The NEC Motorhome Show: All Product, Little Story.

Last month I visited the Motorhome and Caravan Show at the NEC with a very clear thought in my mind, I can absolutely see van life in my future. I have spent over 25 years in automotive retail, so I am used to walking into big halls full of metal. I understand franchising, network strategies, dealer dynamics and how hard OEMs work to build brand differentiation when the underlying platforms are often very similar. I arrived genuinely excited, ready to narrow down what might work for me. I left more bemused than when I walked in.

What struck me first was how little differentiation there was between brands. Row after row of vehicles, all sitting together with very little dedicated brand space. When you are new to the sector it is incredibly hard to tell one from another. Most are built on the same handful of base vehicles, the layouts repeat, the finishes and materials look broadly similar and the quality across the board is, at a glance, very high. After a while it starts to feel as if the only visible point of difference is price.

That might sound dramatic, but that is how it felt walking the halls. Even where brands did have their own stand, very few used it to tell a clear and differentiated story. There were logos, flags, lightboxes and rows of product, but not much to help me understand what they stand for, who they are really for, where they are different in their approach or why I should choose them over the almost identical van ten metres away. As a newcomer, I was not being invited into a world, I was just being shown a product.

Where the exhibitor was a multi brand retailer the challenge became even more acute. I found myself relying heavily on one or two excellent salespeople to explain what really mattered and what did not. In those conversations I stopped thinking in terms of brand and started thinking in terms of “the one the salesman likes” or “the one that happens to be in stock”. With my background, I know exactly what a fragile place that is to build any sort of long term brand equity.

Leaving the entire experience to the local salesperson is a risk. Not because salespeople are bad, the opposite in fact, a great salesperson can rescue a weak brand presence, but because their personal preferences, their monthly targets and their interpretation of your brand do far too much of the heavy lifting. In a multi franchise environment, where they are representing several competing marques, that risk is amplified. Whoever shouts loudest in the bonus plan, or happens to have allocation, may get the attention, regardless of whether they are actually the right fit for the customer in front of them.

Another surprise for me was who was not there. I did not see Ford, Volkswagen, Fiat, Mercedes or Citroën with their own conversions, or as manufacturers telling their base vehicle story. Given how central those platforms are to the driving experience, safety, connectivity and aftersales support, that felt like a real missed opportunity. Having helped Citroën over the years with their marketing, POS and brand literature, and more specifically with their Holiday Camper Van activity, I know how powerful that manufacturer narrative can be when it is brought through clearly. Brand loyalty, retail network, reliability and reputation all play a vital part in the purchase of a vehicle, whether that is the base product or a conversion by themselves or a third party, so why would they not want to support this vital sales channel?

Amongst all of this there were some really bright spots. Hymer, Westfalia, Bailey and Laika stood out positively for me, with a stronger sense of identity. Some of the smaller players such as the brilliant Project Yonder and ONYX also cut through because they clearly know who they are and who they are for. When you have less scale you are almost forced to have a point of view. Those brands felt more like hosts welcoming you into their world, not just exhibitors lining up stock.

All of this brings me back to a simple observation that has been true in automotive for a long time, and is now biting hard in the motorhome and campervan world. When products converge, brand has to do the heavy lifting. If most vehicles share similar platforms, layouts and levels of finish, then the differentiator cannot just be another cupboard design or another finance offer. It has to be the story you tell about the life your product unlocks, the kind of trips it is built for, the type of customer you are championing and the ecosystem that sits around the vehicle.

For someone like me, ready to commit but new to the category, the questions in my head are not primarily about water tanks and storage. They are more like, am I a long weekend person or a three month tourer, do I want the flexibility of something compact or the comfort of something bigger, will I mostly be on serviced pitches or chasing more remote spots, how much do I care about driving feel and tech versus pure living space. A strong brand and a clear story help me answer those questions. Rows of similar vans do not.

This is where I see a huge opportunity. Shows like the NEC should be the ultimate expression of a brand’s world. They are a rare moment when thousands of highly engaged people self select and walk through the door. It ought to be the place where you make it incredibly obvious what you stand for, and then make it very easy to carry that experience back into your local franchised retailer. At the moment, too much of that bridging work is left to chance, or to the enthusiasm of individual salespeople.

At Acuity we spend our time helping brands connect those dots, from the high level positioning through to the reality of the retail environment and the local customer journey. We have done that in mainstream automotive and we have done it specifically with commercial vehicles and conversions. The pattern is always the same, when you give retailers something clear and compelling to work with, and you support them with the right tools and activation, they can deliver something far richer than “here are the prices, which one do you want”.

Van life is full of emotion, aspiration and long held dreams. The sector is not short of great products. What it needs now, in my view, is braver, clearer storytelling and a much stronger bridge between national brand and local experience. If that resonates with you, whether you are an OEM, a converter or a multi brand retailer, I would be very happy to continue the conversation.