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Mike Sinclair11 Jul 2014
NEWS

Brand to boost Kia

Kia will look to brand recognition and reputation in an effort to boost sales Down Under

Kia must boost its brand to earn its position as a top-ten seller Down Under. That's the message from incoming Kia Motors Australia Chief Operating Officer, Damien Meredith.

And, says the former Hyundai Australia sales boss, there will be no half measures – with an increase to a seven-year warranty, a focus on quality and stronger messaging regarding the marque's local suspension tuning all potentially to be part of the charm offensive.

Kia currently sits knocking on the door of the top ten in terms of annual registrations. Last year (2013) it sold just under 30,000 cars but slipped 3.2 per cent compared to 2012. This contrasts to sister brand Hyundai which sold 97,006 vehicles in 2013, up 6.0 per cent on 2012.

Year to date June, Kia has registered 15,299 vehicles – just 29 units up on the same period as 2013. In effect sales have stalled.

Meredith says the brand should sit closer to the top five in terms of annual sales and states "a five or six per cent market share" is its near term target. On a market of 1.0m cars per year that's 50,000 to 60,000 registrations per annum.

But there's work to do, he concedes.

"I think we’ve got to fix the brand first, so brand recognition [is our priority]. I think that part of the main issue is that people just aren’t aware of Kia in the marketplace," Meredith told motoring.com.au.

Meredith says Hyundai has already broken the awareness barrier Down Under.

"Get into Kia and talking to family, talking to friends, they just don’t have any awareness of what we’ve got from a model point of view... On where [and] what our brand is... What we’re about, compared to Hyundai.

"That’s the comparison I can give you. They know about [Hyundai] ix35, they don’t know about Sportage. They know about i30, they don’t know about Cerato. That’s what we’ve got to fix here," Meredith opined.

Meredith says championing Kia's latest product will be a key part of the change.

"We have to move away from being on sale all the time. One of the first things I did was [change] above the line communication... All you’ll see [now] is products. You’ll see pro_cee'd GT, you’ll see Sportage, you’ll see Sorento, you’ll see Cerato... You won’t see us retail offering on television [in the second half of the year], you’ll see our product," he explained.

Meredith says Kia can no longer afford to be seen as a cheap car company.

"We want to be about quality and earn our market share – based on good product, good [value] offering.

"If you look at our global situation regarding quality, we’re right up there and we’ve got to take advantage of that. We’ve got to take advantage of our design. We’ve got to take advantage of our local [suspension and chassis] set-up, and I don’t think we’ve told the consumer enough about those things.

"So our [future] communication will be directed to award winning vehicles, our design, obviously, and what we do from a set-up [perspective] for Australian conditions. That’s going to be the three major points," Meredith explained.

Warranty may also be a USP that Kia leverages. In Europe the brand has carved a niche for itself on the back of a seven-year warranty. The new COO says Kia may follow suit here.

"Yes," was the straight answer Meredith delivered when asked in Kia Australia was considering following suit.

"I think there is a surety with the consumer [when] they know that the warranty’s going to run longer than they’re going to own the car," Meredith stated.

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