IT IS simple enough. A customer goes into a car showroom and buys a new car, gives in a part-exchange and off he or she goes. But how did he/she come to be in that showroom in the first place? Mainly through marketing and advertising.

I was at a fleet seminar last week where one of the speakers was John Wright, from advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi, and how interesting he was. He went through the process by which a manufacturer might develop its advertising message out of the many choices available.

In the case of a car, do they choose an emotional approach where safety is used to appeal to the protective instinct? Or do they go for the purely rational argument outlining all the good reasons to choose their product in particular, trying to close off any reasons to choose differently? Do they choose the mini-series format – a series of ads with characters people will get to know?

These often take a comedy theme, but with a serious message. Then there is the good old 'price' advert, not so much selling the car itself as the low price, free giveaway features or cheap finance terms.

We all have our favourites – remember the original Peugeot 405 advert, with the blazing field and that old tune 'Take My Breath Away'? Everyone remembers because it was a classic – but there are also adverts which can positively turn you off the product.

But while the adverts help move millions of new cars, what about used cars? When they are two or three years' old, do we see them being advertised on the television? Not a lot.

Would manufacturers spend millions of pounds advertising a used car? Probably not, although many do now advertise their approved used car schemes. But at a time when future residuals are so important to new car choice, would it not give the industry more confidence in a particular model if it were going to be marketed as a used car? We will never know, because it will never happen.

Marketing moved the earth

SOMETIMES the best marketing comes from the most unlikely people, and their efforts to attract people onto their premises. I saw a fantastic example a couple of weeks ago.

On a blackboard, propped up against a wall next to a used car 'bombsite' stocked with not exactly the best examples of today's modern cars, chalked in big letters was 'SALE – Earthquake Damaged Stock – Everything Must Go'.'