(18 Apr 2014, 6:01 pm)Half Pint wrote Customers see a bus with a number on the front. The only difference they see is double deck and single deck. Bus is a bus to them

All companies introducing branding must have their business plans completely wrong - Stagecoach included! Stagecoach North East have adapted their livery in several ways: a green version of their corporate livery to show that the bus is eco-friendly, sub-branding for service 1, sub-branding for service 37, sub-branding for service X47, sub-branding for service 36, branding for service 100, branding for the Economic services, branding to show that the bus is powered by gas... A lot of different liveries there when 'a bus is a bus' to customers.

Clearly my mam isn't a 'customer' either, because she can, as I said in my previous post, tell the difference between many different buses and she can often tell whether a bus is old or fairly new...

Customers really aren't as daft as you make them out to be. Have you ever been on a bus when brand new? Heard customers talking about the brand new buses and comparing them to the old ones? For Go North East, this is primarily linked to new/updated branding - but for other operators, it's completely different:
Noises from the bus, on-board facilities such as Wi-Fi and power sockets, leather seating, even the location of the emergency exit door, all suggest how old a bus is to normal customers - or at least from personal experience this is the case... Clearly you think otherwise.