Since 1927, Blue Bird Corporation has been manufacturing school buses, school activity buses, commercial and transit buses, and other specialty vehicles at their plant in Fort Valley, Georgia. Today, Blue Bird remains one of the world’s leading manufacturers of school buses, with buses operating in more than 60 countries.
In the past several years, Blue Bird has been the industry’s leader in developing buses that rely on alternative fuels such as propane and compressed natural gas (CNG), as well as electric vehicles (EVs). Their global fleet includes more than 20,000 alternative-fuel vehicles that offer operators significant benefits over traditional diesel-powered buses.
Blue Bird approached M&R with a number of marketing needs:
- Usage of the company’s iconic bird logo had become disjointed and inconsistent across the company’s many divisions
- The company wanted to produce collateral promoting their “Vision” line of diesel, gasoline, propane, and electric buses
- The company was launching a new division for their electric buses and scaling production up from 100 units per year to more than 5,000 new EVs annually.
Blue Bird Corporation Brand Standards to Improve Consistency
A company’s brand is literally its identity in the market. When branding is used inconsistently, the brand gets diluted. Inconsistent use of branding content like logos, colors, and brand voice makes it hard for audience members to engage with the brand, ultimately reducing consumer confidence and reducing the brand’s visibility.
Over the years, Blue Bird’s use of its iconic bird logo had become inconsistent across various divisions of the company. In response, M&R created a brand standards guide for the company: a detailed document with specific guidelines on how visual branding elements can and cannot be used.
Promoting Alternative Fuels: Blue Bird Vision Buses
In 2003, Blue Bird launched the Vision school bus, a new design focused on improving forward vision. Since then, the product line has expanded to include buses powered by gasoline, diesel, and a number of alternative fuel options.
To showcase the advantages of both the overall Vision bus line and specific value propositions of each engine type, M&R created a number of print pieces, including flyers, booklets, and tradeshow materials.
Electrifying School Transportation: Blue Bird EV Buses
As one of the nation’s leaders in EV school buses, Blue Bird wanted to develop a specific brand tagline and visual identity for their lines of electric buses.
As more school systems are seeing the advantages of switching to electric buses for their transportation fleets, Blue Bird has dramatically expanded their electric bus capacity in recent years. Their Fort Valley production facility now produces more than 5,000 electric vehicles a year.
Print Collateral for an Exciting Expansion
As Blue Bird expanded its electric vehicle output, they needed print collateral to help explain the advantages of switching to electric buses:
Booklets
Flyers
Digital Marketing for Electric Buses
M&R developed digital marketing materials to promote Blue Bird’s electric bus lines, including:
Videos
Social Media Ads
Landing Pages
Content and Email Marketing
M&R also helped Blue Bird develop and implement content marketing and email marketing campaigns to increase brand visibility and improve audience engagement for their electric vehicle programs.
Through blog articles and carefully crafted email messages, our team worked to help improve Blue Bird’s search engine rankings and inform a wider audience about their products.
Blue Bird Corporation: The Results
Blue Bird has seen incredibly good results from the digital and print materials M&R provided them. In just one quarter, their landing pages received almost 3,000 views with a conversion rate of 19%, which is extraordinarily high.
Thanks to M&R’s efforts, Blue Bird’s LinkedIn campaigns have also seen considerable increases in performance. Their videos perform well on the platform, and the company’s profile has made an impressive 188,000 impressions in just the first quarter of 2024.
Blue Bird continues to choose M&R for its marketing needs, with new projects emerging all the time. “They’re a very easy company to work with,” said Albert Burleigh, Blue Bird’s Vice President for Alternative Fuels. “They understood and delivered on the vision in a very timely manner.”
Ready to Get Electrified With Exceptional Marketing Services? Give M&R a Call and Discover the Difference of a Marketing Firm That’s Full Service and Fully Engaged!
No matter whether your business is one of the nation’s largest specialty vehicle manufacturers or a local storefront in your hometown, we have a range of marketing solutions that can help your business thrive. From traditional print materials to the cutting edge in digital marketing, we know how to get your audience on the bus to conversion town!
Contact one of our business development managers today to learn more about our how we can make your marketing shine.
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