Touring into the City of Lights’ Brands

Mention the country France, and many would picture Paris, La Ville-Lumière – the City of Lights, The Paris Fashion Week, Cannes Film Festival, luxurious Bordeaux wines and vineyards, French Alps, famous landmarks such as Eiffel Tower, Louvre Museum, Palace of Versailles and Arc de Triomphe, friendly and wealthy people as well as their love culture.

France is widely known as a remarkable destination for everyone from romantic couples to art and architecture lovers, wine tasters, fashionistas and even skiers. With 79 million visitors per year, France is considered as one of the most popular tourist destinations in the European countries (http://www.brandchannel.com/papers_review.asp?sp_id=572).

However, besides tourism, people and culture, France is also branded and wanted for their brands of diversified industries including in fashion, automobiles, tires, cosmetics and beauty, and many more. There are several types of brands in the market – product brands, retail brands, service brands, franchise brands and of course, corporate brands. With a combination of quality and elegance that are built to last through time, France has created many global brands that also include Pinault-Printemps-Redoute (PPR), Michelin, PSA Peugeot Citroën and L’Oréal Group.

Since the 17th century, France is loved and celebrated for its haute couture brands. Today, Paris is considered one of the world’s fashion capitals to many premier designers and fashion houses alongside Tokyo, London, Milan and New York City (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_fashion). Founded in 1963 by billionaire, François Pinault, Pinault-Printemps-Redoute (PPR) is a French multinational holding company that offers prestigious sub-brands of haute couture products. Through time, PPR has transformed itself from a conglomerate to the third-largest luxury retail group in the world, making them wanted and recognised. With consumers’ brand loyalty and brand confidence towards PPR’s sub-brands such as Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, Gucci and Bottega Veneta, PPR has captured mind share and market share globally, making them one of the leading brands in the fashion industry.

Another strong French brand is Michelin. First in the global tyre market, Michelin is successfully known and branded all over the world for its durable and quality tires for all types of automobiles. With its excellent Research & Development (R&D), Michelin develops new innovations and solutions every year for the convenience of its consumers (http://www.michelin.com/corporate/).

Furthermore, Michelin has great brand recognition for its brand mascot – the Michelin Man, or otherwise known as Bibendum, a stack of tires that resembles a human shape. The brand mascot projects a happy and warm brand image for everyone to remember and associate with. Bibendum is considered retro chic and a French national brand icon. The mark of the brand’s strength is when the brand mascot can stand alone without the Michelin brand name, yet still retains the same brand recognition that captured total brand recall around the globe (http://www.brandchannel.com/features_profile
.asp?pr_id=212).

As Europe’s second biggest car maker, PSA Peugeot Citroën is also a great example of a wanted brand. This French brand exports its automobiles across the world, including in Europe, Japan and Malaysia. What makes this brand so famous and wanted? Its range of eco-friendly vehicles enables the brand to confirm its environmental leadership in the automobile world. For the third consecutive year, it has sold more than one million vehicles worldwide emitting less than 140g of carbon dioxide per kilometre. Also recognised as the European leader in fuel efficient cars, they are determined to reduce fuel consumption and emissions. This is an advantage for the brand as the world is driving towards eco-friendly solutions to protect the environment for a greener future. (http://www.psa-peugeot-citroen.com/en/psa_group/).

L’Oréal Group, the world’s largest cosmetics and beauty company is not only famous in France, but all over the world too. Headquartered in Paris, L’Oréal Group has 100 years of expertise in cosmetics and is ranked among the 100 most sustainable companies worldwide. The brand consists of 23 global sub-brands of cosmetics, hair colouring, hair care, skin care, sun protection and perfumes products. Truly comprehensive and accessible, L’Oréal Group’s sub-brands including L’Oréal Paris, L’Oréal Professionel, Vichy, Lancôme and The Body Shop are actively distributed across 130 countries reaching a billion consumers of diverse cultural origins – American, Italian, French, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Malaysian and many more. These sub-brands are also recognised as world brand leaders in their particular market. L’Oréal Group’s R&D made its brands wanted and loved all over the world, by developing new formulas in the fields of skin and hair (http://www.loreal.com).

Strong brands of France can help to instil significant brand knowledge and brand value throughout their sub-brands through brand diversifications, to grow the culture, people, systems, training, positioning, promotion, distribution and alignment of these sub-brands for further development and expansion. Right branding also assists in distinguishing their brands from other competitors in the market, positioning them as leaders in their respective markets. This strategy will build better brand perception in the minds of the consumers for total brand awareness and brand recall. Moreover, right branding also helps to reap in greater mind share and market share for its sub-brands that will surely increase the Return On Investments (ROI) and brand equity of France.

Through branding excellence, it turns France into a prominent country in exporting and offering quality and exclusive brands and products from all kinds of industries. And recently, the success of French brands is one of the contributing factors to France being the fifth-largest economy country in the world, after the United States of America, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom, making the country branded, wanted and loved everywhere
(http://www.brandchannel.com/papers_review.asp?sp_id=572).

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