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First Trenitalia (Avanti!) WCML branding, naming and livery

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hexagon789

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One thing is for sure whatever the future name / brand is for First Trenitalia West Coast the colour palate needs to be right.

Top 10 Colours and why.

1. Red
Red is the colour of power. It gets people’s attention and it holds it, which is why it’s the most popular colour for marketing.

2. Blue
When you want to be viewed as trustworthy and cool, blue is the colour for you. Mix blue with complimentary colours for best results.

3. Pink
Vying for the attention of a young female demographic? You can’t go wrong with pink. It’s fun, frilly and totally female.

4. Yellow
Yellow is a powerful colour, but it is also the most dangerous hue. Use yellow to command your audience’s attention, and let them know you’re confident in your abilities.

5. Green
Green is a versatile colour. It is warm and inviting, lending customers a pleasing feeling. Second, it denotes health, environment and goodwill. Finally, green is the colour of money, so it creates thoughts of wealth.

6. Purple
Purple is the colour of royalty, which makes it perfect for lending a touch of elegance and prestige to your marketing materials.

7. Gold
Gold is likewise elegant and prestigious, but adds an element of power purple can’t match. In combination with purple or green, gold is a powerful colour that symbolises wealth and pedigree.

8. Orange
Orange is energy. It has powerful attention-getting properties, it’s fun and cool, and it makes customers feel as though they’re dealing with a cutting-edge company.

9. Brown
Brown, an earthy tone, is known as a comfort colour, lending relaxation to customers.

10. Black
Black is another highly versatile colour. It can be modern or traditional, exciting or relaxing. Used as a contrasting colour, black most often adds drama to whatever mood you want to cast.

Enough stereotyped rubbish in there?

Number 3 is utterly nonsense for a start...


Interesting that First Rail Holdings recently trademarked 'Avanti'...

https://trademarks.ipo.gov.uk/ipo-tmcase/page/Results/1/UK00003387232

I like it, very 'forward'-thinking! ;)
 
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pt_mad

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Could be that the First-Trenitalia consortium will be called 'Avanti', and the resulting brand could be 'Avanti Trains' or 'Avanti West Coast'
That wouldn't be transferrable though would it?
 

LNW-GW Joint

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Trenitalia's fleet of tilting Pendolinos (ETR600) in Italy is branded as Frecciargento (Silver Arrow), and run up to 250km/h (160mph) on high-speed lines.
This is within their Frecce branding, where the top level is Frecciarossa (Red Arrow), which are the fastest trains on the high-speed network (ETR1000, 300km/h+).
The WCML Pendolinos are not a million miles from Trenitalia's Frecciargento in terms of components, design, performance and even external branding.
I could see a case for translating the Trenitalia branding to the new UK franchise.

I've no idea if Trenitalia is playing any part in the operation of the ICWC franchise, or if they are backroom players like minority shareholders often are.
But if Virgin can dominate the branding of a franchise with only 10% ownership (VTEC), then Trenitalia's 30% might be more visible.
We shall soon see.
 

transmanche

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But if Virgin can dominate the branding of a franchise with only 10% ownership (VTEC), then Trenitalia's 30% might be more visible.
The only reason for Virgin's involvement in VTEC was to provide the branding, being as it was a well-known brand with a positive image. Trenitalia doesn't have that advantage in the UK: I'd be surprised if Trenitalia gets a mention at all.
 

59CosG95

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The only reason for Virgin's involvement in VTEC was to provide the branding, being as it was a well-known brand with a positive image. Trenitalia doesn't have that advantage in the UK: I'd be surprised if Trenitalia gets a mention at all.
Same thing for MTR on SWR - I wouldn't be surprised if the franchise has stickers along the line of "A FirstGroup/Trenitalia Joint Venture" ready to be slapped along the sides of each Voyager & Pendolino.
 

pdeaves

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Same thing for MTR on SWR - I wouldn't be surprised if the franchise has stickers along the line of "A FirstGroup/Trenitalia Joint Venture" ready to be slapped along the sides of each Voyager & Pendolino.
SWR does have reference to both partners in the small print on cab sides. I would expect something similar on WC.
 

TT-ONR-NRN

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It's a shame that the Virgin livery is going, it isn't going to be the same without the little Virgin logo on the nose acting as a little smile. I hope First Trenitalia create their own tiny triangle on the front else it'll wreak the pendolino IMO!
Do you know, I was just thinking the same thing. The Pendolino needs it’s mouth!
 

