Max Report Template s1

Project no.: 518368 Project acronym: MAX Project title: Successful Travel Awareness Campaigns and Mobility Management Strategies

Integrated Project

6.2 Sustainable Development 1.6.2 Sustainable Surface Transport Objective 3.1.1.1.3 Advancing Knowledge on innovative measures in urban transport

Title of Report: Branding in Travel Awareness

Period covered: Date of preparation:

Start date of project: 1 Oct. 2006 Duration:

Version: Final Prepared by: Lyle Bailie International Checked by: Verified by: Status: Final Dissemination level: Public

Project co-funded by the European Commission within the Sixth Framework Programme (2002-2008) MAX - introduction

MAX ran from 2006 to 2009 and was the largest research project on Mobility Management within the EU’s sixth framework programme. The MAX consortium, of 28 partners, served to extend, standardise and improve Mobility Management – it did so in the fields of quality management, campaigns, evaluation, modelling and land use planning. Much of the work was directly endorsed by the European Platform on Mobility Management (EPOMM) and continues to be supported by EPOMM – in order to provide truly Europe-wide expansion, standardisation and dissemination of Mobility Management.

The work has resulted in several products and services that can be downloaded via www.epomm.org.

For more information, please visit www.epomm.org or www.max-success.eu

Max Partners

Austrian Mobility Research, FGM-AMOR Mobiel 21 – Belgium (project leader) – Austria ILS Institut für Landes- und Eric N. Schreffler, Transportation Consultant – USA Stadtentwicklungsforschung gGmbH – Germany Equipo de Tecnicos en Transporte y Territorio, FIT Consulting – Italy ETT – Spain Lyle Bailie International Limited – United Kingdom synergo – Switzerland Timo Finke Consult Aachen – Germany Traject – Belgium Austrian Standards Institute – Austria Trivector – Sweden Universities University of Maribor, Faculty of Civil University of Piraeus Research Centre – Greece Engineering – Slovenia Cracow University of Technology – Poland Aristotle University of Thessaloniki – Greece University of Lyon – CNRS-LET – France Edinburgh Napier University – United Kingdom University of Central Lancashire – United Kingdom Otto-von-Guericke-University of Magdeburg – Germany University of Giessen, Institute for applied and Vilnius Gedimas Technical empirical social research – Germany University – Lithuania Demonstrators Almada Municipal Energy Agency, Almada Municipality – Portugal AGENEAL – Portugal Lazio Transport Company COTRAL – Italy Kortrijk Municipality – Belgium Tallinn Municipality – Estonia Munich Municipality – Germany Table of Contents

1 Introduction...... 5

1.1 What is a brand?...... 5 1.2 How a Brand Works...... 6 1.3 Branding in Travel Awareness...... 8

2 Case Studies...... 10

2.1 Metro, West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (WYPTE)...... 10 2.2 Wiener Linien, Vienna, Austria...... 10 2.3 Transports Metropolitan de Barcelona (TMB)...... 11 2.4 Translink, Northern Ireland...... 11

3 Conclusions...... 15

4 References...... 16

D:\Docs\2018-04-06\0bb0432db4322e268be08bfff9aa081a.doc

/ 15 1 Introduction

Brands are part of everyday life: thousand of books and articles have been written on the subject of brands and branding – and thousands more have yet to be written.

The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of what a brand means, how it works and to give some examples of ‘best practice’ application in the travel awareness sector.

In the writing of the report, a number of sources have been referred to, including UITP (International Association of Public Transport), the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising), as well as a host of public transport organisations and travel awareness bodies throughout the UK and the European mainland.

1.1 What is a brand?

Put simply, a successful brand can be defined as “…a name, symbol, design, or some combination, which identifies the ‘product’ of a particular organisation as having sustainable differential advantage.” 1

Differential advantage meaning that customers have a reason for preferring that brand to that of a competitor. Sustainable meaning an advantage that is not easily copied by competitors.

It is important to say here that, while branding is often associated with a logo, it is much more complex than this and should not be limited to a mere graphic design. A beautifully designed logo will mean little to a customer who has been kept standing in the rain by a late bus!

In the consumer’s mind the brand is, quite simply, a set of expectations: a promise. Jacques Chevron, the founder partner of the brand management consultancy company JP Group in US describes a brand as “a covenant with the consumer, a promise that the brand and the products it names will conform to the expectations that have been created over time. A brand exists only because of its commitment to its internal values. Without that commitment, it is nothing but a glorified product name.” 2 Therefore, tangible elements such as product, name, logo, packaging and intangible components such as values, visions and promises must come together to make a brand unique.

/ 15 1.2 How a Brand Works

Brands are stored as ‘representations’ across the brain and these are stored in a structured way 3 :  Knowledge (the brain asks questions such as What is it? What does it look like? What does it do? and so on)  Experience (the brain asks questions such as How would I use it?)

