Competitive Anaglysis

 "Creative advertising requires the communication of a meaningful message to an audience through an idea, expressed through the visual design and copy. Formulating an idea necessitates research, analysis, interpretation, inference, and reflective and creative thinking." Chapter 2, Page 20. For my competive analysis, I researched not only the competition but my clients company as well. Strengths for KIA was that it was in the top 5 largest Car Manufacturers based on sales recently. Especially their rising product of the KIA Soul cars. The company also has a good product portfolio and a strong brand presence. They have a unique brand slogan: “The Power to Surprise”. They offers various options for their different models. They have a positive image, winning 149 awards in design and quality. As well as proving their capability in those areas. Their weakness would be being a new and young brand, founded only since 1944. A young age compared to its competitors. The company has low global awareness level overall and low expansion in terms of geographic reach. Although they do have opportunities they can take advantage of with their improvement in their image as they entered the ranks of the world's top 100 global brand with a value of $4.1 billion. They've expressed a reliable and trustworthy image, and a great reputation as they've continued to break their own previous records of sales (recently selling 2.72 million vehicles). Now with this, the company has a solid base to improve and become top global automaker.
 It is important to learn as much as possible about the brand or group:

• What makes this brand or group (organization, company, any entity) unique?
• What are the functional and the emotional benefits of the brand or group?
• How does the brand or group compare to the competition? Is the brand or group a category or industry leader? In second place? A newcomer?" Chapter 2, Page 16

The company does face some threats, especially with its competition with bigger company such as Toyota and Honda. For example, Toyota is a company that strives and has able to successfully achieve global awareness and reach. The company created the first hybrid car, and were able to meet consumer demand when oil prices increased. They stations multiple factories all over the world. Toyota has manufacturing plants in America. This has enhanced the brand, and gave patriots the excuse to buy. The same in other countries. Although they has received some bad press from the floor mat/ accelerating cars. The company had to recall many vehicles and this negatively affected their brand. Its other competitor, Honda, is also a large and powerful company. It is known for their innovation in the car industry. The company also has the best market share leadership. Their products are known to be unique and different from competitors, which has increased in high popularity with consumers. Its weaknesses include high prices compared with other companies. Besides its competition, the company faces other threats such as running in a economic crisis environment (causing decrease in sales) and overall market instability that they will have to be able to manage through to stay on top.

"TOOL: FROM BENEFITS TO INSIGHT

• > Identify the functional benefit(s).
• > How can the benefit(s) best be explained?
• > Identify any unique selling point (USP). If there is no functional USP, is there anything that this brand or group does differently from the competition that could be highlighted?
• > Distinguish the emotional benefit in order to discover the relationship between the product and the consumer.
• > Couple the functional and emotional benefits to find an insight." Chapter 5, Page 71

Sources:
http://www.kia.com/worldwide/about-kia/company/ceo-message.aspx
http://www.kia.com/worldwide/about-kia/company/corporate-identity.aspx
http://www.hoovers.com/company-information/cs/competition.Kia_Motors_America_Inc.daba53c7be2430b1.html
http://www.franchisehelp.com/industry-reports/automotive-franchise-industry-report
http://www.interbrand.com/en/best-global-brands/2012/articles-and-interviews/kia-claire-chai.aspx
http://obvious-stock-picks.blogspot.com/2012/11/toyota-strengths-weaknesses.html
http://realswotanalysis.blogspot.com/2011/05/honda-swot-analysis.html
Advertising by Design, by Robina Landa