Printed publicity - still necessary in the era of digital technology?

[peterblue]

Roger French has recently written an article extolling the values of printed bus and train timetables today.

Printed matters

Thursday 28th April 2022 I had an enjoyable evening last Saturday at The Hawth Theatre in Crawley (Tony Blackburn’s Radio 2 Sounds of the Sixties Tour since you asked – highly recommend…

busandtrainuser.com

I had an enjoyable evening last Saturday at The Hawth Theatre in Crawley (Tony Blackburn’s Radio 2 Sounds of the Sixties Tour since you asked – highly recommended for those of us of a certain age).


Whilst there I couldn’t help but notice in the foyer and throughout the theatre were racks holding copies of a booklet giving details of all the up and coming productions. Many people were picking a copy up as they arrived or in the interval and taking a look at what might take their fancy for an evening’s entertainment in the future. As well as information about who’s performing there were details of dates, start times and prices for different seats in the auditorium. What a very useful booklet.


I wonder why The Hawth produce it though? All the same information is available online on their website. They could save money and help their environmental credentials by ceasing the production of printed booklets like this, just like some bus companies and almost all train companies are now doing – you know the ones, generally speaking, those struggling to attract passengers at the moment, but I’m sure they know what they’re doing.

My local Indian restaurant in Hassocks with a fine cuisine reputation produces a very informative printed menu from which you can see the full range of dishes they produce and order takeaways. From time to time these are delivered around the area as well as being available to pick up from the restaurant. It has all the prices clearly shown and is a very useful publication.


I wonder why they produce it though? All the same information is available online on their website. They could save money and help their environmental credentials by ceasing the production of printed leaflets like this, just like some bus companies and almost all train companies are now doing – you know the ones, generally speaking, those struggling to attract passengers at the moment, but I’m sure they know what they’re doing.

Every Tuesday my Royal Mail postie delivers next week’s Radio Times through my letterbox as I take out a subscription to this magazine. It lists every television and radio programme showing details of the channel and start times as well as what the programme is about and who is starring in it. It’s a very useful publication.


It sells just under half a million copies every week at a retail price of £3.50. Next year it celebrates its centenary. It’s one of a number of listing magazines on the market which together sell over 2.5 million copies weekly. TV Choice is the most popular selling magazine in the UK, followed by What’s On TV with the Radio Times in third place.


I wonder why the magazine publishers produce these though? All the same information is available online on websites, on apps or on television screens. The publishers could help their environmental credentials by ceasing the production of printed magazines like this, just like some bus companies and almost all train companies are now doing – you know the ones, generally speaking, those struggling to attract passengers at the moment, but I’m sure they know what they’re doing.

It’s not all train companies though. Northern have been producing a wonderful timetable booklet showing details of train times, as well as some details about bus times, in Cumbria and the Lake District as well as parts of the Dales and Fells. It’s aim is to encourage passengers to travel by train.


It’s a very useful booklet including information across eight pages about Rover tickets complete with maps to encourage travel on the network.


The good news is it’s being produced again this summer and as a bonus for multi-modal fans includes ten pages of bus timetables too – Stagecoach’s bus routes 555, 559, X4, X5 and X6 will all be there. How useful is that for visitors and tourists to these popular areas? Very. It’s a very useful publication.


I wonder why Northern produce it though? All the same information is available online on their (and Stagecoach’s) website. They could save money and help their environmental credentials by ceasing the production of printed booklets like this, just like some bus companies and almost all other train companies are now doing – you know the ones, generally speaking, those struggling to attract passengers at the moment, but I’m sure they know what they’re doing.

Believe it or not some bus companies continue to produce printed booklets, pamphlets and leaflets giving details of the bus routes they run as well as including maps, timetables and even prices of tickets. It’s strange that these are usually the bus companies doing well to attract passengers on to their buses and areas like Cornwall, the Lake District, areas served by bus companies like Transdev Blazefield, Go North East, Go South Coast, Safeguard, Grant Palmer, Lynx, Ensignbus and many more are seeing the benefit of making it easy for potential (as well as existing) passengers to find out what’s on offer.

Some bus companies even leave printed timetables on display for passengers to pick up.
Some bus companies even put printed timetables inside buses for passengers to pick up.
Some bus companies even leave printed timetables on bus seats for passengers to pick up.
All this information is available on line on their websites but these companies seem to hold the view it’s a good idea to make printed information available too, despite the cost of this and the damage it causes the environment to use paper as explained by certain other bus companies justifying why they don’t produce printed material.

Train companies, which aren’t exactly renowned for being in the vanguard of knowing how to attract passengers on to trains with excellence in information provision despite “our passengers are at the heart of everything we do” being their mantra, are taking this approach to a whole new level if the Department for Transport agrees to their latest proposal.

The Rail Delivery Group has put out a “Staff Brief” explaining the rationale behind making the temporary derogation to not produce paper timetables a permanent feature of our railways. What a very sensible move, after all, we don’t want to make it easy for potential passengers do we?

And have no fear because as you’ll see RDG’s “Redress and Support Group” are working on communications on the “customer narrative for complaints” about such a move.

So that’s all good.


It’s interesting to see the results of a customer survey conducted by one of the UK’s most successful bus companies last month. It found 73% of passengers “liked using paper timetables“.


I doubt the RDG and those bus companies now wedded to the “it’s all online” mantra will take note though.

