After a record-breaking first quarter with snow and cold temperatures throughout many parts of the U.S., the calendar indicates springtime is nearly here. As nature springs back to life, many companies signal the change in seasons by refreshing their marketing campaigns. Such is the case with what MillerCoors is doing with Bear Trucking’s fleet of vehicles in the western United States.
The latest phase of a well-coordinated, multi-year campaign that allows Bear Trucking to rebrand its trailers quickly, more efficiently and at a significant cost savings, is nearing completion. What once took nearly 30 days of taking trucks out of service is now being turned around in one week, courtesy of the Spedian Changeable Graphics System offered by leading fleet services graphics provider Modagrafics. New artwork promoting the Coors Light brand is being applied to more Bear trailers, ahead of when beer sales begin to tick upwards as people rediscover outdoor activities.
“The banners with the new branding look phenomenal, and the whole fleet of trailers looks great,” exclaimed Jeff Watson, Bear Trucking’s general manager (GM). “It’s so much easier and there are no issues replacing the graphics, even on trailers we’ve had for 20 years. It’s much better than what we did previously to represent MillerCoors brands.”
Spedian changeable graphics aces its first test
The changeover of more than 70 trailers began in 2017. MillerCoors has provided Bear Trucking and other distributors with fleet decal kits for the last 15 years. As a dedicated fleet, Bear ships beer from MillerCoors’ Irwindale, California brewery to distributors in several western states, and all of its trailers carry brand marketing messages on the sides and back panels.
Modagrafics already had an established relationship with MillerCoors and was in the process of introducing Spedian, a graphics system with a sizeable economic impact on cost, time and labor savings.
“Our procurement team worked with Modagrafics to do a test program with Bear in 2017 before doing the larger scale project last year,” said Jessefer Vazquez, MillerCoors sales operations coordinator and Bear Trucking liaison.
Unsure of what to expect from the testing, Jeff Watson, Bear Trucking's GM, was pleased with how well the banners have held up. Spedian passed its first test.
On the high road to greater profitability
Given the financial burden on brewers like MillerCoors to keep their distributors’ truck fleets updated with the latest logos and branding, the Spedian test results impressed Vazquez and Ken Brown, MillerCoors sales operations manager, in more ways than one.
“Ken and I realized the cost savings potential,” recalled Vazquez. “We wanted to have an option to remove and replace the fleet graphics at a lower cost for everyone. By switching from traditional decals to using Spedian to replace them, it would save hundreds per trailer. We saw it as a better way to ask fleets like Bear Trucking to keep the trailers fresh with new graphics.”
Sonny Woodall, Bear Trucking’s owner, liked what he heard. Due to the previous cost factors around removing and replacing fleet decals – not to mention keeping them out of service for weeks – the company only changed the graphics on their trailers every three years. Woodall approved the switch to Modagrafics’ Spedian system and phase one was launched last October. The project involved converting 34 trailers at Bear Trucking’s headquarters in San Bernardino.
Trucks back in service in one week
Normally, the process of installing film decals takes at least 17 days along with a larger installation crew, but after only seven days, all 34 of Woodall's trailers were finished, enabling the trailers to get back to business. During the installation, the Modagrafics’ two-person crew was timed at just 18 minutes to complete a full graphics changeover on a trailer.
“There are many advantages to using Spedian. They handle every part of the installation. They also walked us through the process and are real pros; every step was covered. Another thing is you can’t see the framing system. It looks like a traditional decal but it’s so easy to remove. With other changeable graphics systems, you can see the steel frames,” said Vazquez.
Fast and reliable graphics changeovers
The flexibility Spedian offers allows more on-the-fly change whenever MillerCoors brand marketing warrants it.
“It gives us the ability to create graphics for special events, such as a sporting event or a festival. You can roll up your regular graphic and put it into storage. Once you’re done with the special event decal, you can remove and replace it with the one you have in storage,” said Vazquez.
The completion of phase two will see 34 more trailers on the road with the new Coors Light marketing message, which dovetails the strategy that Brown, Vazquez and the MillerCoors marketing team designed from the start.
“We’re hoping to pilot this program in the Pacific region and share our success with other MillerCoors regions around the nation," stated Vazquez.
