Peugeot Citroen- How the french Make and sell cars.

The French and automobiles share a relationship as old as automobiles and humans. Renault, Peugeot-Citroen, Buggati and Venturi are some of the well known French brands that have greatly helped in the way the industry stands today.

While Renault is the largest Automobile manufacturer in French also having a major Stake in Nissan, Peugeot grew within the country taking a majority stake in Citroen first in 1974. Today cementing it's place as the sixth largest car manufacturer in the world, Peugeot-Citroen has yet to capture various major markets including North America, India and Australia.  No wonder though how Peugeot Citroen has not amalgamated into a single automobile manufacturer working on the same lines as Renaul-Nissan. (Peugeot Citroen partnership is older than Renault-Nissan.)

Peugeot has been making cars since 1882 as per recorded history after the founders meet with Gottlieb Daimler. But their skills with wheels date way back to 1830 when they began making bicycles. When in 1974 Citroen was in trouble Peugeot starting buying stake in the company with support from the government.  The most notable way of recognizing a French car is definitely looking at their design and then the logo.

Citroen on the other hand was the first mass manufacturing car company after Ford. In no way is it erronous to say that Citroen has been the most radical car manufacturer in automobile history. The company really took their French roots pretty seriously and with government support their marketing campaigns put them on the world market as the fourth largest car makers.

Before Peugeot, Citroen's overtly ambitious plans had also put then in Jeopardy before when Michelin had to step in and save the company.  Surprisingly Peugeot-Citroen is the only company which has successfully run two brands in the market competing for the same customers. Peugeot's gamble of diluting Citroen's brand image has worked. The only other company to be able to do it successfully has been Toyota with its Scion brand and Vaulkswagen with its Seat and Skoda brands. Surprisingly Peugeot-Citroen is the sixth largest car maker even with the absense in major markets like U.S. and India. Peugeot did recently enter those markets but with bad results.

Alongwith Citroen's creative dynamics in car manufacture, Peugeot also inherited their marketing genius which is clearly visible in the following advertisements.





It is clearly visible that while Peugeot is the more mature tried and tested brand, Citroen comes out as the young and innovative brand which can stand out amongst the crowd similar to Scion cars. No wonder then if you find both the brands vying for a space in racing which no other car company has done succesfully. No surprise either if you find resemblance between the cars from two brands since they are based on the same model.