Companies have a new way of thinking about their key asset: their brand. Previously, brands were primarily associated with products and services. Today, they’re seen as an asset that can be used across different media and formats to build associations with a target audience. That’s why many companies are embarking on an extensive rebranding journey – where the main objective is to extend the value of their brand while refreshing, strengthening, or widening its meaning. We will explore how brands are viewing their assets differently and how fleets are an essential component to these efforts.

Why Rebrand?

Rebranding can be used as a strategy to remove negative associations, reposition in a more favorable way, or extend the reach of a brand. Many companies have rebranded in the past decade because it’s an opportunity to update their brand’s image or reposition to stay relevant in the changing marketplace. In today’s fast-paced world, businesses need to stay relevant and contemporary – or risk being left behind by competitors. Here are a few of the major drivers behind companies choosing transformation:

1. Your Business Has New Products and/or Services – For companies that have expanded their product or service offerings, it could be time to rebrand and showcase those changes.
2. Too Many Deviations of Your Brand in the Marketplace – Consistent messaging across all media and marketing channels, including your fleet, is key to establishing a strong brand identity. If you have various iterations of past branding across assets and lack uniformity, you risk a diluted message in the marketplace. Consistency will help you build trust with customers and engage with them.
3. Your Current Graphics Need a Refresh – While premium graphics have the durability and longevity to last you seven to ten years, substandard materials can degrade much sooner and may need a refresh. If you observe lifting or peeling of the material, faded graphics from sun exposure, or missing letters in ad copy it’s important to consider the message that those conditions will convey about your brand.
4. You’ve Undergone a Merger or Acquisition – Merging companies most likely have differing brand perceptions in the marketplace that will need to be united under an entirely new brand umbrella. By displaying the identity of the new organization on vehicles, branding can be communicated to stakeholders and the public. Vehicle graphics can be a daunting task after a merger or acquisition. Signature offers tools to get it done quickly, cost-efficiently, and with minimal disruption to the company’s operations. Vehicle graphics can reinforce the message of the new organization, helping to build recognition and create a unified corporate identity.
5. You Need to Reach a New Audience – Vehicle graphics offer the opportunity to reach a larger audience and bolster your brand. Whether fleet branding covers vehicles or communicate their message though smaller, attention-grabbing designs, Signature’s design team specializes in making your vehicle branding work for you. Vehicle branding is not only an effective advertising strategy but also a cost-efficient way to widen your reach. The right design and placement can make vehicle graphics a powerful tool in widening your target market.

“The right design and placement can make vehicle graphics a powerful tool in widening your target market.“

Planning for a Large-Scale Rebrand

Without the proper tools, a project with geographically dispersed teams can be a daunting task. To ensure successful communication, collaboration, and coordination, it is imperative that the right knowledge and tools are integrated into the project. The use of the appropriate tools can help bridge potential distance-related gaps and ensure that the project is completed in an efficient and effective manner.

• Branding Goals and Objectives – Branding goals and objectives are essential in any business, large or small. A brand is more than just a logo or a catchy slogan – it is the identity of the company and its products, which customers can recognize and associate with. A successful branding strategy should create a consistent and recognizable image of the company, and set it apart from competitors.
• Number of Vehicles – as the volume of a fleet increases, the project complexities stack up with it. The necessary tools and a team of branding professionals committed to the success of a project is essential to a successful outcome.  
• Locations – Ensuring consistency across branding elements is a major factor to consider when attempting to create a powerful brand. It can be difficult to achieve, but when done correctly, it is a testament to the success of the branding. To guarantee a uniform brand identity across multiple sites, the knowledge and expertise of branding experts, custom-made tools, and advice from seasoned professionals are essential. 
• Vehicle Makes & Models – The variety of vehicles in a fleet corresponds to the number of designs necessary to appropriately brand each one. It is necessary to have designers proficient in the art of carrying branding across every vehicle type for a branding campaign to be successful.
• Start Date and Desired Completion Date – A comprehensive, precise timeline serves as a launchpad project managers, marketers, designers, manufacturers, fleet managers, and installers to hit the ground running when beginning a rebrand project.
• Budgetary and Operational Constraints – Large scale branding and rebranding projects introduce project scope constraints with facilities that cannot handle the volume of manufacturing and project management that come with it. Signature’s operations are engineered to cater to the successful and timely execution of high-volume branding endeavors.
• Design and Vehicle Layouts – Crafting an effective vehicle design necessitates an eye for detail and a familiarity with the rules of fleet design to modify branding in the most suitable manner for the three-dimensional and moving space that vehicle graphics inhabit.
• Project Management – A centralized database is your best bet when it comes to managing a fragmented project, particularly when you need to manage assets such as vehicles across numerous locations, layouts, and status updates.
• Issue Escalation Procedures – When taking on big fleet branding jobs, it is normal to face difficulties. Keeping all lines of communication open and having a plan for solving issues quickly is the key to success in this type of project.  

