(14 Feb 2014, 9:31 pm)Dan wrote In some cases, but certainly not all.
The same sort of thing can be applied to Arriva or Stagecoach...
It is snowing, and Betty is waiting for the bus. It is dark, and the destination displays on vehicles are frosted up and illegible.
Betty usually gets a small bus home - something like a Solo. She has become accustomed to this vehicle type. A bus approaches, but it is a double decker rather than a small bus. Betty assumes it's a different bus service and lets it go straight past her.
Betty now has to wait for the next bus to appear.
Trent Barton are the company that have proven that branding does work! Look at their business model and you can see that their brands keep going from strength to strength. However, Go North East is a larger company and so it is harder for them to achieve the same level.
Trent Barton rely so heavily on their brands they don't even use service numbers on the vast majority of routes, but they seem to have a lot more spare vehicles readily available than Go North East. Personally, I think the biggest problem that GNE face with their branding is their maintenance, which leads to mass amounts of vehicles being off the road at one time.