Vehicle Branding 101
by Shane on 14/04/09 at 3:33 pm
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Since we had the Yuppiemobile branded, I’ve been taking note of what other companies are doing with their vehicle branding. This was sent to me by one of the Yuppiechef team who spotted this pork delivery van in the UK over the weekend.
So unless you are proudly ‘Babe Killers’, why would you put a picture of cute little piglets on the side of your van? That’s enough to get the animal rights community staking out your business premises.
I may not be an expert on vehicle branding, but I have sat behind many a dismally branded vehicle in afternoon traffic (I would love to give you some examples, but I can’t remember any of them!).
Here are my dos and don’ts on vehicle branding.
1# Have a strong concept - You want your cab to stand out from the rest don’t you? Make sure it doesn’t look like every one else’s wheels. The design needs to be strong and worth looking at. Is the design going to get people talking? Will they double take?
2# Make sure they know what you are selling – Don’t try and be too clever (read cryptic) – this is not a game show. You’ve got a few second to make sure they get it. Red Bull does this extremely well – any questions that they’re a drinks company?
3# Make sure your contact details are memorable – short website address, easy to remember telephone number – the alpha numeric numbers work well for this eg. 0861 CLOWNS
4# Avoid using photographs – most photos that I have seen used on vehicle branding look terrible. They fade faster than straight vinyl and generally they over complicate the design concept.
If you are in the food business please be extra careful about using photographs of food as part of your design. Food is incredibly difficult to photograph well, and if the sun fades it one little bit, it looks worse than something you would get dished up at Polsmoor Prison. – which makes me want to know about your company even less. See picture below of that faded food. Awful stuff.
5# Select your fonts carefully – Maybe you’re ‘font blind’ and you just don’t know it yet. If you love Comic Sans then you need to make sure you never use any of America’s Most Fonted. Never. It’s not even funny. Ask your designer to help you with this – don’t try and font it alone.
6# Consider all branding ramifications – enough said.
7# Humor is good, if executed well – we all like a good laugh, but we also can’t handle corny humour. It’s a fine line and you need to consider who your audience is. Avoid corny lines and play this card very carefully. I have seen variations of the infamous ‘Plumber Branding’ - you might find it pretty cool and hilarious – but not everyone does.
The best strategy would be to get a mock-up of the design done as realistically as possible, and then flash it in front of people who aren’t familiar with your business. Do they get it straight away? If not, it’s back to the drawing board…
Shane Dryden is the 'Maven' at Ideate. The driving-force of Yuppiechef, Shane loves to write on advertising and innovation. He spots the non-obvious stuff behind the obvious, which seems obvious, but isn’t really that obvious (obviously). View more articles by Shane.
