New arbitrations

In 2006, the sales of new cars dropped 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 fallen in the majority of the great urban centres. Victim of the new arbitrations of the consumers, the car suffered, for a share, continuation of the 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 living car, kind of “travelling house” that Renault in the years 1990 popularized, would have also lead in the wing. the new consumer moved. He looks at his close environment with a new eye. The debates on the climatic reheating, the repeated questionings of the media and to the film militant of Al Gore, the ex-vice-president of the United States, passed by there. The ecological policy starts to have an influence in the great urban centres, in “Today in France”, Christian Gerondeau, owner of the Federation of the car-clubs, by commenting on the fall of the registrations. 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. One raises 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. To Raphaël de Andreis, General manager of Euro BETC RSCG, director of Peugeot: “The car is in the foreground of the current changes, estimates it, 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. ”