Vehicle and fleet branding play a key role in branding generally, and brand awareness, for a more varied range of businesses than you may have realised. Whether you have a company car or a fleet of corporate vans, vehicle graphics can help get your name noticed by potentially up to thousands of people daily, while also helping create an outstanding professional impression.
But what is vehicle branding – and what are the benefits?
With vehicle branding, all or part of a company car or other vehicle is wrapped in vinyl graphics. Indeed, it’s essentially any visual which promotes your business. It doesn’t have to be a full vehicle branding – it also includes logo stickers as well as full-sized vehicle wraps. And fleet branding can vary according to the type of vehicle, the particular marketing strategy involved, target audience and the budget which has been assigned.
Here are just some of the benefits you can look forward to from vehicle wrapping:
- Brand awareness: This is the obvious one. Fleet branding just makes people more aware of what you do – and it’s a powerful selling tool that, as well as advertising your products or services, can include information such as phone number or website, as well as your area of operation.
- Great impression: For many customers, your van or car will be the first thing they see of your brand. And while it may be a cliché, first impressions really do count. Vehicle wrapping helps this immeasurably.
- Vehicle protection: Not only are vinyl wraps inexpensive and very long-lasting, but they also offer protection against minor dents, scrapes and scratches.
- Reach a wider audience: With vinyl wrap graphics, you are immediately giving yourself access to a far wider audience than would have been possible otherwise. Especially in a large urban area, this could be hundreds of thousands of people in a month. What’s more, it’s a fair bet that many, if not most of those who see you will be locally based and looking to use businesses like yours.
So what are the do’s and don’ts of vehicle branding?
People often ask us this! Here are our top tips so that you make the most of your vehicle wraps:
#1 Less is more
This applies to many areas of life, and it certainly applies to vehicle branding. Resist the temptation to overload your vehicle graphics with too much text and an array of different images. Not only will this look unappealingly ‘busy’ but it will end up having less of an impact so that, ultimately, your vehicle wraps won’t be noticed as well. As a general rule of thumb, the text should take up no more than 15% or 20% max of the total design area.
#2 Use a clear font
A clear (usually bold) font tends to work well with vehicle wraps. Similarly to the point mentioned above, steer clear of anything too overly detailed which could be hard to read – remember that in traffic, other drivers or passers-by may only see your vehicle branding for a matter of moments, so you don’t always have that long to make an impact.
#3 Stick to a small range of colours
Generally speaking, it’s best to use only a limited line-up of different colours, and ones which complement each other, for a sleek and streamlined appearance. Ideally, these would be colours associated with your brand. Dyno-Rod vans, for example, are distinctive in their fluorescent colours. They may not be exactly subtle, but they’re certainly noticed, and there’s an instant association with the business.
#4 Use the back and sides of your vehicle
Don’t forget to use all areas of your fleet models in vehicle branding. That means having the vehicle wrapping at the back as well as on the sides so that it’s viewed as often as possible.
#5 Use high-resolution images
If you’ve decided to go for photography as part of your vehicle wrapping, they should clearly be of a professional standard. That means that any images used need to be of a high resolution, for example, 300dpi or above. So choose your pictures with care – anything low-resolution simply won’t work.
#6 Complement your brand with your designs
It often works well to match your designs with your brand and its ethos, so that if, for example, your brand focuses on sustainability, incorporate green hues and maybe even some foliage to help reinforce your brand message. With Dyno-Rod mentioned above, the ethos is clearly bold, bright and breezy.
#7 Bigger is better when it comes to font sizes – large it!
With vehicle branding, it’s also important to remember that fleet models are, of course, always on the move. This means that there’s an additional challenge with these vinyl graphics in terms of making sure they can be read easily by those who are passing by on foot, or other road users. That means you may need to consider going as big as you dare when it comes to font size, to help with this.
Looking for vehicle or fleet branding services?
At Rocket Graphics, we offer vehicle and fleet branding alongside other large-format printing and sign production services. And we can help with high-quality vehicle wraps whether you have a whole fleet or are a one-man (or woman!) band with a single van. And, as well as providing this vinyl wrap service for corporate clients, we also create high-quality vinyl graphics for the motorsport industry.
Talk to us about vehicle branding today.