting for breakdowns.cheers ray a
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I think you've hit the nail on the head here. A lot of industry on-lookers may say "a bus is a bus, all passengers care about is a bus turning up on time, and gets them to where they want to go." In my opinion, that's all well and good, but the question is- does it actually inspire people to want to use the bus?
In essence, the industry has moved on from "just providing a bus." A good brand can make passengers feel part of the operation, a strong brand identity like Bluestar of Indigo captures the imagination- it's about the industry upping its game to become more appealing. I'm sure we're all in agreement, anything a bus company can do to show itself is only a good thing. If a brand is done properly, with route publicity, "aspirational" branding on the rears, facebook, twitter then the benefits are far greater than just providing a bus. I hate using the term, but its all about "modal-shift" nowdays.
Whilst London Transport may have had red buses since the year dot, I haven't seen the buses turn any heads until the start of the East London Transit routes- they looked different, the vehicles stood out from the bland red-ness of everything else, and had a complete brand look tied into the street furniture at stops. Its just a shame the interiors weren't given a "Stenning-esque" makover with some stunning publicity- that really would have completed the package.
There is a world of difference between basic livery and branding...
Basic livery should be reasonably functional, (hide muck, repair easily etc), yet eyecatching at the same time...It should be easily identifiable, and in the case of larger operators it should facilitate the transfer of vehicles between areas (still emphatically a factor, despite an earlier comment)...
Branding a product is far more than slapping on a fresh coat of paint and a snappy name...it's a complete package in which these factors play only a part...for example fares deals, frequency enhancements and finish can be just as important...together with other such obvious factors as accessibility (the marketing advantage isn't quite played out yet).
The branding name CAN be something with a local identity...or it CAN be just a simple "off the peg" identity on which the other features can be hung...I suspect "Pulse" in Worthing is one of the latter...certainly the route name with no number is supposed to have caught residents attention and drawn attention to the shift from half-hourly pensioners frequencies to a more vibrant ten-minute corridor for younger passengers too...
I'd guess that if you're looking at Stagecoach, Goldliner has to be a definitive piece of branding, and that certainly goes beyond simple livery issues...
The livery of a bus is just part of what is needed to create a brand. One really needs to look at the work of Frank Pick in the first half of the last century to see the concept of public transport as a brand could work. His influence touched almost everything that related to London's public transport through continuity and fitness of purpose.
National Express made a big song and dance about changing their whole brand and liveries (coaches and buses) in 2007... 3 years on and barely half of the buses in the West Midlands have been repainted. They still bear the name Travel West Midlands which was pointlessly changed from West Midlands Travel in the mid-90s. It just seems that National Express West Midlands like to throw money down the drain rather than actually concentrating on running a decent network. For months after the attempted Stagecoach takeover in October many buses were painted over in white so that any new companies could add their own design. The reputation of the National Express brand has decreased so much in the West Midlands (the second largest centrally run bus network in the UK) that it has actually started to affect people's perceptions of the coach side of the business.
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