Today’s French Friday was supposed to about something completely different... But that will become clear next week, I hope. So this is a somewhat improvised - and for me a bit of a late - post. Also it’s a bit of a rant. Because one of the things French car manufacturers don’t really care for is their merchandising. Apparently.
If I want, for example, a dealer edition of a Mercedes I can just go to the Mercedes-Benz webstore, order a cast and have it delivered at home. Or have it shipped over to a local dealer and pick it up there two days later (and save on shipping, same experience I’ve had with BMW btw). Want to know who makes those Mercedes dealer casts? Norev.
Norev also makes the “dealer” casts for Citroën. If there is one French brand with an easy to market history it would be Citroën. With classics like the DS, SM and 2CV AND quite a loyal following I’d expect a huge merchandising channel.
But if I want a 3" Norev Cactus dealer edition I can’t get it online, I have to go to the dealer physically. And if you get there no one knows of the possibility of getting these at the dealer’s.
My local dealer only had a bunch of C3's laying around to give to the kids of the parents who bought the recently introduced C3. And after some talk with the local Citroën parts receptionist we looked into the internal dealer organization application they use for ordering parts.
We did find the Cactus. An assorti box of 36 casts. In three colors. And no, not the awesome bright colors (like my green Norev Showroom one) but a bit dull colors (dark blue, dark red and grey). And the only thing I could order was the entire assorti box. I don’t need 36 Cacti in 3 different dull colors though.
And to finalize my rant: Getting info on what casts were for sale anyway wasn’t possible. The search engine of their intranet webshop was terrible. Contacting the Citroën importer didn’t help as the merchandising is outsourced. The company responsible though redirected me straight back to the... Dealer. Thanks for nothing Citroën. Well, thanks for that C3. Which I didn’t need to buy a 1:1 for. Luckily.
Next week a somewhat more joy- and powerful French Friday. And I won’t be alone. For now this is it though. Although I hope Citroën gets it’s merchandising a bit improved. The return of Citroën to nice, perky designed 1:1's deserves me getting more of ‘m in smaller scales. Bon Week-End!
