How Kia Promises To Reinvent Themselves
Kia Motor Company has announced that by the year 2017 they will be entering the luxury car market. While they will still offer the economic and affordable cars that gained them such a cult following, they have now set a new goal, to offer comparable quality to the other, larger automobile manufacturers for less money. One of the ways they are going to do this is by outfitting their new, luxury cars with customized wheel and tire package. While these new cars are not aimed to compete with Mercedes and BMW, they are going to be competing with the other major brands in the global market.
The Plan
The specific goal, he explained to over 250 dealer owners and executives, is to move 2.21 million units overseas in 2012, which would represent an 8 percent increase from the previous year, which moved 2.04 million cars. In order to help this goal, Kia has announced plans for a major advertising campaign during soccer’s Euro 2012 tournament and the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Kia Vice Chairman, Lee Hyung-keun, recently told a group of Kia dealership owners in Vancouver that the company will be making great strides in the coming years to ensure that they will be able to compete with the larger automobile companies by the yeah 2017.
New Competition
Kia’s new direction and goal is to hold their own against the bigger, global automobile companies in the market. Kia’s executive director Cho Won-hon told Asiaone Motoring, “Though Kia Motors is also an automotive brand for mass production to ordinary customers, it has the goal of attaining a premium image.”Kia is targeting the year 2017 as the year it will join the “first class brands” hierarchy. However, Mr. Lee said to dealers and company insiders that this did not mean that they would be directly competing with the Mercedes and BMWs of the auto world.
Marketing
Kia’s announcement is, in large part, a response to rival Asian automaker Hyundai’s claim that they will soon enter into the market of luxury vehicles. Hyundai has been in the process of a large marketing campaign that has the goal of rebranding their company to a more upscale identity. Kia, it now appears, is committed to making the same progress, and has allocated many resources to undertake their new advertising campaign. This is a major shift in thinking for Kia, as up until recently, the only cars the actively promoted were their best sellers, the Kia Optima and Kia Sorrento.
It is an interesting time for Kia. They are doing quite well producing their economical and affordable lines of cars and trucks, however, they seem intent on moving the company in a new direction. While they will still offer quality and affordability, the prices for some of their models may go up substantially if they are going to be competing with some of the world’s leading auto makers. One of the ways Kia plans on doing this is by offering custom wheel and tire packages on their new models. Customers can outfit their new Kia with either American Racing Rims or Diamo wheels.