Kia Motors Marketing Mix

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 it’s 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).