vsBrand Strategy – Wilson Liu

Kia• According to Kia Motors, the name "Kia" derives from the Sino-Korean words ki ("to come

out") and a (which stands for Asia), it is roughly translated as "arise or come up out of Asia" or "rising out of Asia"

• South Korea's oldest car company, Kia was founded on June 9, 1944 as a manufacturer of steel tubing and bicycle parts by hand – and has operated as one of the country's Chaebols since.

• Starting in 1986, in partnership with Ford, Kia produced several Mazda derived vehicles for both domestic sales in South Korea into other countries.

• In 1992, Kia Motors America was incorporated in the United States. The first Kia-branded vehicles in the United States were sold from four dealerships in Portland, Oregon in February 1994.

• Beginning in 2006 Kia identified design as its "core future growth engine" – leading to the 2006 hiring of Peter Schreyer as Chief Design Officer. Schreyer had previously worked at Audi (designing the Audi TT) and Volkswagen and had won the Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Scion• Scion is a brand of vehicles produced by Toyota Motor Corporation for the North American

market. • Founded in 2002, Scion's long-term goal is to appeal to Generation Y consumers. The first

Scion models, the xA hatchback and xB wagon, went on sale in California in 2003, followed by a sports coupe, the tC, and a nationwide U.S. launch in 2004. A successor to the xA, the xD, premiered in 2008, and Scion expanded to Canada in 2010.

• The Scion lineup uses a one-trim, simplified purchase process,[2] and the marque has relied upon guerrilla and viral marketing techniques.

• Scion uses sales tools such as "Pure Price" and monospec trim levels with a wide selection of factory and TRD accessories. Extensive market research and testing with Generation Y consumers formed the basis of the Scion badge.

• "Pure Price" means that the price posted, whether on the vehicle, in an advertisement, or on a menu display board in the dealership, is the price customers will pay. Pure Price is designed to ensure a shorter and simpler process, eliminating all negotiation. The concept aims to be open and consistent to all customers.

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• The incredibly popular Kia hamsters scored big in the 2011 Nielsen Automotive Advertising Award. The automaker’s latest campaign, which put the soul in the Kia Soul, was named Ad of the Year at a New York Auto Show news conference.

• In fact, automotive makers spent $8 billion on advertising, the most of any industry in the U.S. last year, according to Nielsen. And Kia is not one of the biggest spenders, Hirsch said.

• In 2009, Kia's sales were close to 10% higher, a bump the company partly attributed to sales of the Soul. Whether or not those hamsters helped is hard to determine.

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With only 29,672 units sold through 2010, As the graph above proves, a popular tC model alone is theoretically capable of doubling Scion’s 2010 sales levels… as long as it’s as popular as its predecessor. On the other hand, Scion now has a lot more competition than it once did, from models like the Honda CR-Z, Nissan’s Cube and Kia’s Soul.

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