KIA motors case study

Answer 1:Behind any successful marketing campaign or any sort of marketing strategy, there has to be a major role of marketing mix with which the company will go ahead or they operate their marketing strategy based on objectives (Goboundless, 2013). When it comes to marketing mix, four simple elements come into consideration. These are Product, price, place and promotion (CIM, 2013). These plays a vital role in any marketing plans according to objectives and based on these key elements, the marketing executives will focus on if they want to set they want to set their mission and vision of the company. Same thing happened to KIA as well. According to the case study, KIA motors wants to enter in the European market, as they want to dominate the UK motor industry (Introduction-1st Phrase, KIA Motors Case Study). Based on the market research from the case, it can be proved that at that particular time, in the UK market, several other established brands are set and holding their identity in the UK market and it was very hard for KIA to set their core competencies. As their (KIA) aim is to overcome the situational problem that they face while entering in the European market and for better growth rate in the market, they have set the marketing mix accordingly to their plans and objectives (Introduction-2nd phrase; KIA Motors Case Study).

While Kia motors set their marketing mix, they did some market research on the existing market where they wanted to operate, the needs and wants of the customers, what their actual taster, which target audience they are focusing on etc. and other tailoring their products and services according to the needs and wants of the existing and potential customers (Developing Brand Identity; KIA Motors Case Study). This marketing mix started with the planning from the top management and they set forth some aims to operate, as they want to operate as the major player in the UK car market. For this, they did market research to identify the needs; they set forth their business process, as they want to bring something new, something fun and dynamic approach to the UK market. They forecasted their marketing strategies considering the objectives with a focus on increasing brand awareness by providing and delivering the customers with great quality and great design cars with an affordable and competitive price (Marketing; KIA Motors Case Study).

After the planning and setting up the strategies to increase the brand awareness of KIA motors, they set their mission and vision and in regards to mission and vision, they set their grounds of marketing mix which tells us about the right product offered at the right price, which can be easily available with the most suitable promotions (The Marketing Mix, KIA Motors Case Study).

The main marketing mixes of KIA based on four factors. These includes:

Product: KIA is providing cars with good quality and with good design alongside with after sales services to the customers and potential customers. They have also got some unique selling point, which creates the core competencies of the brand that is the 7-year warranty of cars and repairing services. While choosing for product in the marketing mix, general factors are met by the manufacturers or any particular brand but the brand has to promote something distinctive so that they can maintain their core competencies in the eyes of the customers by which the customers can only recall the brand based on those competitive advantages and can differentiate the brand on the grounds of competitiveness and here the 7 year warranty of cars is the competitive advantage of KIA motors which can also be termed as USP (Unique Selling Point) (The Marketing Mix for KIA; KIA Motors Case Study).

Price: KIA motors not only providing great quality cars to its customers, but they also providing them with cheaper and competitive rates than any other motor company. It is another USP of KIA motors and the competitive price is providing another advantage over competitors (The Marketing Mix for KIA; KIA Motors Case Study).

Place: KIA motors has already set 166 dealership stores in the UK market and they have already started to expand their numbers of outlets. As they try to set their marketing strategies based on the aim that they want to be the giant leader in the motor car industry, so they have already set up large and small stores in the European market and it can prove that they are setting up their visions very strongly (The Marketing Mix for KIA; KIA Motors Case Study).

Promotions: As the European market is very much hard to enter and if they enter somehow into the market, then they may not survive in the long run until or unless they come up with something unique and distinctive in the eyes of the customers and survive in the market. KIA motors very smartly planned their marketing strategies by setting forth their promotional campaigns by doing sports marketing and by sponsoring sports like cricket, football, tennis etc. By their promotional campaigns, they tried to enlighten the fun approach of the brand. They also tried to maintain a good PR (public relations) with the European audience and associating with the high profile sporting events that can develop the brand awareness and brand recognition to the highest extend. Besides these activities, they did above the line and below the line promotions, which represents promoting to the mass market, and the latter one represents the specific market respectively. Most importantly, by sponsoring in the social media and other online media, they keep promoting themselves that they are supposed to be the one to whom the customers in the UK market can really trust and there are other several environmental issues that was considered as promotions along with CSR (corporate Social Responsibility) activities (The Marketing Mix for KIA; KIA Motors Case Study).

With the help of these marketing mix plan, KIA motors tried to build up their brand awareness in the European market and they also wanted to create customer engagement so that the existing and potential customers end up buying motor cars from KIA and enjoy the after sales service.

Answer 2:When KIA motors started their promotional campaigns, from the very beginning they have started doing promotional campaigns based on sponsorship events. They undertook several advertising tools as well apart from sponsorship, but the most important part was the sponsorship events as they sponsored sporting events like cricket, football and tennis (Promotion; KIA Case Study).

