Peugeot Citroën faux pas: Still out of step?
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Dongfeng has to date not responded to the French carmaker's overture.
The tie-up already has two factories making the Citroën C2, C-Quatre, Elysee, C-Triomphe, C5 and Xsara Picasso, as well as the Peugeot 207, 307 and 408, with a combined production capacity of 450,000 cars a year. But 40 percent of the capacity remains idle due to inert sales.
Dongfeng is also in top gear in its own-brand passenger car business.
It's clear that PSA Peugeot Citroën even doesn't know how to properly communicate with Chinese people.
Here are two examples.
A media friend of mine told me that when the French carmaker's new global CEO Philippe Varin attended a ceremony in Wuhan for completion of its second plant with Dongfeng at the end of last year, he unexpectedly gave his Japanese-language business cards to the Chinese media.
More surprising is what came after finishing a group interview - he said "thanks" to the media in Japanese, according to the friend who was on the scene.
The faux pas, which I don't believe Mr. Varin made intentionally, made him a laughingstock in the Chinese media.
I personally believe he was well aware he was in China, not Japan. And as a French speaker, it's not that strange he doesn't know the difference between the Chinese and Japanese languages.
So perhaps Varin can be excused, but it was still a major blunder for PSA Peugeot Citroën China, especially those responsible for communications and public relations.
The misstep came after Citroën enraged many Chinese people at home and abroad at the beginning of 2008, as it advertised its strong sales in Spain with an artificially distorted portrait of late Chinese leader Mao Zedong's face.
The French carmaker then pulled the ad and apologized.
All of the mistakes, no matter if big or small, show that PSA Peugeot Citroën has failed to read the Chinese market.
The French carmaker - if it doesn't want to meet its own Waterloo in China again - needs to learn some of the local dances rather than simply seeking a new partner to play checks and balances.
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