The Kia K900 is the newest sedan being launched by Kia. The car has a 60,000 dollar price tag and is Kia’s most expensive and luxurious model to date. Executive vice president of sales and marketing for Kia Motors America, Michael Sprague describes the marketing strategy of the new luxury sedan, “We’ve positioned the vehicle in what we define ‘the sweet spot,’” he said. “That’s between the mid-luxury space and premium-luxury space. If you think of the BMW 5 series versus the BMW 7 series, we’re kind of right in the middle.” He later went on to say that the K900 is advertised for the confident individualist, a consumer looking for something different and unique. Confident individualists, “don’t let brands define them. They don’t have to showcase their wealth and success with a particular brand because they are confident in what they’ve achieved.” The Kia luxury sedan can also be marketed towards a technology obsessed consumer. The car has many cutting edge features such as lane departure warning, blind spot monitoring, and adaptive cruise control.
Although I’m sure the quality of this new Kia is elite, I can’t imagine the K900 being very successful. Americans are not going to want to pay the high ticket price and not also get the brand name and status that goes along with purchasing a luxury vehicle. As much as BMW and Benz produce great vehicles, there’s a certain amount of pride and status that goes along with owning one of those luxury brands, owning a Kia K900 doesn’t quite have the same ring as owning a Mercedes. I think Sprague greatly overestimated how many confident individualists exist in the car market. Although the K900 does have some great technological features, it does not make up for the fact that Kia is not known for producing great luxury cars. There’s only so many people who will sacrifice the purchase of an elite luxury car such as a Benz, BMW, Audi, or Lexus to purchase an interesting looking Kia.
Source- http://www.autonews.com/article/20140515/RETAIL03/140519924/-60000-kia-k900-made-for-confident-individualists-says-vp
I wonder how successful they would be if they introduced the car under a new brand, allowing it to stand on its own without all of kia’s (think: cheap, mass-produced) baggage. I don’t have anything against kia, but the general public’s perception will harm the car before anyone ever drives it without disconnecting it from the kia brand.
I agree, luxury car consumers will not be attracted to a $50,000+ Kia. If they were to launch a subsidiary luxury brand, starting with this car under the new brand name probably wouldn’t be a bad idea. It seems to be very innovative and have a lot of new technological perks, it could establish the Kia subsidiary as a player in the luxury car market.