(05 Feb 2017, 11:34 pm)stagecoachbusdepot wrote I agree re: pointless brands but SIDIS and Showstopper do/did have relevance (Showstopper being related to the Empire which I think was at one point on the route, and more importantly funded the branding!).

Poorer attempts for me were 'the NINE' and whatever the other brand was that was essentially silver numbers stuck on a tatty purple solar.  Silver arrows, green arrow, blue arrow are all a bit meaningless (I know silver arrows were designed off red arrows, but still).  Whey Aye Five O is just awful, as is Simplicity (though both do have some loose meaning related to the route - or did until the Five-0 was translated to 5).  Coast & Country as has been discussed previously would work if only it went to the coast.  Ten is dull but works, and I always thought Fab56 was weak - but clearly its effective as its one of the few originals to survive barely changed.  And don't get me started on indigo.

Other than those though, the remaining brands are pretty strong.  It's a shame if Blaydon Racers is being abandoned as a brand as it does have a lot of local meaning and works well for a bus service.

I don't think having a 'real meaning' has an impact on the effectiveness of a brand. The 'Blaydon Racers' as a name holds local historical meaning. But a quickly cobbled together vynal on the side of a mid-life Citaro doesn't engage the passenger/customer. Most passengers would have still identified the route as the 49 rather than 'the racer' - hence the brand wasn't dropped. 

You could name a route 'sausage' and it could be a success if it was done correctly. If the company really committed to marketing sausage. Branded the buses in an eye catching sausage livery, the sausage theme was continued inside the bus and all marketing was sausage themed. Yes, everyone would say it was ridiculous, but at the end of the day they would be taking about it, which translates into people getting on it. The purpose of a brand is to make money, not please people.