The 1930s: Europe Behind in Marketing Strategies

Abstract

In Europe, the history of the car industry and the evolution of marketing strategies took a very different course compared to the one taken in the U.S. In the first decades of the twenty-first century, Europe was influenced by Ford’s model of mass production, yet maintained a tradition of craftsman-like automobile manufacturing which, to a certain extent, still persists to this day in the manufacture of luxury models and sports cars. Cars were mainly produced on a commission basis. They were an object of pleasure rather than of utility. There were few in circulation. Competitions triggered desires that only rich people were in a position to satisfy, and they chose the best manufacturers. During the 1930s, two trends emerged that left a lasting mark on Europe: a strong company identity and an indirect rivalry between products by the same manufacturer. In marketing, this was a period of design continuity by a single producer, and of a relentless search for beauty and diversity in terms of the visual. In those years, the main factors that influenced marketing were the emergence of new technologies, economic development (growing average income per capita), and the beginnings of mass consumption. Above all, though, it was influenced by the capacity of new entrepreneurs to understand the trends of potential demand and to draw upon technological and management knowledge tested and developed in other industries too.