“The manufacturers spend billions promoting their brands worldwide and I’m happy to get on board with that, as nowadays the customer often feels they’re dealing with the manufacturer and we’re the conduit,” said Smyth.

“However, I see Swansway as the brand for the people who work within our business. It’s important to put your own brand, and the values you maintain in your own business, across to your staff so in turn they’ll be proud to provide great service for you. The end-user may still think they’re representing the manufacturer, but we don’t worry about that.”

Ray Sommerville, chief executive of Perrys Group, which has 40 dealerships with 15 franchises which all operate under the dealer brand, said clearly the manufacturers are most important as consumers don’t buy Perrys-branded cars. He sees the carmaker brand domination continuing in the specialist and prestige segments, but warned against removing differentiation. “If you anonymise the dealer brand, particularly with mainstream brands, then the retailer which has the best reputation cannot make the most of that. I believe the consumer will buy the car secondly on the basis of the dealer sub-brand and the level of service they can expect. We’re heavily involved in social media, public relations, local campaigns, supporting school sports teams and grassroots sports because we see it is still important to put the Perrys brand in front of consumers.”

The manufacturer may be the new car heavyweight but dealers have more opportunity to promote their own brand better in the used car market, according to Nick King, market research director at Auto Trader. He said the need for brand building by any business can be illustrated by the fact that global giants such as Coca-Cola are still committed to spending billions of pounds on brand marketing even when they’re already a household name.

“There’s an argument that people will go to a manufacturer website to get their information, but do they really go there to look for used cars? We believe most look locally at their dealers or at a third-party website such as Auto Trader, so wherever the dealer is promoting its brand it needs to be shouting ‘look at me’ and ‘come to me’.”

‘Marketing spend should be seen as an investment’

Local television is most effective at raising brand awareness, but the challenge is being able to keep up the spend, so billboard poster campaigns, local radio and events still play a crucial part in engaging with their local prospective purchasers.