New arbitrations In 2006, the sales of new cars dropped indeed by 3,3% and fell on their lowest level in
France since 1998. The same year, the registrations of new vehicles broke down of 14,7% in
Paris and have decrease in the majority of the great urban centres. Victim of the new arbitrations of the consumers, the car suffered, for a share, of continue rise of the prices of the real estate and, to a lesser extent, a “World cup effect” which encouraged the households to be equipped out of top-of-the-range television sets. In parallel, the traditional advertising receipts which ensured the success of the models up to now are used. The automobile marks lost their “statutory” side mainly. Whereas in the years 1970, a car could reach from three to four years of wages, today, it is possible to acquire a good model for 10.000 euros, that is to say six months of average wages. Consequently, the simple fact of having a car ceased translating and developing a social status.the new consumer have changed. He looks at his close environment with a new eye. Debates on the climatic reheating, as well as the repeated questionings of the media. The ecological policy starts to have an influence in the great urban centres. From there to deduce from it that the communication should be centred on the only ecological message, there is a step… that the agencies would be quite advised not to however cross without reflecting. Because the consumer himself did not complete his moult. We raise a paradox between the increasing concern of the French for the environment, the fact that they admit that the car pollutes and their refusal to give up it. The stake is to manage to juggle with these contradictory aspirations. According to Raphaël de Andreis, general director of BETC Euro RSCG, person in charge for Peugeot. : “The car is in the foreground of the current changes, and will have to reinvent its communication while placing the ecological stakes in the middle of its messages. It will be even the major challenge of our trade in the next years, taking into account the importance of the investments concerned which largely dominate the other categories.