Hyundai doubles its spend to fix image Danielle Veldre
HYUNDAI is planning to up its ad spend next year to $50m in attempt to address its poor image in the Australian market.
With a previous estimated media spend of $25m annually, the auto brand’s budget will virtually double Hyundai sales and marketing director Theo van Doore wants to replicate in the Australian market the success Hyundai has had in the US in using brand marketing to lift its image with consumers. He admits it will take time and a significant investment.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics new vehicle sales figures for the month of September, Hyundai tracked seventh of all car makes in Australia with 2,354 sales for the month.
In terms of brand perception, however, by van Doore’s own admission, Hyundai has a long way to go.
“In the US, Hyundai is perceived just under Honda and above Nissan. In Australia [the brand perception] is not that good,” he told B&T.
Having said that, after appointing Singleton Ogilvy & Mather to the account in March, van Doore indicated the company had already lifted volume sales in Australia by 50% year-on-year for the nine months to September.
To continue the reconstruction of the brand in the local market, van Doore said Hyundai had spent around $12m in the past quarter. It plans to spend an estimated $50m next year, but he said advertising was only one of a number of approaches it was taking to reshape the brand image.
“Our [sales] process in the past was, ‘Here’s the car, what colour do you want?’
“The overall brand building is not just about advertising, it’s about the experience in the dealership,” van Doore said.
He said the difficulty for a car manufacturer was to balance the needs of brand development with the need to shift units from the dealership floor.
Van Doore said since his appointment in March—he began his career as a motor mechanic—the “feel” of the campaigns had changed. A new campaign currently on air for the Elantra brand embodies the new brand position he is looking for.
“It’s a difficult call for us as our business is built on two pillars—branding and retailing. The two of them combined will give us some aspiration for the brand.
“It’s all about the product, not about the price.”
