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NEWS
Cerato key to Kia growth
Poor local sales of Kia's Cerato small car is dulling the brand's performance Down UnderBetter performance on the sales charts from Kia's Cerato is key to the brand's growth Down Under.
The Korean marque's main small car segment entrant, Cerato has sold fewer than 3500 units year to date June 2014. In comparison, Mazda's market-leading 3 ticked over 22,500 sales and the Kia hatch/sedan offering's closest competitor(s), Hyundai's i30 and Elantra hatch and sedan pairing, cumulatively registered over 20,000 units.
Kia Motor Australia incoming COO, Damien Meredith, told motoring.com.au the lack-lustre performance of the small car nameplate was significantly hamstringing the brand's goal to reach a top-five berth and hit sales targets of up to 60,000 units in the next three years.
"Cerato, which is the big one, is number 11 in the small [car VFACTS] segment, so [it's really hurting us]," a matter-of-fact Meredith told motoring.com.au.
"We have to look at what’s on offer in regards to maybe [adding] a 1.6 [-litre model] that we can bring into the marketplace at a more affordable price. Not doing anything with the specification level [however]... Keeping the spec level really, really high," he commented.
Meredith told motoring.com.au Kia needed to appeal to more youthful buyers. New media campaigns will look to improve Kia's awareness in younger age groups.
In addition, Meredith says, Kia will engage university students with on-campus promotions (including long-term rentals/leases), while high traffic areas such as supermarkets will also be targeted with installations where would-be car buyers can experience Cerato and other Kia models first hand.
General media and television campaigns will eschew retail and concentrate on the marque's product claims Meredith.
"People certainly don’t know what Cerato is... I think what we have to do is that there has to be a reason [for people to consider Cerato].
"It’d probably be nice to have K3 as the [name instead of Cerato], wouldn’t it, but that’s not going to happen," Meredith stated.
One potential direction Kia Australia could explore would be to drop the model and pursue a different strategy via the European sourced cee'd small car. Australia is currently the only market in the world outside Europe where the five-door Euro-hatch's new pro_cee'd GT coupe-style stablemate is sold.
"I really can’t answer that question," Meredith answered when motoring.com.au asked if cee'd could replace Cerato.
"I’m not quite sure what we can do and what we can’t do. My experience is that it’s very difficult to get those things through, but it’s probably worth looking at," he stated.
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Written byMike Sinclair
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