Case Study: A Look at Kia's Marketing Campaign

If you asked me a few years ago to tell you the last car I would consider buying, it would be a Kia.  While a Mini Cooper and a Volkswagen Beetle near the top of the list, Kia stood out because of its cheapness, ugly exteriors, and seemingly poor quality.  What changed? Well to start, all we have to do is look at the 2011 NBA Slam Dunk Contest.

In this contest, Blake Griffin battled his way to the finals only to pull out a 2011 Kia Optima.  He leapt over the hood of the car and slammed the ball home, winning the contest.  I immediately viewed the dunk as a disappointment, because it really wasn't that impressive.  Most NBA players could do the dunk Griffin did, however, the final dunk was not about Griffin at all.  It was about Kia.

Kia brought out their newest model car, the 2011 Optima.  The car received much recognition for its five minute cameo in a place where cars should not be allowed.  This, is one of the greatest marketing tools there is: do something unusual or different with your product to get people to talk about it.  This did not say anything about the Kia product at all; it was just like a celebrity guest appearance in a television series.  And it worked.  20 percent of people who saw the dunk said they'd consider purchasing one 48 hours after the feat was accomplished.  Since then, the Optima has stood atop the new Kia lineup and has set records in sales over the year, while getting stronger each month.

  

Kia now had a popular name associated with its car, and they made sure that Blake Griffin was the face of Kia.  He quickly put out many commercials for Kia, giving the car an appeal to a younger, hipper, and sports-oriented crowd.  Griffin became the only basketball player to be associated with the Kia brand.

But they didn't stop with Griffin, proving their creativeness and marketing techniques to appeal to more people.  Kia released a commercial in the 2012 Super Bowl that garnered lots of attention.  This Kia commercial appealed to a more masculine demographic, showing that the car was to be something that was sought after, not just one to consider purchasing.

While they clearly improved the quality of the product that they were producing with the new Optimas and other cars, the marketing campaign does not go unnoticed.  This marketing campaign by Kia landed it an Effie Award, taking home bronze in the year's most effective marketing, and three over the last three years.