“Haircut while you wait for an oil change, Sir? No problem, please take a seat.” Even though car manufacturers and their retail networks are currently spending millions of pounds to improve showroom appearances and facilities, such a proposition seems unlikely. All the more so when their efforts have been criticised by interior design specialists for lacking real innovation compared with other retail sectors.

But at Sytner’s BMW showroom in Leicester a barber’s shop has featured alongside car display for the past two years. Explained dealer principal Nigel Hurley: “My predecessor was a customer of D B Hair when it operated from a clothing store in the city centre and persuaded the owner to set up shop here.

“It’s been very successful, both as a customer service and as a means of attracting new business through his customer database. Customers find parking easier here than in the city centre and the opportunity for a hair cut complements our service-while-you-wait car business.”

D B Hair’s owner David Barsby drives a BMW which, Hurley added, “provides a useful topic of conversation with customers and provides us with valuable feedback on our service standards”.

Sytner’s BMW outlet in Nottingham features another service which is novel by motor retail standards – a masseuse – but the group’s willingness to embrace other ideas, like business centres and complimentary membership of health clubs, is proving an exception rather than the rule. The most radical move among most dealerships has been to lower the profile of sales staff to counter the criticism among car buyers that showrooms are hostile and intimidating. Design, too, has been given an overhaul as carmakers step up their efforts to “differentiate the brand” in an overcrowded market.

The visual aspect of the more “customer friendly” approach is summed up by Alan Pulham, director of the National Franchised Dealers’ Association. “Instead of the gin palaces that characterised the 80s and 90s, we’re now seeing a move towards the more contemporary, relaxed cappuccino atmosphere,” he said.

But one company specialising in retail design has delivered a withering attack on the latest generation of showrooms, claiming that the industry must be much more imaginative if it is to attract extra business to justify the investment. “Millions of pounds are being spent to create just another series of glorified car parks,” said Gary Wilburn, creative director of HPW Partnership. “No other consumer based industry could survive with such low ‘footfall’. Customers want attractions other than a static display of cars.” With offices in Southampton and Edinburgh, HPW combines architecture with design and graphic communication. Its projects range from garden centres to bars and it began to pitch for motor retail work about 12 months ago. Wilburn attributes the fact that it’s yet to get a commission to a lack of real point-of-sale innovation on the part of manufacturers, coupled with the short-term nature of franchised agreements. “Rover dealers were encouraged to spend on showroom investment before the BMW sell-out, and nothing pointed up the precarious business of franchised motor retailing more than the dealer termination action by Mercedes-Benz,” said Wilburn.

He added: “Cars are works of art and should be displayed as such. Merely standing them in rows on polished tiles is a creative cop-out.” His view is echoed by Robin Baylis, who heads the motor division of design firm Claremont, which numbers BMW, Lexus, Renault and Mercedes-Benz among its clients. “Drive around towns and you have to conclude that most car showrooms are pretty staid and institutionalised,” he says. “Though manufacturers are starting to understand the retail environment, the emphasis is on the brand and the lifestyle it conveys, rather than an attempt to generate a feeling of excitement.”

Andy Myring, creative director of another design company, Pukka, commented: “

“Automotive manufacturers are finally waking up and realising that they need to own ‘emotional territory’.. “

Automotive manufacturers are finally waking up and realising that they need to own ‘emotional territory’ that paints a mental picture of their brand for the consumer. Audi equals design, BMW equals engineering, Renault equals innovative styling, Volvo equals safe but sexy…. but these concepts are still far too abstracted and disconnected from the end user. The results of these brand positions could, in time, be perceived as rather bland and uninspiring.”

If such arguments have any validity, they’re being subordinated by the “all-new customer friendly showroom environments” exemplified by the opening of Dagenham Motors’ flagship Ford outlet in Plaistow. The East London site, redeveloped at a cost of £500,000, is claimed to be the forerunner of Ford’s new European showroom strategy and will be reflected in Dagenham Motors’ other Ford outlets over the next three years.

The Plaistow showroom layout is intended to offer easier access not only to the models on display but also to product information through specially designed ‘spec pods’. The site also features a Service Advice Centre where customers can arrange an appointment time and are offered a free vehicle health check and fixed price before the start of any repair, followed by an explanation of the work and charges. It all adds up to what Bob Grant, Dagenham Motors’ operations director, describes as “a comfortable, clearly laid-out retailing environment that makes it easier for customers to learn about our products and services”. In redefining the role of its showrooms, Toyota/Lexus has taken a cue from motor show stands where visitors are initially greeted by hostesses. Scott Brownlee, Toyota’s public affairs manager, says: “There are two very different types of customer – those frightened of being approached straight away by a sales person and those who are actively interested in doing business. So the ‘greeter’s’ role is to determine the purpose of the visit. If someone just wants to look round, that’s fine. Only if they have something more specific in mind are they introduced to a salesperson. Crucially, the host or hostess is on a straight salary, rather than performance-related pay, to avoid the kind of pressured approach that people complain about.

“

“The idea is to create more of the atmosphere you get at a motor show..”

The idea is to create more of the atmosphere you get at a motor show,” added Brownlee. “Each car has its own backdrop with all the information about it to hand. There is also an area for children, with Play Stations and so on.”

Saab, too, is moving salespeople ‘back of house’ in favour of hosts as part of its Unlimited Partnership programme which features city centre sites and brand centres. The 10 city centre sites will be controlled by dealers and have a direct sales role, but Saab itself is to look after the brand centres, two of which have already been set up at Heathrow and Birmingham airports, with four more planned by the end of next year (see ‘Strike up the brand!’ feature on page 30).