I should clarify I’m not saying don’t put everything online. The Internet has obviously absolutely revolutionised the availability of information, not least about bus and rail routes, timetables and ticket prices making for easy planning of journeys and buying tickets in advance – albeit some websites (eg Arriva, Stagecoach, TfL and some train companies still leave a lot to be desired in making it easy to find information as well as notable gaps in provision, particularly maps) – BUT there’s a vital place for printed information as well. You wouldn’t run a bus with three wheels or a train with a missing bogey – operators shouldn’t run their information provision with a vital piece missing either.

One final thought. If everything is online and few people want information in printed form as the RDG and some bus companies would have us believe, how come there’s a never ending variety of magazines for sale in W H Smiths (and other retailers)?

As this is a subject that divides opinions of both bus companies and passengers alike, I would be interested to know of your opinions on the matter.

I view Roger's restaurant analogy as the most fitting; bus timetables are an advertisement for buses the same way restaurant menus entice users to frequent a new establishment. Someone who is a regular visitor to said restaurant is unlikely to find much use in its menu as the customer would have memorised their favourite dishes and food offerings available. However, a family visiting an eatery for the first time is extremely unlikely to be intimately aware of the food obtainable to them. Restaurants post flyers through my door to advertise their menu to me and to encourage new customers to the business, and I believe this is the important distinction to make as well as the purpose for timetables. You wouldn't be aware of a restaurant's menu if you weren't a patron, and you wouldn't be aware of bus service provision in the Lake District before holidaying there unless you were both tech-savvy and bus conscious. Timetables are most effective and most useful as an advertisement to visitors.

So with that in mind, I don't think it is necessary for bus companies to issue a timetable for service 6A from Bigstown to Chavsville Council Estate; but I do view timetables as a good advertisement tool in tourist destinations. These timetable booklets may just inspire someone to step outside of the car and try out the bus for (maybe?!) the first time in a while. To reuse the Lake District example again - Stagecoach produce a comprehensive timetable booklet and map twice a year, available both on buses as well as in visitor centres, railway stations and more. This must work well for them otherwise Stagecoach would have discontinued this practice long ago!

There are areas and regions in the UK which are popular tourist destinations, such as the Lake District, the peak District, big cities like London, regions such as Cornwall, certain seaside resorts like Blackpool, and more. These are the places that benefit most from offering printed timetables and maps. But it is surprising to see even major tourist destinations like London do not produce any information of any kind. Not even a map of central London.

 

[PeterC]

Roger French has recently written an article extolling the values of printed bus and train timetables today.

Printed matters

Thursday 28th April 2022 I had an enjoyable evening last Saturday at The Hawth Theatre in Crawley (Tony Blackburn’s Radio 2 Sounds of the Sixties Tour since you asked – highly recommend…

busandtrainuser.com

As this is a subject that divides opinions of both bus companies and passengers alike, I would be interested to know of your opinions on the matter.

I view Roger's restaurant analogy as the most fitting; bus timetables are an advertisement for buses the same way restaurant menus entice users to frequent a new establishment. Someone who is a regular visitor to said restaurant is unlikely to find much use in its menu as the customer would have memorised their favourite dishes and food offerings available. However, a family visiting an eatery for the first time is extremely unlikely to be intimately aware of the food obtainable to them. Restaurants post flyers through my door to advertise their menu to me and to encourage new customers to the business, and I believe this is the important distinction to make as well as the purpose for timetables. You wouldn't be aware of a restaurant's menu if you weren't a patron, and you wouldn't be aware of bus service provision in the Lake District before holidaying there unless you were both tech-savvy and bus conscious. Timetables are most effective and most useful as an advertisement to visitors.

So with that in mind, I don't think it is necessary for bus companies to issue a timetable for service 6A from Bigstown to Chavsville Council Estate; but I do view timetables as a good advertisement tool in tourist destinations. These timetable booklets may just inspire someone to step outside of the car and try out the bus for (maybe?!) the first time in a while. To reuse the Lake District example again - Stagecoach produce a comprehensive timetable booklet and map twice a year, available both on buses as well as in visitor centres, railway stations and more. This must work well for them otherwise Stagecoach would have discontinued this practice long ago!

There are areas and regions in the UK which are popular tourist destinations, such as the Lake District, the peak District, big cities like London, regions such as Cornwall, certain seaside resorts like Blackpool, and more. These are the places that benefit most from offering printed timetables and maps. But it is surprising to see even major tourist destinations like London do not produce any information of any kind. Not even a map of central London.

The "in your face" nature of hardcopy reaches out to people who don't know that they want to look you up the net. Also, if not binned, it sits there as a reminder when an internet search may be forgotten.

All in all it is an essential part of the marketing armoury. To promote a business you need to use as many media channels as you can afford.

 

[Andyh82]

The comparison with the Radio Times (or other cheaper/free listings) is a good one. The TV listings give you a full overview of the week’s TV so you can easily spot something you may want to watch on an obscure channel many days in advance. Unless you spend a significant amount of time scrolling up and down, back and forth, the EPG only really helps to show you the schedule for the next few hours.

Same with printed bus timetables versus apps. Apps can tell you when the next bus is, printed timetables and maps let you know about journeys you never knew existed. Who knew the bus past your house starts running at 6am, and goes past the railway station, or links in with another bus to the hospital etc etc

The Stagecoach lakes timetable is ridiculously freely available, more so than I’ve seen anywhere else, as it’s in all tourist leaflet racks, if you picked one up every time you saw one, you could come home with 50 copies.