Peugeot to launch upscale sub-brand.

Yesterday, Peugeot announced that the company will create a new upscale sub-brand under the name hors-série. I know when I first read it, my first reaction too was - horse what? The main idea behind the move by Peugeot is to attract more affluent buyers to the brand as well as to their higher margin upscale models. Peugeot's sister company Citroen too have recently revived the illustrious "DS" badge with a similar motivation behind. The first hors-série model would be the RCZ pictured above.


Citroen DS3

According to PSA/Peugeot-Citroen's brand boss Jean-Marc Gales, there are three price points in the European market: low cost, mainstream and more distinctive. PSA does not have low-cost models while both the Peugeot and Citroen brands cover the mainstream area. The DS and hors-série car lines will expand PSA's coverage into the more distinctive segment.

Hors-série is a French word that means cars built out (hors) of mass production (série). And no, they are not going to translate this into other language for overseas market and the Hors-série brand will be used throughout the world where PSA intends to sell their Hors-série models.

Monsieur Gales mentions that VW uses the German word Das Auto as its tagline in many non-German speaking markets.

Personally I am not sure if that is such a good idea. And I don't think VW's tagline is a very good example too. The French are known to be very proud of their Gallic heritage , culture and most of all, their language. Remember that the mighty Romans took 7 years to bring the brave Gauls, ancestors of the modern day French, into submission. Until today, the French Foreign Legion Légion étrangère is still regarded as the toughest elite armed corps in the world. Enough about history and now that we understood the background and cultural context behind this, let's go back to automotive marketing.

VW did not have a very consistent marketing tagline. It is quite obvious the the tagline "Das Auto" (translates into The Car) does not even sound distinctively German (to a regular man ignorant of European culture, let alone language) to begin with. At one time, VW of America operated with the tagline Drives Wanted. While in Europe the company stuck with Aus Liebe zum Automobil (translates into "for the love of cars"). Even after explaining the meaning of Das Auto, most of the general public are likely to still be confused, probably asking so what about this "The Car." I understand where is VW coming from, they created cars the defined an entire generation in Europe - the Beetle, the Kombi, Golf GTi Mk1. But the general public is not very interested in history, let alone automotive history. They want to buy from an established brand but are not interested in your classic models that petrolheads raved on and on about.

Audi's Vorsprung durch Technik is an exception. Can't really pinpoint why but maybe its the universal ability to link the word Technik with technology. And that magic word, technology, is far easier to click with the lay man's mind than "The Car." And Audi certainly have the credentials to live up to the tagline, Le Mans winnning TDi racers, quattro that revolutionised world rallying, aluminium space frame construction, etc etc. But it is still a rare exception.

Neither BMW or Mercedes-Benz uses German words in their tagline outside of Germany. The Germans are known for their logical and methodical ways, and this can clearly be seen in the way they name their cars. They completely side step cultural and language barriers when selling their cars overseas by giving all their cars alphabet-numerical names. A 5-series is as easily said by a Chinese buyer as well as an American as is a German. So is an E-class. Arabs too won't have any issue with numbers and alphabets. A more premium sub-brand with alphabetical names like M, or AMG or S-line or RS-line would be far easier to remember. To make things more puzzling, all of Peugeot's model line-up have names made up of numerical combinations. So you would expect that the reason in doing so was partly due to language.

When Hyundai launched the Tucson SUV locally, the company had to run a radio ad campaign educating people how the Tucson name is pronounced. Non-Americans would not think of the old Spanish outpost in the desert of Arizona at the mention of Tucson. Most people here still call it "tuck-son." When you need to teach people how to pronounce the name of your product rather than doing the actual act of selling. That's never a good start.

Related link : Peugeot SR1 Concept with removable wrist watch