Hyundai Case Study
The international corporate branding strategy of Hyundai and Kia are similar yet varied. Both organizations put plans into action that would potentially catapult their brands into the first-class market share position. Hyundai began its strategic branding process by focusing on improving the perception of their brand, positioning itself as a maker of “refined and confident” automobiles. While Kia attempted to improve consumer perception by billing the maker as an “exciting and enabling” automaker.
Brands must adapt and communicate in more ways than one to reach a fragmented and or distracted audience. The challenges associated with rebranding the identity of both Hyundai and Kia involved the development of purposeful attributes to bring about and reinforce the emotional perceptions. For example, Kia’s global pledge or brand promise was built on the maker’s “commitment to surpass customer expectations through continuous innovation.” To fortify this promise, through brand positioning, Kia incorporated six attributes into its products: dynamic styling, responsive engineering, well-equipped vehicles, versatility, safety and reliability, and top-tier product and service quality. Integrating the six attributes added to the brands image of quality. Even if a consumer had never experienced the handling of any Kia product, the brand image conveys quality; quality backed by market surveys, reports, market positioning, target advertising, pricing, and other facts that represent a brand image of quality to the world. Corporate branding strategies can add significant value in terms of helping the entire corporation to “convert awareness into brand consideration in the consumer purchase process.”
The overly saturated automobile market in China and Korea is problematic in that the number of cars being manufactured doesn’t allow consumers to focus on the brand message. This is evident of the lackluster sales of the NF YU Xiang of Hyundai and Tianlime of KIA
Brands must adapt and communicate in more ways than one to reach a fragmented and or distracted audience. The challenges associated with rebranding the identity of both Hyundai and Kia involved the development of purposeful attributes to bring about and reinforce the emotional perceptions. For example, Kia’s global pledge or brand promise was built on the maker’s “commitment to surpass customer expectations through continuous innovation.” To fortify this promise, through brand positioning, Kia incorporated six attributes into its products: dynamic styling, responsive engineering, well-equipped vehicles, versatility, safety and reliability, and top-tier product and service quality. Integrating the six attributes added to the brands image of quality. Even if a consumer had never experienced the handling of any Kia product, the brand image conveys quality; quality backed by market surveys, reports, market positioning, target advertising, pricing, and other facts that represent a brand image of quality to the world. Corporate branding strategies can add significant value in terms of helping the entire corporation to “convert awareness into brand consideration in the consumer purchase process.”
The overly saturated automobile market in China and Korea is problematic in that the number of cars being manufactured doesn’t allow consumers to focus on the brand message. This is evident of the lackluster sales of the NF YU Xiang of Hyundai and Tianlime of KIA