Executive View: Should dealerships preserve their naming rights?

Professor Jim Saker, regular Automotive Management contributor and president of the Institute of the Motor Industry, ponders on the consumer's perception of the name above a dealership's doors.

The announcement last month that the names Bristol Street Motors and the Macklin Motors were going to disappear from dealerships in England and Scotland respectively and be subsumed under the Vertu Motors brand makes total sense from a strategic marketing perspective.

It does however raise aquestion: what is the significance of a name?

The answer is - quite a lot.  

A few years ago, some research was done by an OEM looking at the naming of car dealerships and how this impacted on a customer’s perception of the organisation.

The findings showed that generally the public were not totally sure who owned the dealership.

This was particularly interesting when a customer had cause to complain. Using an historic brand name so as not to offend, if the dealership was named Saab Leicester or Leicester Saab, the customer believed that the dealership was owned by the manufacturer, and that it was simply a retail outlet for the OEM.

However, if the dealership was called John Smith Saab it was apparent to the customer that the responsibility was that of John Smith and that is where any criticism should be directed.

When I was a child in South London the name above the door had quite a significant consequence. Mickey Purser was the chairman of Millwall Football Club in the 60’s and early 70’s. He also owned Purser’s VW dealership in the Old Kent Road.

Every time Millwall lost at home the fans would throw bricks through his plate glass windows. Ironically in the '60s the team went 59 home games undefeated.

The decision by Robert Forrester to bring all the company’s brands together is critical to position the business as a strategically functioning entity.

The Vertu brand has grown and established itself in the marketplace. It has a reputation for being a very successful values driven business which has won a lot of respect for its support of local communities.

 With the rebranding there is a continuity that will be recognised north of the border and opens the door to more nationwide awareness raising and a consolidation of marketing budgets. The company is also heavily involved with sponsorship of basketball, cricket and football.

However there appears to be one dilemma - in July this year Robert announced: “Given that this season marks 100 years of Bristol Street Motors, it is the perfect time for the brand to sit alongside one of the oldest clubs in the professional game, and one that holds special significance on a personal level having been a Burnley FC fan for so many years.”

The downside of this is that, from the experience at Millwall, if Burnley don’t keep up their current run in the Championship it might be safer to rebrand the dealerships while keeping the sponsorship as Bristol Street Motors!