My TFGM Network and Brand Ideas

[Mikeonthebuses]

My TFGM Network and Brand Ideas
TFGM Marketing Ideas

Currently, our bus network is confusing and not fully accessible and I would like to showcase my ideas on ways to improve the marketing materials, routes, and anything relating to the operations of TFGM Bus Network to make it simple and fully accessible to all and attract more people on to the bus network and out of cars.

This first part is going to be looking at the Marketing and Branding for the routes that I would introduce if I was in charge of the transformation once the bus network fully comes under the control of TFGM.

The Brands

Local Runner | Brand Colour Orange & Black

The Local Runner network will focus on serving local communities and amenities to connect them to the wider commercial network and amenities, this brand would see the reintroduce of the Little Gem Routes and their other brand counterparts from the 1980s with most routes using Mellor Strata Minibuses to allow unlimited routing option for the tighter residential streets where the big commercial buses currently struggle to operate or miss out completely.

The whole purpose of the Local Runner Brand is to provide a least one of these following connection options | Transport Interchanges, Education, Leisure, Retail, Industrial Estates, Hospitals or Local Town or Village Centre.

Theses routes would operate a maximum frequency of every 30 minutes 7 days a week to encourage more people onto the network by offering direct, simple and frequent services to the wider community.

The brand colour scheme would appear on Timetable, Bus Stop information, Flag Poles, The Vehicles and the network maps to showcase the route purpose and brand to people who use the network for the first time.

TFGM Express | Brand Colour Gold & Black

The TFGM Express brand is a return of the most popular GM Buses Express services and using the examples from the popular express and long distanced service provided by Transdev. The routes would be a mixture of routes with Non-Stop Sections, Limited Stop offering.

Theses routes would operate a maximum frequency of Every 20 Minutes of Daytime and Every 30 Minutes of evenings 7 Days a week to encourage more people onto the network by offering direct, simple and frequent services to the wider community.

The vehicle would be high specifications with a classy Gold and Black livery to promote the luxury nature of theses routes

The brand colour scheme would appear on Timetable, Bus Stop information, Flag Poles, The Vehicles and the network maps to showcase the route purpose and brand to people who use the network for the first time.

Hospital to Hospital Network | Brand Colour Blue & Black

The Hospital to Hospital Network is a new concept that would see routes connecting 2 hospital tigether to provide a seamless transition from one hospital to another hospital. This concept is much needed in Greater Manchester due to the wide spread of Hospital Services.

The long term plan of the network is to provide a 24/7 service on all routes for visitors, patients and staff to access the hospitals all day and all night without the need to change to another service.

The brand colour scheme would appear on Timetable, Bus Stop information, Flag Poles, The Vehicles and the network maps to showcase the route purpose and brand to people who use the network for the first time.

Commercial Network | Brand Red & Black

The Commercial Network would be simplified with one brand colour and simpler routes due to the other brands being introduced to the network to help separate the service offerings.

The Commercial Network would focus on Main Road routes and direct routes from point A to B without going all around the houses to cover for local routes that have been withdrawn. Also, the commercial network would work alongside the TFGM express brand to provide a stopping service along a common section of the TFGM Express route.

The vehicles would carry a Red & Black branding which is a nod to Manchester City Transport days and black being the present-day colour option for TFGM. The interior would be a semi-high specification

The brand colour scheme would appear on Timetable, Bus Stop information, Flag Poles, The Vehicles and the network maps to showcase the route purpose and brand to people who use the network for the first time.

The Bus Stop Flags

Currently, the use of Bus Stop is underused especially on busy bus corridors with multiple services operating along one road.

My proposal for the flags are simple, I would introduce coloured tiles to break up the services and make it clear with the brand of service would stop at that stop.

For example, you would have stop with 5 services 3 Commercial Network routes, 1 Local Runner and 1 TFGM Express. You would have 3 Red Tiles, 1 Orange Tile and 1 Gold tile with a service number on the tile.

The Network Map
The same principle as the bus stop flags, I would use the colours of the brands on the network map to showcase the classifications and branding on the routes to make selecting a route much easier than before.

For example, if you wanted to get the Manchester to Uppermill Express you would look for 184 which have a Gold Background on the map and a Gold Tile on the bus stops it stops at.

End Words
My Network branding and marketing ideas are only in the early stages of development as I don’t know the best avenue to showcase my ideas and get my ideas out there before TFGM Ruins the network even further as I have got a lot of experience and knowledge about how to best plan a functional and simple network and how to make it fully accessible to all.