“To guarantee a uniform brand identity across multiple sites, the knowledge and expertise of branding experts, custom-made tools, and advice from seasoned professionals are essential.“

5 Factors That Make Fleet Branding Successful

When you’re looking at rebranding your fleet, there are many ways to approach this process. The best approach is often by “staying true to who your company is while making improvements.” This means using vehicles that reflect the same values and mission as your company, while leveraging new digital capabilities and technologies to improve the customer experience.

• Visual Identity – A consistent visual identity is essential for branding vehicles and can have a significant impact on how consumers perceive the product. This can involve using the brand’s logo on the cars, using consistent fonts, and adding colors to the vehicles that match the brand’s identity.
• Brand Story – A brand’s story can be used to help create a connection between customers and a company through the vehicles. Many brands have a story they want to tell, and the vehicles can help bring this story to life.
• Ad-copy – In some cases, ad-copy is present on the side of a vehicle. This can help passengers and drivers understand what the company does and what benefits it offers.
• Customer Engagement – Customers often want to learn more about a company’s vehicles, making it important to engage with them in a positive way.
• Social Media – Vehicles can be used to promote events, post pictures, and increase engagement with customers through social media channels.

3 Strategies That Help branded Vehicles Succeed

A well-branded vehicle can help a company stand out from the competition. It’s important to make sure your vehicles are properly branded and that your company’s branding efforts are effective. What brands are looking for is consistency across all aspects of the brand, including visual identity and the company’s social media accounts. With the help of the right branding tools, you can create a consistent image across all of your vehicles. Make sure to focus on the right things, and the right people will see and remember it. If your fleet is in need of a rebrand, consider one of these strategies:

• Engage With Customers – Customers like to ask questions about a vehicle’s purpose, what it represents, and how it can help them.
• Connect With Passengers – Passengers in a branded car can have a positive experience with your company if you engage with them in a positive way.
• Communicate With Drivers – Drivers play an important role in helping bring the brand to life.

How to Avoid Project Pitfalls and Mistakes with brandRESPONSE

It can be a daunting task to maintain your brand’s integrity. When trying to keep track of all of your branded assets across numerous locations, it may seem like a mission impossible. If you want to alter your brand or even buy a company, it could be a risk to manage everything internally. That’s why we offer our services as your single point of contact to help you maintain brand compliance. With our technology platform and reliable process, we’ll work with you through all your branding endeavors to be sure that all the details of each branded item in every location are taken into account and incorporated into your brand’s dashboard. We’ll create options for each asset type, timeline, and quality objectives, guaranteeing cost certainty. When your plan is all set, we’ll execute your brand transformation. We provide close supervision while you can check the updates in real-time from any place. With your dashboard, you now have the possibility to do compliance checks whenever needed, making it easier to ensure consistency.

Conclusion

Some of the most successful brands in recent years have followed a rebranding process. In fact, most companies that have done a complete rebranding have seen increases in revenue and brand recognition, and have built a stronger brand value. This post has provided a basic overview of how brands are looking at their assets differently and how fleets of cars are being branded as part of this movement. If you are thinking about rebranding your company or your fleet, you should carefully plan how you will use your vehicles to help build your brand – while you are at it, make sure you do your research so you don’t invest money in a new identity that ends up not working out. When you have a strong brand, it can make all the difference. When a company decides to do a complete rebranding, it is a significant investment of time and money, but it can be well worth it. The goal is to give a fresh new look to a company or product and to strengthen its identity and connection with potential customers. This can boost brand loyalty, increase brand recognition, and boost brand value. While doing a complete rebranding takes a lot more work than simply changing the logo and some of the visual elements on cars, it can be well worth the effort.

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