Kia highlights customer advocacy in ads

Kia Motors is launching a marketing push that it claims will make it the first automotive brand to make itself openly accountable to customers in a bid to enhance public perception of the brand.

Kia
Kia uses customer reviews in advertising.

The campaign launches today (9 January) and promotes the brand’s use of unfiltered customer reviews through independent service ReeVoo.

TV, digital and outdoor and cinema advertising will introduce the campaign strapline ‘Cars which speak for themselves, Customers who speak for us’.

Lawrence Hamilton, Kia’s marketing director, told Marketing Week that the car marque is the first to promote the fact that it offers independent reviews of all its cars in the UK because what real car owners say is more compelling and convincing that what the brand itself says.

He hopes that in doing so, more people will become “Kia-considerers”.

Hamilton adds that Kia is “a brand on the up” but that despite high brand awareness, there is still a lot of consumers that don’t know a lot about the brand.

The insight was gleaned from a consumer research project carried out last year – the brand’s first to target ‘Kia rejectors’ – to find out reasons consumers didn’t chose Kia over other brands.

The car manufacturer first began publishing unfiltered customer feedback last June after becoming the first automotive brand to sign up to ReeVoo.

Additionally, Kia says it is planning to publish individual dealership scores to help boost visits to its showrooms.

It holds a 3.5 per cent share in the market and sells more cars in the UK than Renault and Honda.

If you have a great Automotive sector case study that can demonstrate innovation and ROI then make sure you enter the Marketing Week Engage Awards 2013. The deadline is 15 January and you can find more here.

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