Buyer Behavior France

BUYING BEHAVIORS

This study will allow us to understand how local consumers make decisions to buy. Based on those facts, we will be able to have an effective strategy and avoid mistakes related to cultural differences.

CONSUMERS PERCEPTIONS

COUNTRY OF ORIGINS

First, we will look at the perception of the country of origin. In that case, France's opinions toward the United States vary widely. Therefore, it is hard to say if we ought to display ostentatiously the origin of the American Product. United States and France are political allies since the American Revolution (1776-1783). Both countries had never been at war with each other. Both have helped teach other previously during crisis. However, political tension has appeared since the Iraq war (2003), which embedded a bad opinion of the US in France. In addition, the re-election of George W. Bush (2004) increased this feeling.

On one hand, we can perceive rejection toward US culture and US global domination. The US culture is considered very poor and aggressive in France. Even if American entertainment is widely consumed there, the elite and most of the population judge that American Culture is empty and offensive, and that France’s culture has to be preserved against this threat. The reason for this can be that the more intelligent aspects of American culture are not very known in Europe and France, while mainstream culture is widely spread. We can also see a strong rejection of Puritanism and the importance of religion found in the US. Mainly this rejection is found because French people are not very religious. They also attach a big importance to the separation between the state and religion. French people can also be considered as more free on certain questions as sexuality.

Moreover, there is a strong rejection of American food, which is considered a threat to health and the French heritage. For example, several McDonald's were destroyed by strikers in 1999.

On the other hand, the US keeps a good image, mainly because of the culture that arose in the 50's and 60's. Most of the people grew up with American icons as models and there is still an attraction toward the US. Big cities such as NYC or LA are still a synonym of a dream. Some products use the American appeal to sell, and they are very successful (Marlboro, Levi’s).

BRAND EQUITY

Brand equity used to be strong in France for all types of products. Most of the famous US brands are present in France and even if they make some adaptations, strategies are mainly the same.

However, there is a special situation in France that concerns grocery products. On one hand, brand products’ prices are higher than ever and there is a crisis of purchasing power. French low and middle class are complaining about the fact that they cannot buy as much as before and that they have to cut their budgets, mainly because of the price of housing and basic products. It has become the number one preoccupation of the French population. On the other hand, French grocery stores had developed a large range of value products that are becoming very popular (in some categories like toilet paper, a grocery store’s brand can represent up to 90% of sales). There was also an explosion of Hard Discount stores in the late 90’s, which are selling only non-brand products at very low prices. Thereby, launching a new brand counting on a higher price for a grocery product is not a strategy to adopt for the French market. There are still some recent successes (Febreeze, Swiffer), but the product needs to have a high value proposition.

Nevertheless, other types of products should play on brand equity, because the population is ready to spend more if they see a sign of quality. American brands such as Levi’s, Converse, Ray-Ban, Marlboro, and Jack Daniel’s are very popular and are a sign that the French population react well to American quality products, even if they are more expensive.

PRICE-QUALITY RELATIONSHIP

Inflation is controlled in France since the early 80’s and is now around 2%. Price is still a synonym of quality, but faced with decreased purchasing power, the French population tries to find alternatives such as discount brands. In conclusion, price can be high only if the value proposition is high.

BRAND LOYALTY/STORE LOYALTY

France is now about brand loyalty since most of the people go to grocery stores to do their shopping. There are no real differences between grocery stores, and they almost all fight for prices, proposing the same brands, so comparison is easy. Nevertheless, French people don’t like to change the brands that they consume. That is why new