Alan Pulham’s comment about the ‘cappuccino’ trend is reflected in the makeover of Peugeot showrooms where café areas feature along with children’s play areas. Sales desks have been replaced with brochure displays, and there are now what Peugeot coyly describes as “private negotiation areas” for the actual business of selling. Windows will no longer be plastered with promotional offers and exterior cladding will conform to a vivid blue, with pole signs and totems bearing the Peugeot lion in chrome.

Peter Haynes, director of Peugeot’s Business Institute, says: “We want customers to enjoy the whole process of shopping for a new car, and to feel that they are welcome to take as long as they need to make the purchasing decision.” He said the new corporate identity was intended to be “cost effective from a dealer perspective, while retaining an overall feeling of quality”.

Salespeople at Honda could be forgiven for getting the impression they have become pariahs. Mark Davies, the company’s general manager of cars, said: “

“We are cleansing showrooms of salespeople – they will be at the back, cars will be at the front.”

We are cleansing showrooms of salespeople – they will be at the back, cars will be at the front.” It’s part of what Honda calls a new “dealer identity programme” which will include softer interiors and simplified exterior signage. The programme is being rolled out among 60 dealerships and is due for completion in around two years’ time as Honda expands its franchised network from just under 200 to 230. Davies makes it clear, though, that no amount of design cosmetic can mask poor service. “If the customer interface isn’t right, nothing will compensate. What we have to ask ourselves is: ‘Are people comfortable doing business with us?’ The best corporate identity in the world can be blown by one individual with the wrong attitude.”

Robin Baylis of Claremont is none too sure about the wisdom of making salespeople less conspicuous. “The purpose of a showroom after all is to sell cars, and a medium size dealership has a third more sales personnel than six years ago. I can’t believe that a salesperson – highly motivated as he or she has to be – is going to be content with hanging around waiting for the greeter to make an introduction. They will be jostling among themselves to see who can be first to meet a prospect.”

Meanwhile, it’s not just the manufacturers who are keen to promote their name. As the retail sector consolidates into ever larger dealer groups, showroom redevelopment also presents an opportunity to shed well-known names from the past and to signage them with the new owner. Inchcape, for example, is putting its name on volume dealerships previously trading as Mann Egerton and Wadham Kenning. Cost of the new signage is around £20,000 per outlet, totalling more than £500,000 for the sites which have already been re-named and those destined for change. But that’s a modest part of the £50m which Inchcape has spent on dealership redevelopment over the past three years. Allen Scott, marketing services manager for Inchcape Retail, said the change of name was partly intended to overcome a brand “fight” between Inchcape, the previous owner and the manufacturer franchise. “Consumer research shows that the strongest resonance is with the marque rather than the dealer name,” said Scott. Nevertheless, dealer names traditionally associated with prestige marques – H A Fox (Jaguar), Hunters (Land Rover) and Gerard Mann (Mercedes-Benz), for example – have been retained.

Inchcape’s re-branding exercise might also be about ego. Its retail division’s managing director Robert Hazelwood commented: “We are currently the sleeping giant of the automotive trade… our ambitious growth and rebranding programme will see us take our rightful place in the market.”

Such moves, however, don’t answer the critics’ point that selling new cars lacks excitement and radical thinking. Gary Wilburn of HPW Partnership says there’s a useful analogy to be made with garden centres. “At one time, they were nurseries, largely dependent on seasonal trade. Now, with the development of other selling and service opportunities – from Christmas decorations to cafes – they’ve increased turnover from £25m-£50m to £75m- £150m. Visit one to buy a shrub and I’ll guarantee you’ll buy something else as well.” The example which really gets Wilburn enthused, however, is Nike Town in London. “Nike makes the purchasing experience truly pleasurable and exciting. For goodness sake, if you can do that for trainers, surely it can be done with cars.”

No reason why not, says Andy Myring of Pukka – but at some considerable cost. Myring was previously European development director at Nike and recalls the scale of the company’s commitment to Nike Town. “It paid for the most expensive piece of real estate in Europe – the junction of Oxford Street and Regent Street – and spent millions of dollars on fitting out. Nike Town employs a sales team of over 300, has in excess of 30 in-store marketing campaigns a year, runs sporting clubs and has an army of marketers, designers, media creatives, project managers, and so on. “The key to the store’s success is that everyone in the team understands the Nike brand, the target consumers and the need to keep the experience for the customer as fresh and as exciting as possible.”

Though no one has suggested Nike trainers as a cross-selling opportunity for car showrooms, Gary Wilburn says

“..designer clothing from the likes of Paul Smith, Prada and Boss would be appropriate for the prestige car brands.”

designer clothing from the likes of Paul Smith, Prada and Boss would be appropriate for the prestige car brands. “Only they’d have to be presented in the right way… most of the displays of car manufacturer branded clothing are awful,” he said.

That could be down to profit margin, replies Robin Baylis of Claremont. “Why focus your attention on something costing, at most, a few hundred pounds, when you have a product costing upwards of £20,000?”

Both Wilburn and Baylis are surprised that manufacturers don’t make more of their motorsport activities as a showroom feature. “Pictures and, above all, moving images of F1 events would inject much needed excitement and animation,” said Wilburn. “Look at a welldefined exhibition centre and you have lots happening between the ceiling and the floor. What you find in the typical car showroom is nothing – a waste of space.”