When KIA started their promotional campaigns, they used to have several criterions to fulfill. They wanted to increase the brand awareness by offering different range and varieties of product offerings, they also wanted to increase the brand recognition as they wanted to compete with 30 major players in the UK; they also wanted to increase the demand of their cars and for that reason they set up 166 (dealership) stores and other outlets in Europe. They also wanted to leverage the fun approach to their brand and at the end they position their cars as of great quality and design in a competitive price. So keeping these factors in mind, KIA motors started their promotional activities and first thing they did was the sponsoring sporting events (Promotion; KIA Case Study).

To meet the criterions of the promotional campaigns, they first started with the sponsoring of the sporting events. According to the case, the general term sponsorship is basically based on the association linked with other company where the sponsored company gets paid up by the offeree and it can be any sort of organization, event or television sponsorship. With the help of sport marketing via sponsoring sporting events, KIA gets to link with a large audience and they can create positive associations. It helps KIA to be linked with superior value in another field. Considering the example of KIA motors, in 2002, they sponsored the FIFA World Cup in Korea and Japan and from then onwards, they gets the contract of sponsoring FIFA World Cup until 2022. With the help of sport marketing, KIA now gets to link its brand awareness and associations with FIFA or it can be said in another way, now KIA can leverage the brand associations of FIFA by sponsoring them and its activities with well-attended and well-published football matches that has been enjoyed by larger group of audience/people (Sports Marketing; KIA Motors Case Study).

There are several other important factors that helped KIA a lot when they sponsored with the sporting events. First of all, it can be known that any sort of sports like Cricket, Football or even Tennis are enjoyed by millions of people in the UK and this was the chance KIA took. They sponsored with these major sporting events and after that it (sponsorship) helped them to develop good public relations (PR) with European audience and also it helped to build positive perception of the brand. As a large pool of employees watch these events, then they get to know KIA as sponsors and it helped KIA to engage with potential customers who now sees them (KIA) in a positive way. As in the European market, KIA motors lacks awareness and recognition, so the sponsorship technique helped KIA to deal with the brand awareness and creates a unique image in the minds of the customers (existing as well as potential). By leveraging themselves with exciting and interesting games, KIA tried to show that they (KIA) are also exciting and interesting (KIA Sponsorship-Sports Marketing; KIA Motors Case Study).

There are many sporting events in the UK and amongst them Cricket, Football and Tennis are the major events that the audience must watch almost all the time. In case of Cricket, they have created a 5-year partnership with Surrey County Cricket Club including extensive branding like shirt sponsorship and naming rights for the historic KIA Oval Cricket ground. Kia became the official sponsor of FIFA World Cup when they started their journey in 2002 in Korea Japan and they expanded until 2022. KIA also sponsors Australian Open for 10 years and Rafael Nadal is KIAs global ambassador (KIA Sponsorship-Sports Marketing; KIA Motors Case Study).

There are other several factors that sponsorship helped KIA to raise its profile amongst the key target markets. They have combined sponsorship and social media to support their promotional activities and to gain the below line workers. This will help to create the relationship with customers through online. There are other social mediums like Facebook, YouTube subscription channels by which KIA started to increase the awareness amongst the potential customers. Several other things like CRM activities etc. helped them a lot interact with the customers and to create a positive image in the minds of the customers. They started doing something good for the customers and spreads the news virally in the internet so that it goes from one person to another (Viral Marketing) and at the end creates positive word of mouth to the customers as well. KIA also supported environmental issues to attract the below line customers who are case sensitive in regards to CSR activities as well as public relations/relations. They have matched their positioning and brand associations together to create something new in the eyes of the potential customers so that the customers buy KIA motorcars and can compete with the other well-established car companies in Europe (Above the line and below the line promotions; KIA Motors Case Study).

So thus the exact way, KIA showed that throughout the promotional activities, they proved that they became the major players in the UK as they are associated with the high profile sporting events.

