KIA does it again! The all new OPTIMA LIMITED is due to arrive here at Hagerstown KIA any day. Be the first to test drive and put your name on this limited production sport sedan.
Kia’s 60-second Super Bowl ad features, and I quote: “a Gen X couple’s wildest thoughts as they sleep, including: Victoria’s Secret Angel Adriana Lima waving the checkered flag at a speedway; an in-your-face Mötley Crüe concert; mixed martial arts legend Chuck Liddell battling in the ring; a heroine and hunk on horseback in a romance novel setting; champion bull rider Judd Leffew taming a bucking rhinoceros; and a fairy tale ending.”
That’s not to mention Mr. Sandman; a submarine sandwich so big it takes lumberjacks with chainsaws to slice it; and pyrotechnics.
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Let’s see, forgetting anything? Oh, yeah, a car. That would be the 2012 Kia Optima Limited, a new top-of-the-line version of the existing Kia Optima.
The point to be hammered home is, the new Kia Optima Limited is so great, it could even figure in your wildest dreams, where you can have anything you want.
That’s a valid point for the Kia brand to make. Kia is still living down its history of making cheap cars built cheaply, which people bought out of economic necessity, instead of a used car. The company defends the ad in terms of household reach. Kia needs to raise awareness of the brand, and to nudge the brand image upscale.
Kia has been remarkably successful, no doubt about it. Kia quality and durability get much higher marks from third parties than its outdated brand image would suggest, like J.D. Power and Associates, and ALG Inc., which sets residual values on leases. For the money, Kia also has a high level of standard equipment in its cars and trucks. Its latest generation of products, led by the Kia Soul, has also added attractive styling to the brand.
Record U.S. sales approached 500,000 units in 2011, a 36-percent increase over the previous year. Kia added a third shift at its U.S. manufacturing plant in Georgia. The brand had its 17th straight year of increased U.S. market share.
Those are sexy numbers, from a business point of view, even if they’re not exactly a Victoria’s Secret model waving a checkered flag.
And that sort of hoopla is my problem with typical Super Bowl ads. Nine times out of 10 in my opinion Super Bowl ads are nice to have, but not necessary to have. I’ve written before that advertising on the Super Bowl is a disturbing sign of “Big Car Company-itis.”
Kia is entitled to celebrate, and it can probably afford a Super Bowl ad. Also, there are ways to mitigate the expense, like making the Super Bowl ad part of an integrated campaign. Kia is doing some of that, including previewing the ad in movie theaters, and running 30-second versions on TV in the weeks following the Super Bowl. There are also online versions and point-of-sale materials for dealerships.
Nowadays, Kia really is a Big Car Company in the U.S. market. I just hate to see it act like one.
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