For motorcoach operators today, there are endless possibilities to choose from when deciding on graphics for branding and advertising purposes.
An owner can choose whole or half-wraps, leave room to lease advertising space, or even have a portion of the design in 3-D.
And they can be added quickly.
“We’ve invested $1 million in our new interface that allows our customers to see each vehicle in their fleet, and order parts 24/7,” said Pier Veilleux, president of Turbo Images. “If they have a damaged portion of their bus, our customers don’t even need to speak to one of our people. They can log in to the system with their password, order what they need and we’ll print it and ship it within 72 hours.
“That quick turnaround time allows them to get their unit back on the road and making money again after an accident,” Veilleux said. “They don’t have to send that bus back out with a six-foot piece of graphics missing.”
Veilleux started Turbo Images from scratch and is proud of the way the business has grown through the years.
“We’re celebrating our 25th anniversary in January and we still do our best to take care of our customers and provide them with quality products,” he said.
Veilleux also stresses the importance of quality products for wraps, noting that his company is a 3-M Platinum Provider.
“Some people think a wrap is a wrap, but the quality of the material and choosing which of the four or five types of film to use is extremely important, especially when it is time to remove it,” he said.
“Wraps also can be long-term or short-term. Every year we design wraps for coaches headed to bowl games. These are temporary wraps with a different adhesive than a long-term wrap. A long-term wrap can stay on for four to five years. For bowl games, we install 20 wraps in 15 days, and they stay on about eight days. But during that time, the bus is a dynamic, emotional part of the experience for the fans.”
Turbo Images has a network of about 50 installers across North America who make arrangements with owners to apply the graphics, which are printed in Canada.
“People ask me all the time how much it costs to wrap a bus,” Veilleux said. “But it isn’t how much the wrap costs. There are badly designed $7,000 wraps on the road. What matters is the focus on branding. Use your design to communicate to people. I see wraps that are a beautiful picture, but they don’t say anything.”
Turbo Design, a division of Turbo Images, has more than 20 years of experience in branding creation and advises customers to first think about the message they want to convey and what type of clients they want to attract.
It also advises its customers to analyze the competition and remember that their bus is a rolling billboard that should be designed to bring in new business. The right graphic design could be the deciding factor in a client choosing the company over a competitor.
At Harbor Graphics, a division of Vomela, Ben Shobaken has been designing and manufacturing graphics for trucks, racecars, buses, recreational vehicles and even railroads for more than 33 years.
“I go back to the days when names and stripes were the only option,” Shobaken said. “We do about 80 percent of the recreational vehicle business in the country, but my specialty is helping my bus customers with their designs for branding purposes.”
Vomela is a $250-million, multi-dimensional graphics company. Other divisions produce items we see every day, such as signage in retail stores such as Target. The company has eight manufacturing plants and 13 operating companies, either plants or sales offices, in the United States and Canada.
“What’s important to remember about bus graphics is that at Harbor Graphics, we design, manufacture, install and remove the graphic when that bus is sold. The removal process is important. If not done correctly, it will devalue that unit, sometimes causing thousands of dollars of damage,” Shobaken said.
“Graphics are manufactured from a pressure sensitive vinyl that is between 2 and 4 milliliters thick. It’s still possible to mix and match paint with graphics,” he said, “and today some bus companies are leasing space on their buses for advertising purposes. I usually advise against that. I feel that advertising detracts from their brand image. A new motorcoach is around $600,000. There can be from $1,000 to $7,000 worth of branding graphics on that new coach, from reflective to non-reflective, and 3-D graphics. The 3-D is limited to flat space. It sticks out about 3/8 of an inch and adds dimensionality to the design.”
Shobaken said when a customer contacts him, especially for a motorcoach, he develops a design that is appealing to the public, but notes that tastes vary.
“Some just want a fairly plain design, while others create a really bold statement that makes an impression,” he said. “You can tell who put some effort into a design, and who didn’t. The stripes or swirls should draw the eye to the company name in the few seconds you have to make an impression.
“There are other factors to consider as well, such as knowing that the perforated material that can go over windows does allow passengers to see outside, but then it seems as if they are looking through very dark tinted windows. The perforated material doesn’t wear well, either. Therefore, I don’t advise that for charter services.”
Shobaken said his company could manufacture a wrap for anything, even a mailbox. “What’s new in the industry is that the material we use now is very conformable. There are more latex and less solvent-based materials, and faster, more vivid printers, as well as the entire industry is now trying to be as green as possible.”
Shobaken said he doesn’t advise companies to put their phone number or website address on the bus. In the past, having a Web address on the bus made it easy for people to look it up, but now, the website will pop up in searches so it is better to use that space for other purposes.
“What I really love to do is design a bus that makes my customers happy,” he said, because they are the ones who are going to look at that bus every day. “I want them to look at that bus and be happy with it.”