Answer 3:There are other promotional tactics that can be considered and strategies that can help to increase the awareness for KIA motors. These are especially sales promotion, public relations, personal marketing, direct marketing, online marketing etc. and these plays a vital role in contributing the total outcome of the vision. As the beginning of the advertisement tools are considered to be the most useful for KIA but there are others as well without which the promotional tools wouldnt work well such as above the line and below the line promotions (Above the line and below the line promotions; KIA Motors Case Study). These types of promotions depend on the number or pool of audience or customer groups. When it comes to above the line customers, then KIA targeted the large pool of customers and they chose to select other advertisement mediums. Above-the-line promotions use mass media. This type of promotion focuses on advertising to a large audience. It includes print, online media, television and cinema advertising. Kias above-the- line activities include adverts in the press. They also produce online banner advertisements, place advertisements on billboards and use their website to meet the needs of their consumers. Recent TV advertising campaigns have included the small yet mighty cat for the new Picanto and the future proof Kia cee'd, emphasising the 7 year warranty. It is difficult to tailor a promotion to a specific group of consumers through above-the-line promotions. This is because a mass audience with different tastes and needs views it. Above-the-line promotion is also very expensive (Above the line and below the line promotions; KIA Motors Case Study).Below-the-line methods are very specific, memorable activities focused on targeted groups of consumers. They are under the control of the organization. Kia uses these techniques to target clearly defined consumer groups. Below-the-line methods include sponsorship, sales promotions, public relations, personal selling and direct marketing. Sponsorships have helped to raise Kias profile amongst key target markets. Kia has also developed its relationships with consumers through public relations. Traditional press releases work alongside newer forms of marketing. For example, Kia uses digital and social media as an integral part of its below-the-line activity (Above the line and below the line promotions; KIA Motors Case Study).

Answer 4:Except the AIDA model, there are other communication mix approaches like MARCOM mix (2013) where all other marketing mix strategies are being met and these strategies are quiet concludes all other promotional tools around the marketing factors. There are other factors to increase the brand awareness and these are CBBE (Customer Based Brand Equity model) (CBBE, 2011) where most of the marketing and branding tools can be followed and based on these tools, KIA motors can develop their strategies and tailor their needs as well as manage their competencies.

Figure: Marketing Communication Mix (Marcom, 2013)MARCOM mix strategies comes into considerations when any company wants to promote their products and service offerings into the market and the MARCOM mix strategy is one of the most effective strategies for a successful brand (Marcom Mix, 2013). As based on the case, KIA motors planned their strategies according to AIDA model and they have set their promotional mix strategies based on the AIDA model, But except AIDA model, if they want to imply MARCOM mix model, then all other or if you go deeper, then you can say that you can analyze the marketing communication mix very effectively. In the MARCOM mix strategy, all the promotional tools like advertising, sales promotions, direct marketing, personal selling, public relations comes into considerations. As for the record, considering the example of the case, KIA motors did their promotions quiet effectively and they undertook several promotional strategies that is linked with the MARCOM strategy for example they did public relations activities as well as they build up effective CSR activities so that they can build good relations with the British clients and can enhance their brand awareness along with brand image. They also did sponsorships like for example sponsoring events that is linked with sporting events like Cricket, Tennis and specially football and with this sponsorship, they have entered successfully in the European Market (Marcom Mix, 2013). But now if they focus more on other marketing communication tools for example advertisement, sales promotions, direct marketing, personal selling, then they can also keep and hold a good position in the European market as well; now many questions may arise for example why it will happen? The simple answer is, if any company wants to enter into a big industry for example car industry in the European market specially in the UK market, then they have to put more and more focus on the communications, letting people be aware of the company, understanding their needs, informing them that you (the company) have what they want and giving them what they want and this scenario can only be successful if an effective communication mix can be undertaken properly and the MARCOM mix has got all the necessary elements for preparing and planning the promotional strategies more effectively (Marcom Mix, 2013).

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Introduction-1st phrase; KIA Motors Case Study. Last Accessed Date: March 2, 2013.

Introduction-2nd phrase; KIA Motors Case Study. Last Accessed Date: March 2, 2013.

Developing Brand Identity; KIA Motors Case Study. Last Accessed Date: March 2, 2013.

Marketing; KIA Motors Case Study. Last Accessed Date: March 2, 2013.

The Marketing Mix, KIA Motors Case Study. Last Accessed Date: March 2, 2013.

The Marketing Mix for KIA; KIA Motors Case Study. Last Accessed Date: March 2, 2013.

Promotion; KIA Case Study. Last Accessed Date: March 2, 2013.

Sports Marketing; KIA Motors Case Study. Last Accessed Date: March 2, 2013.

KIA Sponsorship-Sports Marketing; KIA Motors Case Study. Last Accessed Date: March 2, 2013.

KIA Sponsorship-Sports Marketing; KIA Motors Case Study. Last Accessed Date: March 2, 2013.

Above the line and below the line promotions; KIA Motors Case Study. Last Accessed Date: March 2, 2013.

CBBE (2011). Brand Relationship and Brand Loyalty. Available: http://thorinsthinkspace.wordpress.com/tag/consumer-based-brand-equity/. Last Accessed Date: March 2, 2013.

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