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Stupid Stupid Rebranding


dmr

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I have just seen a photo on facebook of CaRT taking down a large sign outside a boaters service block and replacing it with an almost identical sign in Blue and White rather than black and white.

This makes me so sad and angry.

I see many things wrong with this

This is a reckless waste of money, some of which comes from taxation and donations.

This rebranding is going to cost a fortune which should be spent on better things.

CaRT are obviously not telling the truth about its true cost, and when they say the new logo will only appear when things need changing.

The canals have a very strong black and white "brand" so changing it is just daft, I assume (and desperately hope) that they do do not plan to paint the locks blue.

How on earth can changing a sign outside a boaters facility help more people donate money to the canals or even visit them.

This is plain corporate madness.

Not sure if I am allowed to re-post photos from facebook.

 

..................Dave

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I wonder how much the report cost CRT?  

 

Quote

A report that we commissioned, ‘Assessing the wellbeing impacts of waterways usage in England and Wales’, written by social impact consultancy group Simetrica, reveals:

  • Any visit to a waterway is associated with higher levels of life satisfaction and visiting regularly is associated with even higher levels of life satisfaction.
  • The associated benefits of visiting a canal or river increase with the length of visit, with research showing higher levels of happiness and lower levels of anxiety for longer trips.

Our research also reveals that three quarters of towpath users say they visit to ‘get away from it all and clear my head’, and because they are ‘great places to relax and de-stress’. However, of the eight million people living within a kilometre of a waterway, currently just three in ten ever visit. This gives us vast potential to make a meaningful impact on millions of lives.

https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/news-and-views/news/happiness-available-on-your-doorstep

 

 

 

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47 minutes ago, Jennifer McM said:

It got them coverage every 20 minutes on BBC Breakfast tv this morning -- every time Carol did the weather.  How much do you think that was worth?

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1 minute ago, adam1uk said:

It got them coverage every 20 minutes on BBC Breakfast tv this morning -- every time Carol did the weather.  How much do you think that was worth?

I image it would be an eye watering amount, pretty sure a good in-house marketing person could have gleaned together such 'obvious' research. 

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3 hours ago, dmr said:

I have just seen a photo on facebook of CaRT taking down a large sign outside a boaters service block and replacing it with an almost identical sign in Blue and White rather than black and white.

This makes me so sad and angry.

I see many things wrong with this

This is a reckless waste of money, some of which comes from taxation and donations.

This rebranding is going to cost a fortune which should be spent on better things.

CaRT are obviously not telling the truth about its true cost, and when they say the new logo will only appear when things need changing.

The canals have a very strong black and white "brand" so changing it is just daft, I assume (and desperately hope) that they do do not plan to paint the locks blue.

How on earth can changing a sign outside a boaters facility help more people donate money to the canals or even visit them.

This is plain corporate madness.

Not sure if I am allowed to re-post photos from facebook.

 

..................Dave

The reality is, I suppose, that there is no point in advertising the new brand/logo if the general public is not seeing it (but the old one) when they are out and about down the canals and they must have known this while they were smiling nicely and lying through their teeth.

 

Not to mention that all the perfectly good signs that are to be replaced are ending up in landfill long before their time. :angry2:

 

2 hours ago, Jennifer McM said:

And will this also be the method used to track the progress of the new campaign and if so how often would a new survey need to be commissioned?

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But "wellbeing" doesn't necessarily generate income.  What the landlubbers at CRT don't seem to understand is that it is the boats that make the canals such a pleasant environment. They even have their own term - gongoozelers!  Without boats, and the management they require, how long would it be before the canals became rubbish-filled stinking ditches.

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40 minutes ago, dor said:

But "wellbeing" doesn't necessarily generate income.  What the landlubbers at CRT don't seem to understand is that it is the boats that make the canals such a pleasant environment. They even have their own term - gongoozelers!  Without boats, and the management they require, how long would it be before the canals became rubbish-filled stinking ditches.

