Kia's Attempt to Build Buzz
Kia has recently launched a new crossover vehicle called the Rondo without telling anyone. The official launch isn't until February, but they recently began selling the vehicle in select Sunbelt dealerships without any advertising or even featuring it on the Kia website. They say they are doing this to build buzz, but I feel the buzz about the release of a new car results from featuring it in car shows (which the Rondo has been) and the anticipation of it from car enthusiasts, not from silently selling it. It appears that the bloggers who are talking about it are doing so in anticipation of the February release, not its current debut which they seem to be unaware of. (One site I visited mentions the 2007 release, and has no mention about the current release.) There is no doubt that among Kia consumers and car enthusiast there is buzz about the new Rondo, but the question is where is it really coming from. Is this silent debut successfully creating the buzz? Or is it the natural buzz that arises from the anticipated debut of a new car? (http://www.brandweek.com/bw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003438729)
-Danielle DeBenedetto
posted by Brand007 @ 7:00 PM
3 Comments:
I feel that the idea of a silent release could potentially create some buzz for the car. In a sense I can see it as a way to test and see consumer reaction to the car and a way to generate some word of mouth. I do agree that the so called silent release of this car will only generate so much buzz. But I feel that if KIA is confident in their car, it can't hurt them to try and create a little buzz prior to a national roll out.
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Many of you may know, Kia was acquired by Hyundai few years ago when the Korean car industry section was struggling. Back then, there were five major car producers in South Korea: Hyundai, DaeWoo, SSang Young, SamSung, and Kia. Currently, there is only two Korean car producer remains-Hyundai & SSang Young(Kia => Hyundai, DaeWoo => GM, SamSung => Nissan). As far as I know, Hyundai is going with two general strategy. Since Hyundai product line is a cash cow, they are taking conservative approach with Hyundai products. However, with Kia product lines, they are taking more aggresive and creative approach to the consumers. When stratey works, they tend to tune the strategy to Hyundai and implement the revised strategy.
It seems that Kia is trying a new creative marketing campaign. It will be interesting to know what kind of new technologies Kia used to build this new car. Because sooner or later it will be possible to find out if the Hyundai uses similar technologies and marketing campaign. However, I doubt that Hyundai will use this Buzz creating campaign. It is too risky for Hyundai.
by Jinkyoo Park (JQ)
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