Renault’s latest ad is titled “That’s France”. Few cars appear there, but we hear Mireille Mathieu or Michel Polnareff, and we come across Jane Birkin, Joséphine Baker, Jamel Debbouze, Paul Eluard or Lino Ventura. Through this ” declaration of love to the French “the brand claims its origins and highlights its decision to produce its next electric models in France, called R4 and R5, a direct evocation of two automotive icons that marked France during the “thirty glorious years”.
Another national novel inspires Ford Europe, which now looks across the Atlantic. On the Old Continent, the brand observes that it is considered as “stateless person” and suffers from a blurry image. Until then, Ford made a point of designing cars specifically adapted to European culture, but the page has been turned. The progressive electrification of its range will be an opportunity for a “Americanization” driven at a brisk pace, which will be expressed through the name and style of its future models.
“Coca-Cola, Apple, Microsoft… Europeans love American brands, and we should be proud to be Americans”assured, in mid-December, to the press, Martin Sander, the new boss of Ford Europe, who hopes to surf on the influence exerted by the American way of life and the evocative power of its automotive references.
“Madeleines de Proust” and neo-retro
Renault and Ford are not the first to try to capture some soft power of their country of origin. Mini (BMW group) has long held the colors of “Britishness” high. The Union Jack can appear in large format on the roof of his cars or through the play of light from the rear lights. Fiat (Stellantis group) is also a past master in the art of associating its little 500 with the recurring theme of la dolce vita.
For its part, Volvo has started to multiply references to its Scandinavian DNA since its acquisition in 2010 by the Chinese group Geely. On the side of the seats, at the front, is sewn a discreet little Swedish flag. Outside, the headlights now incorporate LED rays that make up a figure evoking Thor’s hammer. As for Chinese brands, they highlight their origins, but from a purely aesthetic angle. The designers of the Han sedan, from the BYD brand, explain that they designed the front headlights like the mustache of a dragon…
Contrary to DS (Stellantis group), which tries to establish a bridge between its ambitions in the “automotive premium” and the legacy of “French luxury”, Renault has opted for a storytelling more popular heritage, with the intention of “to give meaning to the brand, to make it a singular, warm, militant and modern signature, while the obsession with making the group the world’s number one automobile had blurred its image “, Underlines Arnaud Belloni, who has taken charge of the manufacturer’s marketing since the arrival of Luca de Meo as general manager of the diamond group in 2020.
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