After sharing Nice rebranding stories in my last blog, now it’s time for the Naughty list. I know this is the one you really wanted to read. These top three Naughty rebranding stories ended up being about fleet vehicles. Don’t worry, no sleigh stories here.
- Devious Drivers. You know the “How’s My Driving” information on the back of service vans and trucks? Our team noticed that drivers for a new client had swapped around the individual numbers in the phone number so motorists wouldn’t be able to report bad driving. When doing the rebranding, we solved the problem by printing the phone number as a whole instead of applying each number individually to the vehicles. Do you think calls about bad drivers have increased since we made it impossible for them to change the phone number on the back of their vehicles?
- Piecemeal Printers. Our clients sometimes hire us for only a portion of their rebranding projects. One company we worked with used its own printer to manufacture the graphics kits for rebranding its fleet vehicles. When we received the kits, there were 65 separate pieces to put together versus the 4 pieces that we would have provided. This caused the installation to take 4 hours per vehicle instead of 1½ hours, almost tripling the installation time and cost. And when you lined up the finished vehicles side by side, there were inconsistencies in appearance because it was impossible for installers to apply 65 separate pieces exactly the same, over and over again, on thousands of vehicles. The printer did what was easiest for him instead of looking holistically at the rebranding process and creating something easy to install.
- Scenery Blockers. Since I pay attention to rebranding projects around me, I often spot companies that don’t consider the needs of all stakeholders. One senior living community decided to rewrap its shuttles during a rebranding and used perforated material on the windows. The seniors riding in the shuttles hated it because the material ruined their views. Because the senior living community hadn’t done a pilot vehicle using the material to get feedback from its residents, the community ended up having to redo all the vehicles with a different design.
That ends my Naughty & Nice rebranding lists for 2015. Wishing you a happy and healthy 2016!
