Coquettish vans
Discussion
You must have seen these myriad works vans on the country's roads. I see them pottering along the motorway or around town, heading in the direction of some kind of work or tea break. They are emblazoned with a logo, and sometimes a company name, but neglect to inform you of either what the company does nor any contact details to find out.
Obviously, if it's BT or Royal Mail, you will know their trade. But what of LifeLine Services (I think it was) or Newberry (I think - they're just so forgettable)? Who are the customers of these workers and where do they find them? Surely giving some inkling of your trade and a number to call is the most basic of details you should offer if you bother to advertise on your vehicles at all. You might be just the service I'm looking for, but your van sails by with a green logo and a pretentious name; you have just lost one new customer because it fails to also say "Architectural Services" below. It's like they are assuming that they are a household name and, if you need them, you'll already know about it.
It's not like they are rare sights either. Just one short journey on the M5 will show me 20 or 30 such companies who have missed the point of signwriting.
Obviously, if it's BT or Royal Mail, you will know their trade. But what of LifeLine Services (I think it was) or Newberry (I think - they're just so forgettable)? Who are the customers of these workers and where do they find them? Surely giving some inkling of your trade and a number to call is the most basic of details you should offer if you bother to advertise on your vehicles at all. You might be just the service I'm looking for, but your van sails by with a green logo and a pretentious name; you have just lost one new customer because it fails to also say "Architectural Services" below. It's like they are assuming that they are a household name and, if you need them, you'll already know about it.
It's not like they are rare sights either. Just one short journey on the M5 will show me 20 or 30 such companies who have missed the point of signwriting.
I think demonstrates the companys marketing strategy.
If you can tell who they are and what they do, its probably a SME using the van to actually create enquiry.
If it looks flash and arty with no phone numbers and the bulk of the logo seemingly spread diagonally across the roof, it likley a large, national company who get the vans signwritten for continuance and to help with brand awareness, rather actually generate enquiry.
Nothing new though is it? It may have proliferated thanks to the ease of "wrapping" vehicles now. Email them your logo, they print it on massive bits of 3M vinyl and then wrap your car - as though its been painted. When your done with it, remove the wrapping and flog it.
If you can tell who they are and what they do, its probably a SME using the van to actually create enquiry.
If it looks flash and arty with no phone numbers and the bulk of the logo seemingly spread diagonally across the roof, it likley a large, national company who get the vans signwritten for continuance and to help with brand awareness, rather actually generate enquiry.
Nothing new though is it? It may have proliferated thanks to the ease of "wrapping" vehicles now. Email them your logo, they print it on massive bits of 3M vinyl and then wrap your car - as though its been painted. When your done with it, remove the wrapping and flog it.
308mate said:
If you can tell who they are and what they do, its probably a SME using the van to actually create enquiry.
Surely that's the point though...I don't know what I don't know and if they're not telling me (how to enquire) then I'm not interested in them...but I will be in their competitor who does. It does work online where I can quickly visit something that piques my interest but it's pretty s
t marketing on the road given the transient nature of passing vehicles.Didn't know about the wrapping, cool.
DrTre said:
308mate said:
If you can tell who they are and what they do, its probably a SME using the van to actually create enquiry.
Surely that's the point though...I don't know what I don't know and if they're not telling me (how to enquire) then I'm not interested in them...but I will be in their competitor who does. Red bull for instance. Would it help you to have RedBull's head office phone number and maybe an email address on each of their vans/cars?
EDF energy? You going to give them a call on your way down the M3 and see what offers they have on?
308mate said:
DrTre said:
308mate said:
If you can tell who they are and what they do, its probably a SME using the van to actually create enquiry.
Surely that's the point though...I don't know what I don't know and if they're not telling me (how to enquire) then I'm not interested in them...but I will be in their competitor who does. Red bull for instance. Would it help you to have RedBull's head office phone number and maybe an email address on each of their vans/cars?
EDF energy? You going to give them a call on your way down the M3 and see what offers they have on?
308mate said:
DrTre said:
308mate said:
If you can tell who they are and what they do, its probably a SME using the van to actually create enquiry.
