Citroen has built a brand that is solid and strong in its positioning. The brand has unique characteristics such as, purist design, easy to use and slightly less sophisticated technology and finally a very environmentally friendly and fuel-efficient vehicle. These characteristics make the vehicle a perfect fit for global takeover.
The company CEO Linda Jackson, made a point in late 2019 that the brand is expanding on their internationalization strategy, with primary focus on penetrating the Indian market in 2021. They plan to bring in a couple completely new models with international scope to India by the end of the year.
The Internationalization Strategy Of The Launch
With the announcement of the launch into the indian market, Citroen is positioning such a lunch under the branding of “Inspired by You”. This campaign is going to take all that Citroen has done well over the past five years in Europe, and replicate the fundamentals of the brand to correctly position themselves in this new market. These fundamentals will be explained a little further:
A powerful and differentiated product offering. This ensures their vehicles are unique in design, sleek in appeal and add value to the customer. With an extremely competitive industry, vehicle manufactures have to constantly push the boundaries of design, whilst keeping costs low and adding as much value to the end-user as possible.
Price positioning is extremely important when penetrating new markets. With regards to the Indian market, Citroens has created valuable business ties to local manufacturers and established joint ventures with vehicle assembly companies to enable them to bring to market a vehicle that is extremely affordable for the developing nation.
Citroen have placed customer experience near the top of core fundamentals of the brand. This customer experience is essential for the Indian market as their culture is all about experiences and maximizing value to the customer.
The Exceptional Growth Potential And Unique Market
India is the second most populated country in the world, with a population of 1,3 billion. This booming population is growing at such a rate, it is soon to be the most populated place on the planet. These numbers alone are a major incentive to capture such a market. Another interesting factor is that the nation has the lowest median age on the planet, meaning the country is full of vibrant youth and exceptional potential.
With a steadily growing automobile ownership rate in India combined with a growing middle class, it is a perfect time for Citroen to enter the market with their beautiful designs and environmentally friendly vehicles.
On that note, Durban, South Africa has the largest population of Indians outside of India with a population of 1,3 million. This population has also allowed Citroen Durban to expand their marketing strategy to match that of their Indian campaign ‘Inspired by You’. With 3 branches in and around Durban, the brand is doing everything in their power to penetrate the competitive environment.
Citroens Push For A Green Footprint
In late 2020, Citroen made a major push into the purely green space by creating a new model of the C4 called the e-C4. With zero C02 emotions, 100% green and environmentally friendly and an extremely silent and smooth drive experience. This innovation is what sets the brand apart from many of its competitors.
This new business direction is also exactly what is needed in a majorly populated country, India, that produces major emissions and pollution. The car is extremely impressive in the fact that it reaches speeds of 150k/hr, takes only a couple hours to charge and is completely silent, no jolting or vibrations whatsoever. Hopefully these vehicles will come to Citroen Durban soon too, because the electric vehicle market is a completely untapped market in South Africa.