Energy

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The Pendolino needs it’s mouth!
It's a little smile, it's something so small but really completes the look.
I really like the look of the pendolinos, despite being from the early 2000s they still look modern and impressive. Although they look much better in their original livery in my opinion. The current one doesn't really fit to the shape of the pendolino meanwhile the old one fitted the with sort of nose / front curve. It's like they actually looked at the livery when designing the pendolino, or they looked at the pendolino when designing the livery instead of just slapping on anything and hoping it doesn't look too bad.
 

Goldfish62

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That would depend on the terms of the franchise contract: whether brands become part of the franchise, or belong to the franchise operator.
All specifications over the past few years have included the requirement for a transferable brand.
 

C J Snarzell

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I went on the new company website last night and there is still no news about what name First Trenitalia will use. It will be interesting to see if the new company will keep the red colours of Virgin. I would assume that when a TOC takes over the rebranding process will take quite a few months to implement. It's probably likely you will see the Virgin name pop up frequently long after the 7th December. The big issue here is the cost of changing the corporate image of a company. To rebrand a whole fleet of trains which includes the interior alostery is not something that will be done over night. It's a bit like when the Co-op took over the Somerfield chain a few years back. My local supermarket didn't change overnight - they just used different carrier bags and the price labels to begin with and everything else was changed over several weeks.
 

EE Andy b1

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All external branding can be removed quite quickly. Interior will take a while as a set goes for exam and a refurb with new seats/layout and colours. I think it's just over £2 million per Pendolino on average for upgrade.
As far as I know the Virgin brand name will have to be removed pretty quickly or covered over as TfW have done with Arriva name.

Brand is everything to these companies, First Trenitalia will not want other companies names on there new prestigious TOC.

How long did Virgin Stagecoach take to refurbish Mk4s and HSTs on the East Coast before losing it?
 

RealTrains07

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Spotted the first de branded pendolino today
 

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Goldfish62

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Brand is everything to these companies, First Trenitalia will not want other companies names on there new prestigious TOC.
It took First MTR over a year to completely change the branding from SWT to SWR. On Day 1 everything was still SWT.
 

causton

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It took First MTR over a year to completely change the branding from SWT to SWR. On Day 1 everything was still SWT.
Meanwhile about 95% of London Midland branding was removed before the end of its' franchise, announcements, train liveries, station signs, CCTV stickers, all blanked off.

(and a lot still remaining blank to this day with no replacement :lol::lol::lol: )
 

RealTrains07

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Meanwhile about 95% of London Midland branding was removed before the end of its' franchise, announcements, train liveries, station signs, CCTV stickers, all blanked off.

(and a lot still remaining blank to this day with no replacement :lol::lol::lol: )
It took First MTR over a year to completely change the branding from SWT to SWR. On Day 1 everything was still SWT.

it will vary per TOC. EMR started de branding weeks before the change so when EMR actually started they already had a lot of re branded trains

Should be easier for first considering virgin livery is pretty plain now plus first will probably only put the logos on the front of the train anyways
 

LNW-GW Joint

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I think Trenitalia's brand might appear somewhere - they use a "flying italic f" (part of the FS group logo, which is in Italian national colours), much like First do in their corporate colours.

Virgin Trains are still playing their advert in cinemas, with a Pendolino bursting out of a tunnel.
They have not given up just yet.
 

Speed43125

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I think Trenitalia's brand might appear somewhere - they use a "flying italic f" (part of the FS group logo, which is in Italian national colours), much like First do in their corporate colours.

Virgin Trains are still playing their advert in cinemas, with a Pendolino bursting out of a tunnel.
They have not given up just yet.

It's also a pendo in original livery too. Talk about kicking a dead horse (in as nice a way as possible since VT and the original pendo livery are both my prefered ones).
 

sufian123

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I think Trenitalia's brand might appear somewhere - they use a "flying italic f" (part of the FS group logo, which is in Italian national colours), much like First do in their corporate colours.

Virgin Trains are still playing their advert in cinemas, with a Pendolino bursting out of a tunnel.
They have not given up just yet.

Virgin felling it farewell advert according to a friend works for VT.
 

Energy

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How much virgin branding is at stations? On the trains there is little with only a bit on the outside, the shop, the toilets and the bits on the first class seats.

There are either velcro (I believe on the first class seats) or vinyl stickers. But excluding staff clothing and consumables like branded disposable cups which will come out of circulation there is also the stations which will need to be debranded.
 

ashkeba

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How much virgin branding is at stations? On the trains there is little with only a bit on the outside, the shop, the toilets and the bits on the first class seats.

There are either velcro (I believe on the first class seats) or vinyl stickers. But excluding staff clothing and consumables like branded disposable cups which will come out of circulation there is also the stations which will need to be debranded.
I think stations have been getting less branding the last few years, with station name signs now having a simple red edge that would look OK with trains having a red and black or other colour livery.
 
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