Hyundai Kia- The Korean King

When an automobile affcionado talks about cars, His love is either Japanese, German or American with Swedish or Italian as occassional exceptions. But Hyundai-Kia Automotive group has over the years taken centerstage matching the might of biggies like GM, Ford, Volkswagen, Honda and Toyota. The biggest Korean automaker is the second largest in Asia beating the likes of Honda, Nissan and Tata and fourth globally. Surprised? Even the Auto experts were baffled when Hyundai launched its first premium car since the company's inception in 1967, the Equus which can compete with offerings from other luxury marques. Also Hyundai flexed its muscles with the Genesis coupe answering Mini Cooper's challenge when Porsche didnt budge.

After Hyundai Motor Company (which is not a part of the Hyundai group anymore.) acquired Kia Motors in 2001, things have been going great for both the brands. Lately though, their stake has hovered close to 40% showing Hyundai is not yet clear of its intentions under the Hyundai Kia Automotive group. Usually known for their boring and/or Korean designs under both the brands, the company has improved vastly after appointing Peter Schreyer ( The man behind the new look for Audi and Volkswagen cars.). Looking at How Tata has integrated itself with Jaguar LandRover and how Ford-Lincoln is doing wonders Hyundai-Kia is taking the similar route albeit with confusion added.

Kia Soul which brought Kia the much needed attention during N.American Small car boom.

Hyundai-Kia has recently churned out some excellent cars which are reliable, fun to drive and can match the competition but its the image that has not been able to shake itself up to the standards. Why would someone pay $60,000 for a Hyundai compared to let's say a BMW, Audi, Lincoln, Lexus or Infiniti? With the success Hyundai has had with Santro, I10 and Accent worldwide, nothing short of a blitzkrieg can help strengthen Hyundai as the luxury brand. Hyundai Marketing team is intelligent enough to know how tough it is to go up the premium brand ladder and hence they have been working hard in tandem with the design, engineering and R&D teams to make sure the task is fulfilled with as much efficiency as possible. Why should Hyundai peg itself as a luxury marque? simply because Kia has erupted as a powerful force in the mainstream and it is not smart on the company's behalf to create competition within. It is the same mistake Peugeot-Citroen and Fiat with Dodge-Chrylser are making right now.

The 2011 Hyundai Equus.

For beginners Kia brand needs to be introduced into several markets like India where Hyundai enjoys a market leadership (2nd largest Automaker). The badges on Santro, i10, i20, Accent(Verna) and Sonata should be changed to a Kia first so that people get accustomed to the logo. Showrooms can be branded as Kia hyundai showrooms for the transition period. The car brands should be kept since i10 and Santro are very powerful. Gradually the platforms can be aligned with the likes of Kia Picanto, Kia Venga, Kia Soul Kia Rio and the K5. Having Kia Picanto and I10 fight for the same customer is not a very smart step in the first place and neither is selling a $10,000 hatch in India and selling a $60,000 saloon in US.  The repurcussions can be seen with a slower growth for Hyundai in the markets where they have increased prices to command a premium. Corporate automotive houses like GM, Ford, Fiat, Volkswagen and others exist for the very reason.

The Kia Cedanza with tiger grille and new design philosophy.

Kudos to Hyundai for badging the Equus with a new logo. It will be a good move to use this love on the Azera, Genesis and Sonata right away. Also helpful will be to stop using the names Santro and Accent temporarily so that the the company can introduce them at a later time to compete with the likes of Alfa Romeo, Mini and BMW hatches. I do need to ad here that The New Hyundai luxury cars try to imitate Benz models a lot and Hyundai needs to work hard on this. I will vote in favour of using model names starting with C or K (Cadenza, Ceed, Carens) ( Koup, Kee, K7) for Kia cars and using the new i (i10, I20, I30)series for Hyundai cars. It helps provide the car a distinguished image and feel.

The new Hyundai Luxury logo on the Equus.

Kia needs more global market penetration to be that mainstream bread and butter brand to compete with the likes of Honda, Toyota, Chevrolet and VW. Cars like the Cadenza, Optima, venga and Forte/Fortis have won rave appreciation for design and engineering and now they need the right opportunity to compete with the likes of Civic, Corolla and Fiesta. Talking about the brand Hyundai, the company needs heavy marketing initiatives to get their cars into the minds of the luxury car buying public. Here's an example of how BMW makes sure that a premium Jaguar buyer atleast thinks about BMW once.

Obviously Big companies wont sit silent, but any publicity is good publicity. In this case Jaguar reacts to BMW's marketing initiatives indirectly helping BMW pit itself against the mighty cat.

Similar marketing efforts should also be carried out for Kia with Direct competitors used to build up the customer's mentality.

The Corporate grille and concept presentations held for the Hyundai Equus and Genesis is an example of the best manner in which to promote a luxury marque. But Hyundai needs to advertise a multimedia system like the BMW idrive and Audi MMI which does go someway in enhancing the luxury brand. A limited edition car in collabration with a fashion house certainly helps. If Asus can sell lamborghini laptops, LG can also help with the cholate entertainment system or a Samsung Armani system similar to what ford and Fiat have with Microsoft.

 Finally Kia needs a holding in the tuner market to appeal the youth which make up the car buying chunk. Honda has Mugen, Nissan has Nismo, Mitsubishi had Ralliart and such tuner divisions go a long way in cementing the brand image for a company. Mobis needs more funds, awareness and participation in street tuner scene. Hyundai on the other end should focus on Nascar, F1 and GT racing where premium brands compete for showing their R&D credentials.

A MOBIS tuned Tiburon.

 One should also not forget how the Skyline became a household name in the U.S with the movie 'Fast and the Furious' and how Mitsubishi rebounced after sponsoring '2 fast 2 furious'. Aston Martin brings Bond to mind.

Italian Job starring Mini Cooper