 Emotion (the brain asks questions such as How do I feel about it?)

The more balanced the representations, the stronger the brand. It is, therefore, crucial that brands:  Have clear symbols and cues to identify what the brand is

 Make clear what the brand experience is like

 Make the audience feel good about the brand

To have influence, campaigns need ENGAGEMENT – this doesn’t mean that the audience has to think hard about the advertising or brand; it could simply mean just enjoying it. Emotion and distinctiveness are the big cues of engagement.

Simply being there is not enough!

Furthermore, the message must be personally relevant i.e. it must resonate by tapping into the audience’s issues of importance. In general, people will become more involved in decision-making regarding [products] that have high personal relevance and involve ‘high risk’, for example cars, computers, or clothes. Other product decisions will have low levels of involvement, for example products such as light-bulbs, matches or toilet rolls. Where consumers are making a high-involvement decision they will generally search for more alternatives, carry out more evaluation, and look for advice. The opposite is true of low-involvement decisions. The level of consumer involvement is determined by a combination of personal and situational factors. In other words, it will depend on the importance of the decision to the consumer and the context in which the decision is being made. Customer involvement, therefore, is particularly important in understanding the power of branding. 4

/ 15 Crucially, the brand needs to own a motivational emotion which creates a desire in the minds of the target audience.

Here’s what DuPlessis says about the ‘brand’:

As with all things we experience, exposure to a brand will trigger all its related feelings, associations and memories to create an initial emotional response that then shapes our more considered reaction. The origin of these associations does not matter – it can be nostalgia created by childhood experiences, antipathy based on who we see using the brand, or simply a positive reaction to the look of the product. All these things have the potential to shape our more rational consideration [of a purchase].

Too many theories about advertising are based on the belief that brand associations are buried in our subconscious, and assume that complex psychological methods are required to dredge them up. A far better analogy, consistent with real-life observation, is an overstocked cupboard to which the brand is key. Hearing the

/ 15 brand mentioned, seeing the logo, watching the ad – any of these can turn the key and open the cupboard door. As the door opens, memories and associations will tumble out, and they will continue to do so as long as the door is kept open. Advertising memories are among the items cascading out; there is no separate cupboard specifically for associations created from advertising. In fact, unless advertising memories are kept in the same cupboard as all other brand associations, they will not benefit the brand in any way. The Advertised Mind, DuPlessis 5

It is clear, therefore, that the brand should evoke in the consumer emotional feelings, rather than a clinical or rational understanding: the brand can communicate the rational without actually explaining it.

Brand Linkage 5

A crucial consideration in brand management is to make certain that any advertising achieves brand linkage. Clients’ money can so easily be wasted because consumers are able to remember the advertisement but not the brand being advertised – or worse, the advertising makes them think of a competitor brand.

With this in mind, any brand mark must be properly branded in its advertising.

The concept of the ‘effective length’ of an advertisement is defined as the length of the advertisement from the first moment attention is engaged and the viewer realises which brand is being advertised. Therefore, if an advertisement is 30 seconds long but the brand is only ‘mentioned’ 15 seconds into the ad, then its ‘effective length’ is only 15 seconds. Setting the branding early in the advertising will mean that any advertising will work much harder to establish the brand in the minds of the target audience(s).

1.3 Branding in Travel Awareness

There would appear to be few documented examples of branding specific to Travel Awareness. However, if we extrapolate the area of Travel Awareness out to mean Public Transport we then have some very useful points of reference.

Over the following pages a number of sources have been referred to, including UITP (International Association of Public Transport), the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising), as well as a host of public transport organisations and travel awareness bodies.

In its core brief 6, How to build, strengthen or manage a brand in public transport, UITP describes branding as “a set of activities which define a consistent product or service based on identified customer needs; associate appropriate values and imagery with the organisation, product or service; communicate consistently through naming, design, advertising and promotions with the market place”.

How successful a brand is starts with its role in the internal culture of an organisation: it has to be right on the inside before it can be right on the outside! The next measure of strength lies in how the ‘face’ of the organisation interacts with its customers. Unfortunately, there is often a deficit between how an organisation would like its brand to be perceived and how it is actually perceived. It is clear, therefore, that the closer the correlation between these two elements – brand identity and brand image – the better it for the brand.

/ 15 The public transport market is no different from any other market insofar as the consumer has a choice: the choice to buy one product over another, or, in this case, the choice to use private transport versus public transport. This means that public transport organisations need to be customer focused.

The UITP brief explains that in developing a strong brand the organisation must identify its vision (the role and position of public transport in the greater context of urban mobility), its mission (what the organisation is going to do to achieve that vision), its values (what the core principles of the organisation are that the brand will use to guide its mission), and the brand personality (which human features the brand seeks to project).

The best way to illustrate how a successful brand works is by way of demonstration of actual case studies; genuine applications.

