Let’s face it: French carmaker Peugeot isn’t exactly popular, here or anywhere outside Europe. It is so obscure in these parts, in fact, that Peugeot Philippines president Glen Dasig’s first order of the day when he got the post last year was to launch a simple (but no less significant) campaign teaching people how to properly pronounce the brand. Imagine that: While the competition was expending energy and resources on social-media marketing and lifestyle events and glossy print ads, Peugeot was busy showing potential customers how to correctly enunciate its foreign-sounding name.
A year has passed, and the marque still isn’t a household name in our market. To be fair, that was never the goal to begin with. Peugeot is an elegant automotive brand that will never appeal to mass-market tastes even if you provide free speech lessons. Its cars are not for everyone, for starters. Only a knowledgeable few—if we’re being honest—will appreciate the exclusivity attached to its Famous Lion logo.