Citroen is celebrating its 90th birthday with a new visual identity, a new range of products that brings back one of the most famous names from its history, the DS ‘Goddess’, and is makes changes to its retail network which, it claims, will set a new standard for customer relations.
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“In a difficult economic context, and in a period of changing automotive uses and new relationships between customers and brands, Citroën is taking action and reinventing itself, the automaker said in a statement.
Developed jointly by Citroën’s marketing and styling teams, headed by Jean-Pierre Ploué, and the Landor agency, an international branding and design network, the logo is the first visible sign of change. The chevrons have are now free from their frame and three dimensional.
Citroën’s new advertising tagline is “Créative Technologie” written in French and used worldwide.
To “enhance customer relations and the brand experience”, Citroën said it was “transforming its international network of sales outlets, including showroom, reception, sales and maintenance areas”.
Inside, the redesign is intended to lead customers “naturally” to the services they are looking for. All Citroën’s worldwide sales outlets, including new buildings, redesigns of existing buildings and ‘revamps’, now have ‘turnkey’ access to the new modular, three-level design. Over a three-year period, Citroën’s 8,000 sales outlets will be renewed.
The brand has implemented a set of customer commitments, dubbed ‘the fundamentals’, for sales and after-sales. These include: taking care of customers immediately and on an individual basis; providing fast and clear answers; ensuring personalised vehicle handover and presentation; respecting lead times; giving explanations of work carried out; and performing follow-up after vehicle work. Citroën networks are assessed on the basis of these commitments.
These practices are being rolled out through a ‘lean management’ approach, operational for 10 years in PSA Peugeot Citroën plants and applied from today in sales outlets.
“Citroën’s objective is to make its network a standard-setter on service quality,” the automaker said.
The revived DS will be one of three new new additional model lines, positioned in the B, M1 and M2 segments, and launched from 2010.
The new line will also have a new naming system. Existing main range vehicles carry the letter C and a number while the MPVs are branded Picasso; the new models will be called the DS line – DS3, DS4 and DS5.
No other details were announced.