It is recommended that the organisations featured here are contacted for further insight.

/ 15 2 Case Studies

2.1 Metro, West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (WYPTE).

Metro is the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Authority (PTA) and Executive (PTE). The Authority sets policies to make public transport in West Yorkshire, reliable, easy to understand and use, accessible, attractive, affordable, safe and secure and efficient. 7

Under the Transport Act 1980, bus systems in the UK were deregulated and privatised. With deregulation, WYPTE went from being both operator and coordinator of public transport within its area to an agency coordinating public transport without responsibility on commercial operation. This meant that the organisation no longer had influence over all public transport services in the area; a position that caused some customer confusion.

To help position WYPTE’s new role it embarked on a branding strategy within a comprehensive marketing approach aiming at “encouraging the use of public transport by providing its use in partnership with others, particularly emphasising its role as an environmentally friendly alternative to the car”.

The visible manifestation of this re-branding was the development of a new logo of white M on a red circle to create a strong presence that promoted sustainable integrated transport.

Branding throughout bus stations, stops, travel centres, telephone information services and printed information services, the authority succeeded in building a strong image of Metro as an entry point to public transport. In measurable terms, the organisation’s brand identity achieved a spontaneous recognition of 86%.

2.2 Wiener Linien, Vienna, Austria.

Wiener Linien runs the largest part of the public transit network in Vienna.

The company has been extensively developing its branding since the early 90s within a comprehensive and offensive marketing strategy.

The brand has evolved from a position in the 1970s when all mobile citizens could travel with Wiener Linien; to a position in 2000 where citizens wished to travel with them. The organisation’s objective by 2010 is to have citizens loving to travel as Wiener Linien passengers.

/ 15 In 1995, despite successes in the areas of technical and operational competence, there was evidence that all was not so good with customer perception of, and personal relationship with, the Linien brand. To address this, the company undertook branding across all marketing activities to ensure that “customers will experience the company’s self evident aspects in a consistent way, in terms of product, cost, sales and related communication”. In addition to the logo and slogan “The city is yours. Wiener Linien”, the company chose a uniform and homogenous use of marketing tools and gave the brand a human touch to help make customers personally engaged with the company (Wiener Linien clearly recognized the value of how a brand’s strength lies in its public ‘face’).

Successful results were not long in coming with a change in market share of public transport from 29% in 1992 to 33% in 2000. Their target is 35% by 2010. By 1999 and 2000, indicators of passenger satisfaction all rose by more than 20%.

2.3 Transports Metropolitan de Barcelona (TMB).

TMB is the main public transit authority in Barcelona. It runs most of the metro and local bus lines in the city and its metropolitan area.

This brand was updated to improve public perception of the service. Research demonstrated that customers of the underground and bus services could relate to the individual products, but not to the TMB brand. Most people used public transport because they had no alternative, not because it added to their quality of life, resulting in a poor image.

TMB’s strategy was to change all this by elevating public transport in the hearts and minds of the consumer to a place where it was something much more positive than an unfavourable choice to private transport. This was achieved by refreshing the company’s corporate identity, establishing new brand values, and communicating the changes via a new communications strategy. The traditional TMB logo was replaced with a new dynamic symbol and a comprehensive approach to re-branding and publicity was defined. Follow-up and control mechanisms were established for tracking and managing the impact of the actions on both external and internal customers for the three years following this action.

In 2006, TMB carried over 561 million passengers. 8

2.4 Translink, Northern Ireland

Translink is the brand name of the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company (NITHCo), a public corporation which provides the public transport in Northern Ireland.

The following presents excerpts and adaptations from an entry for the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising Effectiveness Awards in 2007. 9

/ 15 In February 2005, the Citybus brand disappeared to be replaced by Metro – a more modern, contemporary brand with a dramatic magenta livery. With impending changes to the delivery of public transport, Translink had taken the strategic decision to re-brand and restructure as a means of securing their position on key routes and protect them from the potential future challenge by other operators.

The communications challenges for the Metro brand could be summarised as:  introducing the new brand as a seamless transition from Citybus to Metro  positioning the brand as a viable alternative to the private car  promoting and encouraging change of habit – specifically amongst commuters  growing passenger journeys and revenue

The introduction of Metro brought new vehicle livery, with magenta as the primary colour (the old livery was red).

Metro livery

Citybus livery

This was a bold move, but also an opportunity to “own” the colour and take full advantage of its presence. The same magenta was adopted for the communications campaign – thereby linking the physical manifestation of the brand with the communications. This also had the advantage of making the campaign appear much bigger than budgets would allow, because the actual buses and their livery became integrated with the campaign.

The launch of Metro meant more than a new name and new livery: a new network structure was introduced, making it simpler and easier to understand and use. The new name was deemed to be more modern, contemporary and urban and the strong vibrant livery a good platform for “new” positioning and for brand recognition.

