Kia turn to consumer reviews to drive the brand

Kia is launching a brand awareness campaign in the UK with the main focus being on over 3000 consumer reviews on the Kia website.

It looks like Korean twins Hyundai and Kia are both going to be concentrating on building the value of their brand in 2013.

Yesterday we learnt that Hyundai are to focus on brand building in 2013 rather than chasing big sales increases, and today Kia has revealed it is following a similar path with a new marketing campaign built round consumer reviews of Kia cars.

Kia are spending heavily on a TV campaign backed up by press, digital, outdoor and cinema offerings to highlight the awards Kia has won recently for its (now impressive) range of cars with the strapline ‘Cars which speak for themselves, customers who speak for us’.

Kia reckon they are the first car maker to publish genuine, unfiltered reviews from owners of their cars and have gathered together more than 3000 reviews – in conjunction with Reevoo – from owners of Kia cars posted to their web site.

Kia’s UK Marketing Director, Lawrence Hamilton, said:

After speaking with consumers, it became very clear how important customer advocacy and peer-to-peer recommendations have become, especially for big-ticket items with longer purchase cycles.

Our pioneering seven year warranty is an expression of confidence in the quality of all out new range of cars, but we know what we say as a brand is far less convincing and compelling than what real owners say. So, we made it easier for customers to really get to know what owning a Kia is like in real words from real people.

It’s a sensible campaign from Kia to let potential buyers know what those who’ve already taken the plunge in to Kia ownership think. It’s a fact that the majority car buyers look to reviews to help them make a decision when they’re looking to buy a new car (although, thankfully, most want an independent professional review to help them judge), and Kia seem to have gone to some trouble to make sure the reviews posted are genuine.

A good move.

By Cars UK