Hyundai is about to spend $80M to promote and advertise a car that they believe will provide a "brand halo" for the company's vehicle line. They believe that they actually need a so-called luxury car to reach new customers and deal with what seems to be some kind of a complex about their historic lack of quality or at least the perception thereof.
Joel Ewanick, the cheer leading VP Marketing, was really hyping the car this past week at the annual Automotive News Marketing Seminar in downtown LA. He wholeheartedly seems to have staked his tenure at Hyundai on the success of selling this car to economically depressed American consumer. The term of office for a CMO at Hyundai and KIA is less than the national average of 18 months.
What Hyundai and the Koreans ought to be doing is NOT trying to compete with Mercedes, Lexus, and BMW by building bigger, less efficient luxury cars at a lesser price, but rather building a series of small "green" cars with 4 cylinder engines and hybrid power plants. This is what the Koreans have done well for their own brands, for GM, and other manufacturers who did not have the interest, the plants, or the capability to build small cars. What do you suppose America and the World wants right now? -- Small, fuel efficient vehicles that that are safe and built with quality and versatility.
What is Hyundai doing ? Squandering an opportunity to really make a name for themselves by building quality small vehicles and instead chasing after a idea sold to them by a bunch of car guys from Detroit who are living, thinking, and marketing in the past. This not going to work and some how Mr. Ewanick seems to telegraph his doubts in the press and on the podium. Maybe he should really have made his Korean bosses "test drive" the idea of going into this market segment for at least another block before pouring all their precious marketing dollars into advertising and Ride and Drives this summer.
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