The first couple of years that we went into Liverpool the canal was full of rubbish and there were a few reports of trouble with youths, we had a little incident that we managed to diffuse. Each year now it gets better and better, the canal is cleaner and there are more happy people walking along the towpath. There are even some litter pickers. What has made this "transformation"? Why have people stopped throwing their bin bags and furniture in the cut? Why do people walk along the towpath? Why do mothers with their children stand on the bridges and wave at the canal?     Its not the fishermen is it. ?

 

One woman even used to run out of her house and write down the name of every boat that went past.

 

..............Dave

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36 minutes ago, adam1uk said:

But this is the whole point. CRT’s aim in all this is to get the government to continue the £50 million a year grant, by making the case that the money produces ‘wellbeing’ worth a lot more. It’s not about getting individual walkers or runners to pay anything. 

 

It is possible to do two different things at the same time — focus on wellbeing for the general population, and do all the boaty things as well.  I haven’t seen any suggestion that spending on things like winter works or dredging will be reduced.

I know that's the theory, but how are they going to justify it?  Surely not with their laughable "visitor numbers".  Meanwhile the essential maintenance of the canals is being cut.

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6 hours ago, dmr said:

I have just seen a photo on facebook of CaRT taking down a large sign outside a boaters service block and replacing it with an almost identical sign in Blue and White rather than black and white.

This makes me so sad and angry.

I see many things wrong with this

This is a reckless waste of money, some of which comes from taxation and donations.

This rebranding is going to cost a fortune which should be spent on better things.

CaRT are obviously not telling the truth about its true cost, and when they say the new logo will only appear when things need changing.

The canals have a very strong black and white "brand" so changing it is just daft, I assume (and desperately hope) that they do do not plan to paint the locks blue.

How on earth can changing a sign outside a boaters facility help more people donate money to the canals or even visit them.

This is plain corporate madness.

Not sure if I am allowed to re-post photos from facebook.

 

..................Dave

lucky you didnt read some of the other posts and see the new branded workwear and shiny fully liveried van then or you’d be even more riled up.

 

i don’t care what the blokes in suits say, this has gone way beyond a logo change, it is a full rebrand with all the bells and whistles and has to be costing a LOT more than they’re letting on.

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35 minutes ago, canals are us? said:

What was wrong with the C&RT? Seemed sensible.

Well one problem is that it is most unusual (apart from on CWDF) to insert the & other wise we would have the RSftPoB and the RSftPoCtA.

 

Why CWDF many members insist on ignoring the official abbreviation of CRT and rather use their own CaRT or C&RT I never understand.

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41 minutes ago, Jerra said:

Well one problem is that it is most unusual (apart from on CWDF) to insert the & other wise we would have the RSftPoB and the RSftPoCtA.

 

Why CWDF many members insist on ignoring the official abbreviation of CRT and rather use their own CaRT or C&RT I never understand.

I think that it is self-fulfilling "we are in the cart"

 

What's the meaning of the phrase 'In the cart'?

In trouble.

What's the origin of the phrase 'In the cart'?

in the cartFrom the practice of taking prisoners for punishment or to their execution in carts. This is alluded to by John Dryden in his play The Loyal Brother, 1682: "Like thief and parson in a Tyburn-cart". Tyburn, with its infamous Tyburn-Tree, was London's principal place of public executions between the 12th and 18th centuries. Victims were transported to the gallows in a cart, which was also used as the means of execution - by attaching the noose and then driving the cart away.

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10 hours ago, canals are us? said:

The new logo looks more of a sewage or water companies logo.

 

What was wrong with the C&RT? Seemed sensible.

 

Have cart rebranded to do a phoenix?

 

Awful waste of money.

 

James:)

I remember seeing a similar logo for a water company in the states a few years ago.

10 hours ago, Hudds Lad said:

lucky you didnt read some of the other posts and see the new branded workwear and shiny fully liveried van then or you’d be even more riled up.

 

i don’t care what the blokes in suits say, this has gone way beyond a logo change, it is a full rebrand with all the bells and whistles and has to be costing a LOT more than they’re letting on.

https://www.canny-creative.com/10-rebranding-failures-how-much-they-cost/

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11 hours ago, adam1uk said:

But this is the whole point. CRT’s aim in all this is to get the government to continue the £50 million a year grant, by making the case that the money produces ‘wellbeing’ worth a lot more.

