Why Hyundai should be more like Subaru (or BMW for that matter)

"No, I don't thank you for the fish at all" (notindetroit) 09/14/2015 at 12:32 • Filed to: hyundai, kia, bmw, subaru, marketing, cgi hamsters, thanks obama, hyundai marketing brought to you by bill o'reilly and the koch brothers

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Yes, I’m blatantly ripping off !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . So should Hyundai. Actually, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . But they need to pick up some pointers, like, immediately.

Nobody will ask “why should Hyundai be more like Subaru/BMW/Tatra a.s. Cz?” because, well, being more like them will mean assuming some sort of identity which Hyundai plainly doesn’t have. Hyundai would be lucky to be in a position like BMW, wondering where the loyal customers hanging onto brand image are. Actually, they somewhat are - it’s been about five years or so since Hyundai hit that narrow window of a sweetspot bridging the value of their entry-level prices and super-stretched warranty with the type of build quality and reliability able to retain customers beyond being financially trapped into affording nothing better.

Who-ndai?

Since then Hyundai’s made a full charge upmarket - and in the process became almost completely anonymous. Despite clinging to whatever little identity great value and warranties brought to them in the first place in marketing, their own efforts to pin down something definable have been otherwise nonexistent.

A car manufacturer’s identity is defined by two things added together: the products they make, and how they market them. Lexus, Mercedes, BMW, Volvo and Land Rover have marketing campaigns that have remained stable for decades and as carefully crafted as the cars they make (well, maybe not Land Rover). Ford, GM, Toyota and Honda have ad campaigns with carefully defined goals and messages. Let’s see what Hyundai’s had.

First, there was the appeal to the Get Off My Lawn!/Thanks Obama!/I Think Trump Actually Would Make a Great President crowd:

Then there was Car slowly driving at you, some narrator that puts you to sleep, and three seconds of drifting :

Huehuehue Brett Favre can’t make up his mind wait we’re selling a car?

Fuck it just throw something together:

Well none of our commercials worked in the past, what if we just combine all of them into a giant bland catatonic mess?

Fuck it we’re Jim Bob’s Used Car Emporium now COME ON DOWN TIME IS RUNNING OUT!

Granted, it’s a common - perhaps the most common - advertising trope to sell some sort of idea, some sort of simulacrum (I really should stop using that word) towards what a car does to you instead of what a car actually is. That’s the meaning and intent behind “Ultimate Driving Machine,” “Born from Jets” and even “Grounded to the Ground.” The stupid, clueless commercials Chevy runs right now are telling you that Chevy puts out cars that are above their common perception while actually showing you how and why - they just don’t do a good job at it. The commercials Toyota has been running for decades have been variations on the theme of a Toyota essentially being your mechanical best friend who will never let you down and, well, as their slogan says, Let’s Go Places. For just as long Honda’s been running some variation of You Meet the Nicest People, with a little bit of a performance twist when warranted. Meanwhile, Hyundai has either been ripping off angry posts in the comments section of The National Review Online and spinning that into a commercial, meme-ing it up from pop culture and spinning that into a commercial, or otherwise just hiring all the marketing postgrad rejects who have “Applied to Brown” as a highlight on their resumes. Nowhere do they actually have much to say about a car or even to literally show about a car other than “We still have that 10 year warranty! Toyota is afraid of us!”

How can you expect to have an identity when you’re almost going out of your way to not establish an identity? But that’s ok, some cars become so iconic on their own that they actually become just as much a brand statement as they do a personal statement. We, of course, call these vehicles halo cars and every brand has them, whether by intention or default. Lexus, Mercedes, BMW, Jaguar, Tesla et al - they don’t have halo cars, they are halo brands . GM has the Corvette, the entire Cadillac brand and the V-subbrand and to the lesser extent the Camaro especially in ZL1 and Z/28 guise. Subaru Impossiburu! has Dubba-Arr-Exx !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Ford has SVT and anything with Carrol Shelby’s name slapped on it, FCA has anything with “Hellcat” slapped on it - and, oddly enough, a little quirky Italian bubble of a subcompact that starts below 20k (we’ll get more into that one later). A great halo car creates the word-of-mouth and press buzz you need to get people into dealerships.

Hyundai Doesn’t Know Halo Cars

Unless of course you screw that up too, and don’t worry, Hyundai has that covered! Of the more-or-less four halo cars they have, one is kind of a super cheap but still pricey for the average shopper Bentley?! competitor I guess? (pause for laughter), one is kind of a cheap-ish Mercedes E-class competitor I guess?, one is kind of a boy-racer-ish thingie that for some reason has the same exact name as the cheap-ish Mercedes E-class competitor and the last one is, as Oppo’s own Blake Noble once put it, the automotive equivalent of a KFC Famous Bowl.

None of that is a great formula for a halo car.

Much has already been written and pontificated about how Hyundai’s dealership network is holding them back from truly marketing and selling the Equus and Genesis as they deserve. Plus, a Bentley or S-class alternative at a quarter or even eighth of the price is a very misguided shot at a halo car - it’s such a novelty it only brings into question what would I do with it, exactly? How much would I really save if I still have to hire a chauffeur? The Equus is just too unwieldy a car both in concept and sheer physical size to really appeal to anybody except for people who actually would go out specifically to buy a Bentley or an S-class, and really the only reason why the Equus even exists is because the Bentley and S-class fail the domestic government mandated Made in Korea requirement. The Genesis sedan is now in its current form shaping up to be somewhat of a proper halo car, but again it’s most often compared to mid-level models of true luxury brands. Other than in barely-advertised R form it doesn’t have the performance cred to separate itself from the pack and assume a true halo car identity other than on relative value. We’ll see how the upcoming Genesis coupe shapes up, a more serious shot at a halo car, but as it stands right now I can’t find one on Craigslist or Carmax that isn’t stanced, doesn’t have a sloppily painted matte black hood and doesn’t have an illest or “shocker” sticker on the rear quarter window. As for the Veloster and even Veloster Turbo, well...automotive equivalent of a KFC Famous Bowl.

