No, I don’t know what a bobo or momo is, either.
In fact, both words caused widespread confusion at the gathering of European media at yesterday’s C3 Picasso preview, but according to Citroen they’ve had a great influence on how the company’s new MPV has turned out.
Some of you may know that bobo is a shortened term for the phrase ‘bourgeois-bohemian’, a social type coined by some very articulate sociologist at the beginning of the 21st century. The bobo is someone that grew up in the era of John Lennon and the VW Camper van and has now become consumed with their own image and the material things that define that image; hence Citroen credits the bobo with inventing the SUV.
The momo, on the other hand, is a ‘modern-moral’, a new social trendsetter who is young and might have kids with a long-term partner, but isn’t married. The momo likes Smeg fridges, iPhones and saving the planet, and is a lot less conservative and image-conscious than the bobo.
Citroen is keen to point out that no one is 100 per cent momo or bobo; everyone is a mix of these caricatures, which were used to help gauge consumer demands during the C3 Picasso’s development.
And it seems to have worked, because the C3 Picasso is a genuinely appealing car. Even to someone like me, who falls far short of the more easily defined target audiences of young mums and “dynamic older people”.
In the metal it comes across as every bit as enjoyable, functional and novelty-packed as the very successful C4 Picasso, and as a result I think it will tick the boxes of plenty of new car buyers, perhaps more than the 110,000 that the company wants to find in the first year.
And if these bizarre and slippery concepts helped to create it, then who am I to look Citroen in the corporate face and say, “Er…what?”