(01 Oct 2013, 6:49 am)Daniel wrote Without getting too off-topic (we have a thread for discussing and debating effectiveness of branding), it must first be noted that the ex-"Blaydon Racers" Renowns did not receive a repaint - just received vinyls on top of its already yellow base livery. This in itself has increased the cost-effectiveness of the the "Centurion" brand. Of course 5164-66 all received repaints, with 5164 and 5166 going yellow, and 5165 going red. If all of these Renowns were to have received a repaint, whichever service they could have gone to would have had to generate enough revenue to pay for these repaints before anything else - a significantly higher cost than what it was to simply brand them as "Centurion".
Customers know that, if a service is not branded, they should expect a "Northern" branded vehicle. Many customers also know that if vehicles are VOR (which they often are), they should exclude a "Northern" branded vehicle from appearing on their service. It is when a branded vehicle appears off-route where there is a problem, but of course Go North East have to reduce running costs on Sundays as much as possible to make services commercially viable. All operators do this (it's the reason why you won't see many Stagecoach ALX300s out in Sunderland on Sundays for example), it is just more noticeable when Go North East do it as they're essentially appearing off-route. The former is being worked on at present and hopefully in a few months time, "odd workings" should be far less frequent, and if a breakdown occurs, whatever vehicle is closest can attend for one run before a proper replacement can be organised (a "Northern" branded vehicle). The latter probably isn't being worked on, despite it irritating many of us (myself included) so much.

If Go North East were to have repainted and branded the two deckers that have recently transferred to Percy Main as per scholar requirements on services 17/307, just after applying special M-Ticket vinyls to 3803 back in April of this year, wouldn't they just be adding to the cost of the "Centurion" 17 service? More revenue to get back, and another 'pointless repaint' as you mentioned a few weeks ago..?
Out of all of this, the 17 has gained an additional spare vehicle (5166). 5164 has been transferred to Saltmeadows to act as a spare for "Pulse" services 67/69 (which will hopefully improve the reliability of these services), but 5166 - so far - has remained at Percy Main.
Do note that Go North East are now also generating revenue by the use of advertisements on these vehicles - as of August this year (see photo here). This again will help with how cost-effective the branding on this service is as it will again be generating revenue easily.

Go North East are happy because they're making a profit, customers are happy because they have a service which has a brand identity.

Well, where do I begin? I think first of all, I'm aware of the Renowns weren't repainted but it's just I think they might as well of branded the two vehicles and a full centurion fleet to match the PVR, obviously northern vehicles will appear from time to time I'm not daft but this means that many vehicles arent branded each day. And if as you say 5166 is a spare it should be branded or into Northern. About Sundays and evenings interworking it's something which we could all discuss until we're blue in the face. Drifters on the 42, Waggonways on the 34A, North Tyne Links on the 17/17A the list goes on. But what is the solution GNE are never going to use extra vehicles despite the fact they argueably should. My point is that customers aren't getting brand identity on the centurion service, and some other services. The 61 is another example.. The 'Drifter' 61 since Novemeber 2012 changes the drifter vehicles started interworking with the 38's meaning it was always having at least two runs an hour 'Northern' Branded. Even when the interworking stopped drifter cadets continued to see use on the 38. And then since June 2013 changes the service is never drifter branded and uses the simplicity Versa's.

Branding is a mess at GNE.