/ 15 The “let's go Metro” campaign launched in March 2005. By March 2006 there had been an increase in patronage of over 10%, equating to an additional 2,106,561 passenger journeys and delivering in the first year a third of the targeted growth.

The successes in increased bus usage must be viewed in the context of:  At the end of 2005, there were 917,399 vehicles licensed in Northern Ireland, 83% of which were Private Light Goods (primarily private cars). Over the period from 1992 to 2005 Northern Ireland had outstripped England, Scotland and Wales in terms of increases in licensed vehicle stock.  Increases in the number of Northern Ireland households owning a car increased from 73% in 2001/2002 to 76% in 2005/2006. Furthermore, 32% of all households in Northern Ireland own two or more cars: this represents an increase of 5% on the 2001/2002 figure.  Increases in the issue of driving licences: the number of ordinary licences issued in the year 2005/2006, directly corresponding to Metro's first year, experienced a massive spike with almost 100,000 more licences issued that year than in the previous two years.  ‘Competitor’ industry activity: figures indicate that the motor trade's advertising expenditure in Northern Ireland during 2005 was £19.3 million (Source: Advertising Association Statistics Yearbook, population weighted).

By comparison, the media spend for Metro during the same year equated to 0.75% of that: in effect, the motor trade spent over 13,000 times more on advertising than did Metro.

There is no doubt that the twelve months following the introduction of Metro were both highly successful for the brand and notably significant for long term development of public transport in the city. The habitual change that was delivered during that period has created a platform for ongoing growth and achievement of the long-term targets set out for Translink. The communications campaign continued for the following twelve months at a similar level and within a broadly similar context. A further 3% growth (provisional) by March 2007, in addition to the 10.6% from year one, was added. It was so observed over the period that passenger profiles changed with a much greater predominance of the commuter-type more normally associated with car travel.

Translink’s latest campaign for Metro, Metro Connects, centres on an animated TV commercial featuring Belfast landmarks, aimed at allowing viewers to make their own personal associations with Metro. 10

Translink describe their new campaign as a first for a transport operator in Northern Ireland, in that no bus or people will be incorporated!

Instead, ‘Metro Connects’ features magenta ribbons as the Metro network travelling through Belfast with buildings and landmarks of the City highlighted. The ‘connect’ theme highlights the various ways that Metro contributes to the city by:  Providing a range of journey connections for individual passengers  Connecting local communities,  Connecting local businesses/stakeholders

/ 15  Connected to contributing to an improved environment for all  Connecting with Belfast as a vibrant, growing and modern European City

Newly released figures show over 20% growth on Metro services since February 2005 equating to 500,000 passengers now using Metro services each week and 38,000 fewer cars on the road! 10

/ 15 3 Conclusions

Branding plays an immense role in the lives of every one, every day of our lives. We make important decisions based on brands; many of us live our lives based on brands and what they promise. Branding, therefore, is no less important in Travel Awareness than it is in any other sector.

If sustainable mobility is to be achieved, public transport operators need to improve the attractiveness of their offering among those wedded to private transport.

And a strong brand has the ability to help improve the perception of the offering in question… just think of the strength of car brands: in 2007, car brands (Toyota, Mercedes, BMW, Honda) represent one fifth of the Top 20 brands in the world.11 This is what sustainable mobility is up against!

What these car brands – and virtually all of the other most valuable brands in the world – have in common is that they don’t sell products or services; they sell dreams, a better way of life. This was best put by Charles Revson, founder of the cosmetics giant Revlon, who said “in the factory we make cosmetics, but in the store we sell hope.”

One final thought for consideration – however sustainable mobility positions itself, the message should be careful about not ‘demonising’ the car – most of the audience own one; love one, even!

/ 15 4 References

1. Excellence in Advertising: The IPA Guide to Best Practice (Chartered Institute of Marketing) 2. How Much for That Brand in the Window? Thoughts about brand valuation, Jacques Chevron, 2000. 3. Millward Brown 4. Marketing, Third Edition, Donal Rogan, Gill & Macmillan, 2007 5. The Advertised Mind, Erik Du Plessis, Millward Brown, 2005. 6. UITP (International Association of Public Transport) How to build, strengthen or manage a brand in public transport, January, 2003. 7. West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive. 8. Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB). 9. Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, UK. 10. Translink, Northern Ireland. 11. All brands are not created equal, Best Global Brands 2007, Business Week, Interbrand 2007.

Other Reference Points

Campaign for Better Transport

Excellence in Brand Communication, The ICA (Institute of Communications and Advertising, Canada) Guide to Best Practice, Rutherford et al.

Travelwise

UITP (International Association of Public Transport) Marketing as an investment in greater client satisfaction and better benefits, September, 2002.

UK Bus Awards

Wiener Linien