Hyundai Car UK's Hearts And Minds Approach For Growth

Hyundai are currently working on a new UK marketing and sales strategy to win the hearts and minds of new customers to the brand.

Labelled ‘A Car First – A Badge Second’ the new strategy seeks to convey to the buying public that what the product offers is far more important than the badge it carries.

Hyundai Car UK also point out their five-year warranty is still unmatched in the industry.

David Walker, Managing Director of Hyundai Car UK, speaking at this week’s media launch of the new Tucson range said "We want to establish Hyundai as the choice of the independent thinker, the people who want a quality, well equipped product at a sensible price with good trade-in values and covered by a long peace of mind warranty. Those are their requirements, the name on the car is not so important". (Tucson is pronounced Too-son)

"This is our third range of four-wheel drive models and we now become a significant player in the SUV four-by-four market where sales have already increased by 16 per cent so far this year. The Tucson offers customers a compact five-door sports utility vehicle at three door prices", said Walker

Hyundai expect the Tucson to account for 3,500 sales annually. The workhorse Hyundai Terracan will sell around 1,500 units this year and the Santa Fe, which is repositioned up-market in October with added specification and a price increase, will achieve in the region of 2,500 units.

The seven-model Tucson range, which goes on sale 14 August, has 2-litre petrol and diesel and 2.7 petrol engine options. Prices range from £14,995 to £18,695.

Walker added, "Currently we have 170 UK dealers and we feel 180 is the optimum number we need to continue our growth. It is just as important that our current dealers start to sell more cars. Currently they average 174 units annually, they need to reach 250 units a year and should be able to do so with the new and revised models we will be adding in the future including a new European built C segment car in 2006".

Hyundai sales in the UK showed a 10 per-cent increase in 2003 to a record level of 32,238 units, 12,183 of those being accounted for by the Getz hatchback range. In the first six months of this year their UK sales showed a further 18 per-cent sales increase with almost 20,000 cars being sold, over 9,000 of those accounted for by Getz models.

Globally Hyundai are promoting their brand name heavily using sponsorship as the vehicle to do this, including being one of the sponsorship partners of Euro 2004 in Portugal

Hyundai are on a growth path around the world. In 2005 they will open their first American factory, in Alabama. In 2006 they will re-enter the world rally championship and the same year they will sponsor they will sponsor the FIFA world Cup in Germany.

This year Hyundai expects to exceed the two million global sales mark putting them on course to become a world top five manufacturer by 2010.