To be fair, the notion that waterways engender wellbeing is pretty much disproven by this current episode. Given that a simple circle logo has led to so many of the canals' most avid users frothing at the mouth, I think you could make a strong case that waterways are bad for your mental health...

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9 hours ago, Jerra said:

Well one problem is that it is most unusual (apart from on CWDF) to insert the & other wise we would have the RSftPoB and the RSftPoCtA.

 

Why CWDF many members insist on ignoring the official abbreviation of CRT and rather use their own CaRT or C&RT I never understand.

Perhaps because we're traditionalists, and these were the "official" abbreviations when CRT started up.

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11 hours ago, adam1uk said:

But this is the whole point. CRT’s aim in all this is to get the government to continue the £50 million a year grant, by making the case that the money produces ‘wellbeing’ worth a lot more. It’s not about getting individual walkers or runners to pay anything. 

 

It is possible to do two different things at the same time — focus on wellbeing for the general population, and do all the boaty things as well.  I haven’t seen any suggestion that spending on things like winter works or dredging will be reduced.

Am I the only person that thinks that we can do without some of these Directors of spin: any first year marketing student can come up wth these words in a focus session in the Uni bar. They don't need to visit a canal.

I have to confess, I switched off after the first paragraph, and I am an "interested party" So who is it writtten for: if the Chairperson and the CEO can't find any ideas themselves, thus requiring employment of persons in rubbish jobs, they should fall on their swords.

I've worked for several unsuccessful companies,  CRT, exhibits all the characteristics of drowning men clutching at straws particularly in their Wellness Department.

If HM Govt want to make this country a pleasant place to live by laying down good quality towpaths while ignoring litter, graffitti, foul language, knife carrying, drugs , inner city crime, stalking, noise pollution, air pollution, countryside despoilation, THEY NEED THEIR HEADS EXAMINED. 

Edited by LadyG
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Whinge whinge whinge whine whine whine. It's no wonder C&RT,    yup I don't do it the official way either, what the hell has that got to do with anything? are fed up of boaters if in fact they are. I think if I was in a place of influence with C&RT I would be thinking about getting rid of boaters if they are like you lot. Thankfully they are not.

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10 minutes ago, Iain_S said:

Perhaps because we're traditionalists, and these were the "official" abbreviations when CRT started up.

Surely a traditionalist would follow the tradition of not putting all the words into the abbreviation.  Incidentally IIRC CRT right from the start said the abbreviation was CRT not any of the daft variations.

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55 minutes ago, Richard Fairhurst said:

To be fair, the notion that waterways engender wellbeing is pretty much disproven by this current episode. Given that a simple circle logo has led to so many of the canals' most avid users frothing at the mouth, I think you could make a strong case that waterways are bad for your mental health...

Perhaps some clever marketing bod on here can set up a monkey survey to determine, using scientific methodology how folks on here have been affected by the recent re-launch.

Now extrapolate to all canal users by multiplication.

 

WHAT'S HAPPENING AT A TOWPATH NEAR YOU?

With some of the most heavily populated communities in England and Wales, we can provide accessible multi-cultural space [BLUE/GREEN/YELLOW/BLACK/WHITE/BROWN/PURPLE] where it’s MOST needed.

This is projected to increase the wellness of at least two million of the UK's projected 70 million population by the year 2238. Which, coincidentally marks the 200 year anniversary of the birth of John Muir : "make a course in good water and air ..... wash your spirit clean"   

 
"make a course in good water and air; and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own. Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you.   Keep close to Nature’s heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean."
 
My Spinnerism took 15 30 minutes of my valuable time [costed at £1,000,000 per hour, so only £250,000 £500,000]
Edited by LadyG
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36 minutes ago, pete.i said:

Whinge whinge whinge whine whine whine. It's no wonder C&RT,    yup I don't do it the official way either, what the hell has that got to do with anything? are fed up of boaters if in fact they are. I think if I was in a place of influence with C&RT I would be thinking about getting rid of boaters if they are like you lot. Thankfully they are not.

You think some members are boring old FRTs, then?

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