Progress will include the creation of data hubs that can pick up the data from all the legacy systems at manufacturer and dealer level and be able to store that data, process it and enable marketeers to do the propensity modelling.

That may pose a challenge for some dealers, who have traditionally regarded the customer data as theirs and who attribute great value to it within their business.

After all, in many other retail sectors, such as supermarkets and chain stores, it is the retailer who knows their customer best. It would be hard to imagine Tesco offering up its more than 15 million Clubcard members to its supplying farmers. But ultimately, in a franchised relationship, isn’t the franchisee the junior partner?

Asked who owns the data, Ratcliffe responded that ultimately it should be what’s right for the customer.

“The vast majority of customers would say their primary relationship is with the manufacturer’s brand. There will be instances where people have personal relationships whereby they’re buying from an individual or from a particular dealership owner and if they change franchise they might go with them, but those customer relationships are very much in a minority.

“Clearly we want to work in partnership with our network, very much our strategy around digital is doing that, to empower our retail partners in terms of what they can do for their customers through digital technology and we’re not going anywhere near any sort of parallel sales channel that takes the dealer out of the process.

 

‘Behind that piece of data is a real customer’

“The answer is it’s our – manufacturer and retailer – data. What the customer wants is a healthy relationship with both and therefore working together and collaborating is what’s best for the customer. That’s what will drive value.”

Ratcliffe is adamant that data is at the heart of 21st-century marketing. For marketeers at dealer and carmaker level, a primary task is to ensure everybody in the business understands the value of the data.

“There’s a culture change to be done,” he said.

“It’s not so much about quantity, it’s quality, ensuring we have that data collected correctly, with permissions and consents that comply with data protection regulation. If we’ve hundreds of thousands of pieces of data, none of which we can contact, it’s not much use except for generic analysis.