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.

Convince People in 3 Steps

With any kind of marketing campaign, the goal is to lead to sales.  When thinking about any successful marketing campaign, it really comes down into three basic steps, given to me by Nicholas Boothman.  Boothman defines it as the KFC model, and it is something that I think about daily during my life:

1. Know What You Want:  This comes with analyzing your business or marketing campaign and making a goal.  You want to increase sales.  You want to hook a certain client.  You want to recruit that one kid for your fraternity pledge class.  Knowing what you want is one of the easiest things that a person can do (unless you are a girl entering a relationship).

2. Find Out What You Are Getting:  This comes with the ability to understand the current state of the business of campaign.  You must know the factual evidence right in front of you.  For example, I try to sell an advertising space to a local business.  The business does not see the point in advertising in my publication, so they reject me.

3. Change What You Are Doing To Get What You Want: This is where you must be innovative.  A person will fail at times, and that can be okay, but how do they respond?  In this step, you try different methods to get the results that you want.  And you do not stop until step 1 matches step 2.

A lot of marketing is learned through trial and error.  So you must know what you want, see what you are getting, and change what you are doing to get what you want! Three simple steps that can get your marketing and sales campaign running and growing!



These three steps are borrowed from Nicholas Boothman, an author in the UK.