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Mike Sinclair8 Mar 2013
NEWS

No luxury brand needed: Schreyer

Hyundai and Kia do not need a standalone luxury brand, says elevated design and brand boss
Peter Schreyer says Hyundai and Kia do not need a standalone luxury brand. Indeed, such a brand could do more harm than good, he contends
Hyundai's new design chief, Board Member and Head of Kia, Mr Schreyer says the burgeoning Korean brands need to reinforce their own identity and not spend billions on creating a new brand for the top end of town.
Speaking at last week's Geneva Motor Show, the 50-something said he had yet to formalise new design and philosophical directions for the paired Korean brands over which he now has unprecedented control. That said, he was in little doubt that a third luxury badge was unnecessary for the group.
"In one way to create a luxury brand could be a charming idea. On the other hand, I think if those cars [that we were to build] that are in the [luxury] segment would still be called Hyundais [then] it makes the brand stronger," he told motoring.com.au
"If you separate it too much [then] they [the cars] are not recognisable or don't appear as Hyundais... Then you have to spend billions in advertising and making that brand known," he opined, quoting Lexus as an example.
"It took them 30 years or whatever... to really get where they are. To make this their 'own' brand. At the same time image-wise it did not pull Toyota [up] at all, because it's Lexus. 
"This is why I think in our case it is the better way to not do it," Mr Schreyer stated.
According to Mr Schreyer both Kia and Hyundai need to stretch their brands and products in terms of size and prestige. He sees the move as important to establish the long term bona fides of the brands. To this end he commends Hyundai's Genesis plans and claims Kia's GT concept (pictured) is close to production sign off.
"It [GT] is still under strong discussion and consideration. I think everybody in the company wants it – so at the moment everybody is working on this to see that we can make it possible."
He says it's logical that Kia leverage Hyundai's large rear-drive Genesis platform and believes Kia can stretch into the premium zone.
"I think it would be better if we had that car [GT] in the [Kia] model range. If this car would not exist nobody would buy it -- so they would buy a BMW [or other prestige brand product]."
"I think Kia needs to stretch in that direction to get more substance. You need to belong to the club somehow."
Mr Schreyer favours that Kia and Hyundai nurture nameplate-based sub-brands under their existing umbrellas, to help develop the marques' standings and product portfolios.
"Like Golf is for Volkswagen a brand in itself, then maybe Genesis is at Hyundai or the Soul [can be] at Kia," he explained.
Luxury models or not, he says Kia and Hyundai must also strive to differentiate themselves.
"Kia is the snow crystal and Hyundai is the rain drop... The challenging thing is to separate the two as much as we can. 
"The other thing is to have a strong direction for both of them. And make them strong this way. Not separate them by excluding [opportunities]... By saying you're not doing this or you're not doing that
"[But] I think it takes time to [understand this]... The difficult thing is both of them have a similar product range and both of them have a very short history. 
"We need to find a way to differentiate them [the brands] not only by styling," he explained. 
Mr Schreyer says this could include standalone models.
"Or [models] where the equivalent [segment entrant] is really very different," he hinted.

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