Surely that's the point though...I don't know what I don't know and if they're not telling me (how to enquire) then I'm not interested in them...but I will be in their competitor who does. Red bull for instance. Would it help you to have RedBull's head office phone number and maybe an email address on each of their vans/cars?
EDF energy? You going to give them a call on your way down the M3 and see what offers they have on?
The point being, if I can't tell who they are/what they do then I'll ignore it (beyond thinking "I wonder what they do")...not great marketing whichever way you cut it.
Equally, call it curiosity, call it what you want...but as a potential consumer of their services increasing the brand awareness of, say, Carillion to say what they do is no bad thing...
Edited by DrTre on Wednesday 6th August 12:21
Case in point; the estate agents I used to sell my house had a luton van that I (and any client) could use for free when I moved.
They parked it around town to generate interest, beautiful, new, cracking graphics advertising the free use of the van (they also had a couple of Smart cars with the same) ...it was me that had to point out to them that they had no contact details at all beyond the company name...
ETA right enough it wasn't difficult to work out what the company actually did but even so...
They parked it around town to generate interest, beautiful, new, cracking graphics advertising the free use of the van (they also had a couple of Smart cars with the same) ...it was me that had to point out to them that they had no contact details at all beyond the company name...
ETA right enough it wasn't difficult to work out what the company actually did but even so...
Edited by DrTre on Wednesday 6th August 12:26
V8S said:
Those are household names with lots of advertising in other areas. I'm talking about vans where you say "who?" and wonder what they do. Companies who are not sufficiently large enough to need no introduction but think they are.
Its not that think they need no introduction. Its just that putting their contact detials would be pointless and their particular corporate image doesnt require that they identify their business on each and every van. Consider that they might be of a size that has many different businesses under one name. You want them to list the whole lot, just to satisfy your curiousity? 
As a regular road user, you probably know exactly who these people are and what they do.
What sort of person doesnt? The sort of person who doesnt need to probably. So why bother explaining? When businesses become of a certain size, if you dont already know their name, it probably doesnt matter to you. Particularly businesses that dont supply to end users.
ETA: as per your original example, they probably havent lost a customer for not telling you what they do. If their business is contracting to BT to install telephone lines, not only do you have no requiremnt to identify their business via their sign writing, but you may have already been a customer of theirs, without even knowing it.
Edited by 308mate on Wednesday 6th August 12:55
The company I work for has a pretty obscure name (name withheld, I'm afraid) that when I say who I work for, noone knows who they are.
Mention their name to our clients, however, and they do.
I guess that if you know who they are, you need to know - if you don't know, you probably don't need to. When you get to the level of, say, service companies, Joe Public doesn't need to know who, for example, "EDS" are - but senior management of large companies would.
If the company wants your services, they'll have something like "Blah blah - Joinery services" or equivalent.
Mention their name to our clients, however, and they do.
I guess that if you know who they are, you need to know - if you don't know, you probably don't need to. When you get to the level of, say, service companies, Joe Public doesn't need to know who, for example, "EDS" are - but senior management of large companies would.
If the company wants your services, they'll have something like "Blah blah - Joinery services" or equivalent.
308mate said:
V8S said:
Those are household names with lots of advertising in other areas. I'm talking about vans where you say "who?" and wonder what they do. Companies who are not sufficiently large enough to need no introduction but think they are.
Its not that think they need no introduction. Its just that putting their contact detials would be pointless and their particular corporate image doesnt require that they identify their business on each and every van. Consider that they might be of a size that has many different businesses under one name. You want them to list the whole lot, just to satisfy your curiousity? It is not to satisfy my curiosity. Most of the time I don't pay it any more heed than vans with all the details on. It is surely good business sense, if you do not have a well-known brand, to offer cursory information to potential customers as to what you do. Why build brand awareness if it is only of your name and not your trade.
If I want some building supplies, do I go to Hoskins Ltd - Building Supplies (call 0800 013456) or do I go to Hoskins Ltd (tiny swishy logo)?
Our works van has the company logo, email address and phone number only on it - not what we do, because it occasionally has very expensive kit inside it during the day and we don't want anyone coming along and thieving it! The contact details are there purely so that if it's been parked somewhere it shouldn't (happens occasionally, get told to park somewhere by company being visited only to find that the car park management disagree!) it's easy to contact us and ask for it to be moved.
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