Kia starts 2013 with a focus on customer reviews

Kia is starting the New Year with a focus on what its customers think about their cars, in a full marketing campaign that looks to further enhance the public perception of the Kia brand.
 
With a major television campaign starting on January 9, fully supported by press, digital, outdoor and cinema, the campaign draws on the recent awards success that Kia has received from Which? that awarded the brand ‘Best Car Manufacturer of 2012’ and consumer organisation JD Power that, in its 2012 survey, ranked the Kia Sportage the most satisfying car to own.
 
The advert carries the strapline  ‘Cars which speak for themselves, customers who speak for us’ and uses an animated keyboard wall as a metaphor for the thousands of customer reviews, creating different backgrounds and visuals highlighting the new range of cars.
 
Kia is the first vehicle manufacturer to publish genuine, unfiltered, independently-verified owner reviews – making itself openly accountable to its customers. Partnering with Reevoo - an independent third party review website - since Spring 2012, more than 3,000 customer reviews of Kia cars have been posted to the company’s website – with an average product satisfaction rating to date of 9/10 it also encourages prospective customers to ask current owners questions on the site.
 
Lawrence Hamilton, Marketing Director at Kia Motors UK Ltd., said “After speaking with consumers, it became very clear how important customer advocacy and peer-to-peer recommendations have become, especially for big-ticket items with longer purchase cycles.”
 
“Our pioneering seven year warranty is an expression of confidence in the quality of all out new range of cars, but we know what we say as a brand is far less convincing and compelling than what real owners say. So, we made it easier for customers to really get to know what owning a Kia is like in real words from real people”
 
Research into public interest in online reviews has shown that 72 per cent of consumers trust online reviews with 67 per cent reading between two and ten reviews before making the purchase decision. 22 per cent of adults are influenced by comments and reviews of other internet users. Drawing on this research has ensured that Kia is the first car manufacturers to fully utilise the interest in peer to peer reviews with an independent third party website.
 
To read the reviews, visit kia.co.uk/reviews.