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Advertisings
Citroën is everywhere
But André Citroën, who was a communicator as much as a manufacturer, was not content simply to promote the company and its products. He developed new media. He even founded his own advertising department and his own printworks: André Citroën Editeur. In 1921, he decided to send out brochures and prospectuses to the tens of thousands of potential customers listed on the company's files, an idea that many years later would be referred to as a mailshot.
The Marque's pre-war advertising is full of all sorts of original initiatives. In 1922, for example, the Marque donated 150,000 road signs to the French state. Seen around the entire country, the signs carried the double chevron logo and the words "donated by Citroën". The same year, to mark the opening of the Paris Motor Show, an aircraft wrote the name of Citroën in letters of smoke in the sky. The now famous illumination of the Eiffel Tower in 1925, reflected the same approach. Some 250,000 light bulbs were used for the event, which was repeated over a period of ten years, adapting to the Marque's new products.
From the start of the 1920s, André Citroën looked beyond France, setting up commercial and industrial subsidiaries in all the major European countries. Sales caravans were on the road continuously, seeking to bring Citroën products to the attention of the public.
André Citroën used the most innovative and the most effective means available to promote his company and its products. A modern forward-thinking innovator who admired the many pioneers of the new century, he himself was gifted with a real sense of showmanship and flair. As illustrated by his invitation to Charles Lindbergh in 1927, asking the aviator to visit the Javel plant after his solo flight across the Atlantic. The headlines splashed across all the papers read "Lindbergh at Citroën", thus associating the Marque's name with the aura of glory surrounding Lindbergh.
Citroën's open outlook and taste for adventure were fully expressed in the Crossing of the Sahara (1922), and in the celebrated Croisière Noire (1924) and Croisière Jaune (1931). Through these expeditions, Citroën travelled, and caught the imagination of the public.
André Citroën also had an eye on future customers. He wanted every child's first words to be "mummy, daddy, Citroën". In 1923, he launched a range of toys including the famous Citroënettes, faithfully reproducing the models in the range.