So, yeah, whoever was in charge of putting together a halo car for Hyundai, let alone a whole potential line-up of halo cars, created a gigantic mess someone else now has to clean up.

...But Kia Does

Though barely, and not without a lot of dumb luck. Still, Hyundai can learn at least one thing from its brand brother. Like Hyundai, Kia also has four car models that can more or less be identified as halo cars, or at least the closest thing to one. Of those four, one is a BMW 7-series competitor I guess? Or is it a 5-series competitor? And it’s named after a British Space Doctor’s robot dog? But LeBron likes it for some reason? That makes it a good halo car, right? Meanwhile, another one is also a BMW 5-series competitor I guess? And it looks almost exactly the same as the other car named after the robot dog that LeBron likes? But it’s FWD? Huh? Is Cadenza like even a word? And the third one is a frickin’ three-row SUV.

But unlike Hyundai, Kia actually found a wildly successful halo car that manages to fit all the important definitions of a halo car - it gives off a certain lifestyle image that people want to aspire to, it gives off the perception of being a fun vehicle that’s more than the sum of its parts, and most important of all, it brings in people into the showrooms to specifically buy it or another vehicle in the brand’s lineup.

And it’s Kia’s second-cheapest car, brought to you by CGI furries Gangnam-style.

Why can’t Hyundai into this?!?!

The answer is that Hyundai tried , and in their infinite wisdom, in all their efforts that minimally require nothing more than some sort of yet another badge permutation of the Soul, they wound up with a KFC Famous Bowl on four wheels instead (apologies to Blake Noble for appropriating that term).

Overall, I’d say Kia is kicking Hyundai’s ass in terms of going upmarket and growing market shares. The Soul - like the Fiat 500 - proves that you can have a successful halo car as your entry-level model. That aforementioned friggin’ three-row SUV, the Sorento, in its current form has managed to pull off being a moderately successful halo family SUV of sorts. Even if it’s a little bland, it successfully pulls off a premium look and feel both inside and out, at least better than the “this is not a Highlander copy” Hyundai Santa Fe. It’s one of the most-common three-row SUVs I see around, in a market that actually still buys three-row SUVs, and the Sorento isn’t exactly a cheap car anymore either. Again, the Optima is bland, but bland in an upscale kind of way that beats the beige image of the Camry and only now, right now, the Sonata has caught up to.

So maybe Hyundai needs to be more like Kia, a brand they already own. Whatever Kia’s doing, Hyundai needs to do. Kia has proven CGI furries dancing to Lady Gaga actually manage to sell cars - Hyundai’s strategy of Pepperidge Farm remembers, me-too-wait-what-are-we-selling-again and COME ON DOWN! marketing, not so much.

wiffleballtony > No, I don't thank you for the fish at all 09/14/2015 at 12:37

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I’m going to go ahead and say that my biggest problem with Hyundai was them constantly trying to be like some other company. Make your own identity.

MuchWagon > wiffleballtony 09/14/2015 at 12:42

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Along these lines whenever I see a newer Hyundai I can’t help but think its a Ford knockoff. Am I the only one who sees the resemblance ?

wiffleballtony > MuchWagon 09/14/2015 at 12:46

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No that’s exactly what I see. Whether it’s a Ford or Honda or Mercedes knock off, they’ve been doing that for years. Whatever the current hot car model is, they copy the styling.

Wacko > MuchWagon 09/14/2015 at 12:55

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not to sure what to think, but didn’t Hyundai have their current style before ford. Didn’t the Sonata and elantra come out before before the Fusion? If anything ford copied Hyundai

Randall Ward > No, I don't thank you for the fish at all 09/14/2015 at 12:55

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AS a Genesis coupe owner I love the coupe but I feel they don’t support the vehicle as they should. Always felt like it was a great car to tinker with really makes me pine for the Mugen days of Honda when you could walk to the parts counter and just go crazy.

MuchWagon > Wacko 09/14/2015 at 12:58

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Could be. Shouldn’t have assumed which direction this went in.

Wacko > MuchWagon 09/14/2015 at 13:02

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cause it got me thinking that Hyundai started the new look, then everybody tried to be like them.

Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras > No, I don't thank you for the fish at all 09/14/2015 at 13:06

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Hyundai’s biggest problem is they have too much under one roof..

Genesis should be it’s own line (Equus should be included in that)

Bytemite > Wacko 09/14/2015 at 13:16

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I think the Elantra and Sonata from 2011 was very original and good looking. You can see Honda and Toyota copied them for their later gen Corolla and Civic.

Wacko > MuchWagon 09/14/2015 at 13:51

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that and ford is basically coping everything on the market right now, The Aston grill, the Sonata looks and the mustang we all know is a carbon copy of the Honda accord. With the Flex they copied a Cardboard box.

B/Xmrrmvr > No, I don't thank you for the fish at all 09/14/2015 at 15:05

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Using unoriginality to talk about unoriginality. How ironic.