The Homa Files

Excerpted from New York Times, “Hyundai, Using a Safety Net, Wins Market Share”, by Nick Bunkley, February 5, 2009

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In the midst of an industry-wide slump that has pushed some competitors to the brink of bankruptcy, Hyundai spent $3 million to tell Americans watching the Super Bowl how to say its name correctly.

The company’s market share nearly doubled last month as sales rose 14 percent, the largest year-over-year increase that any big automaker has posted in the United States since last May.

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One reason for the jump in January appears to be Hyundai’s new marketing strategy of promising to let buyers return their vehicles, at no cost in most cases and with no penalty to their credit rating, if they lose their job or income within a year.

“To their credit, they struck at the core of what’s bothering people, and that’s obviously uncertainty . . . It’s just the fear and the uncertainty that’s holding people back.”

“It gives them a whole new audience — people for whom it would have never popped up on their shopping list.”

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Sales of the Hyundai Sonata, a full-size sedan that costs less than $20,000, surged 85 percent in January, making it one of the country’s top-selling vehicles. And Hyundai sold more passenger cars last month than Chrysler, which has four times as many dealers.

Edit by DAF

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Full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/business/media/05auto.html?_r=2&ref=business&pagewanted=print

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This entry was posted on March 5, 2009 at 7:09 am and is filed under Autos - Travel, Financial Crisis, Mktg - Advertising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.