Kia Intends to Laugh All the Way to the Bank
The ads are edgy, aimed at provoking laughs, even a few groans, from viewers. They have also generated piles of irate letters, phone calls and e-mail messages to the car company that airs them, Kia Motors America Inc.
The Irvine-based unit of Kia Motors Corp. of South Korea bucked anti-Korean-car sentiment when it started selling in the U.S. in 1994. It is bucking another trend now as the auto industry’s leading practitioner of humorous advertising: a risky position in a society that grows more sensitive by the minute, says Roy D. Adler, a Pepperdine University marketing professor.
Mercedes-Benz has stepped into the minefield of humorous advertising with a $60-million campaign aimed at making the luxury brand seem less aloof, according to executives at Mercedes-Benz USA, a unit of DaimlerChrysler. The latest ad in that campaign shows images of the old Kojak TV character with hair and the Mona Lisa with a toothy grin, then points out how silly it is to change something that already works.
But that’s pretty tame compared with Kia, whose biting humor has helped it build an image as an unconventional car company but has also offended a number of viewers.
In one recent TV commercial, “The Ultimate Road Test,” Kia’s Sephia sedan zips along on a 100,000-mile test drive, passing--among other things--a chain gang labeled “32 former politicians”; a construction worker snoozing at the side of the road in a scene labeled “A zillion tax dollars at work”; and an ambling armadillo labeled “biological speed bumps.”
The armadillo scene was pulled after Kia fielded scores of complaints about cruelty to animals. Apparently no one was that concerned about cruelty to politicians or highway workers. Another version of the ad included a burly male motorist wearing a dress, wig and makeup, but that part was pulled when the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation objected to the cross-dresser’s being labeled a “freak of nature.”
But despite the pitfalls--making fun of things these days guarantees that someone, somewhere will be offended--the car importer and its San Francisco advertising agency, Goldberg Moser O’Neill, have no plans to approach the task of peddling Kias with a straight face.
Raising a little controversy, after all, is part of the overall marketing strategy. The word-of-mouth generated by Kia’s flippant commercials helps stretch an advertising budget that is less than 5% of that of industry leader General Motors Corp.
“It’s what we needed to do because we came here with a small, unknown car from an unknown company,” says Jim Sanfilippo, Kia’s vice president of marketing.
If anything, the company’s offbeat approach will be getting more exposure--Kia’s U.S. ad budget got a 40% boost earlier this year when the company’s parent was acquired by South Korea’s largest car maker, Hyundai Motor Co., in a restructuring of that country’s economy. Kia won’t disclose its annual ad budget but does not dispute industry reports that put it near $100 million.
“We’ll certainly be more sensitive to jerking people’s chains” in the wake of complaints--especially about the cross-dresser--says Brian O’Neill, president and chief creative officer of Goldberg Moser O’Neill.
“But we’re not going to stop trying to find ways to make people notice us and remember us.”
So far, the numbers argue in favor of Kia, which targets first-time buyers and economy-minded consumers and doesn’t mind that its humor doesn’t appeal to the Cadillac and country club set.
From U.S. sales of 12,163 and 88 dealers in 1994, Kia Motors America now has 540 dealers and is on track to top 120,000 in sales this year. Same-store sales through July are up 22% over last year. And August was the company’s second-best month, with 13,138 cars and trucks sold.
To be sure, some of those sales have come because of sizable rebates. Nonetheless, Kia executives link recent sales growth to their advertising, in particular the success of the “Y2K” campaign that ran all last month.
The ads featured a Kia spokesman poking fun at people who worry that civilization will end Jan. 1 because the world’s computers will be unable to handle the “double zero” date change and will crash. Computer specialists call it the Y2K bug. The Kia ads insisted that Y2K really meant “Say Yes 2 Kia.”
In planning sessions before Kia entered the U.S. market, Kia and Goldberg Moser O’Neill decided that emulating successful immigrants would be the best way to compete in a market dominated by Japanese giants Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co.
An immigrant assimilates by skillfully using what Sanfilippo calls the five Hs: humility, humor, hard work, humanity and honesty. “Humor,” he says, “is a big part of the package.”
Even when humorous commercials don’t offend, they can miss the mark if the comedy overshadows the message, says advertising researcher and critic Terry Villines, senior vice president of Phase One Communications in Beverly Hills.
The 1980s “Joe Isuzu” campaign from the American arm of Isuzu Motors of Japan is a prime example.
The smarmy character, a caricature of a car salesman, told outrageous lies about Isuzu products and ended commercials with a plaintive “Trust me.” Market research showed that people loved the commercials and remembered the Isuzu name because of them. But the company dropped that campaign because the ads didn’t convey much about Isuzu vehicles.
Kia has taken pains to avoid that pitfall, centering most of its commercials on comparisons with competitors and making sure the jokes don’t drown out the message.
Kia’s opening U.S. campaign used an image almost everyone could relate to: a giant Godzilla-like monster tearing up a city. The words on the screen were succinct: “There’s only one thing more frightening to Japan. A well-made car for under $8,500.”
Subsequent commercials by Goldberg Moser O’Neill have put the company’s cars and compact sport-utility vehicles into “real world” road tests--such as frenetic New York taxi drivers or reckless rental car customers. Most ads also mention test drives in which Kia vehicles were paired with Toyotas and Hondas on 100,000- and 200,000-mile drives and were able to keep up with their better-known competitors.
The message is that Kias, though priced below the competition, can stand up to the worst that American drivers can dish out.
The question for Kia, though, is whether Americans will take what it is dishing out. A recent print ad prepared by Goldberg Moser O’Neill for Kia dealers says that the convertible top on one Sportage SUV model “comes off easier than a White House intern’s.”
The ad has run in several markets, including Washington, Dallas and Los Angeles. So far, Kia says, there’s been no flak from the White House--or the interns.
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Steady as It Grows
Kia Motors America opened in 1994 with just a few dealerships. As it has added retailers monthly over the last five years, its sales have posted steady increases. However, so-called same-store sales--those at locations open at least a year--are showing gains as well. The company’s overall sales history:
Annual Sales
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Year Total Market share 1994 12,163 0.08% 1995 24,740 0.1 1996 36,274 0.2 1997 55,325 0.4 1998 82,893 0.5
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First-Half Sales
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Year Total Market share 1998 40,521 0.5% 1999 64,558 0.8
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Source: Autodata Corp.
