Creating the Hyundai "Look"

You know it when you see it. There are certain brands of cars that always seem to be instantly recognizable, with or without their logos. They just have that "look" that extends across every single one of their vehicles. It's a look that unifies the entire brand, and in turn helps make vehicle owners just a little more proud of their car and proud of themselves for making the purchase. Two brands that immediately come to mind, for instance, are Audi and Cadillac. For plenty of people, you wouldn't have to see the logos to know who makes these cars. Just the grill and arrangement of the headlights is enough to give it away.




Well Hyundai is trying to do the same thing. Here's an excerpt from the Wall Street Journal about Hyundai's efforts to create a brand "look".

"...the company attempts to end its long streak of a safe-looking, me-too cars and sport-utility vehicles. Some of the elements can already be found in the company's 2010 Tucson sports utility vehicle and 2011 Sonata sedan.

In all three vehicles, strong lines emanate from the front center in a way that's meant to represent the aerodynamic flow of an object in motion, a concept the company's designers call "fluidic sculpture."

"We want to create some provocative designs," says Oh Suk-geun, Hyundai's chief designer. "We're not going to design clean and simple shapes. We want to say something."

Now, even the company's smaller cars are getting a remake. By the middle of next year, Mr. Oh says, "We will have a certain face, a DNA.""

We couldn't agree more with this idea For one, the cars that keep a distinctive look are usually luxury brands, so it would help speak to quality. And on top of that, Hyundai owners tend to be very very loyal. We're talking absolutely dedicated to spreading the Hyundai name. It's one of the main reasons Hyundai has grown this past year when total US automotive sales (for all brands) were down 20%. Our word of mouth marketing, as in happy owners spreading the news, has been more effective than any TV commercial could possibly be. Having something else for people to cling on to, something that says "Here's a Hyundai!" could really help with that effort. So here's hoping this becomes a reality, and if the look of the 2011 Sonata is any indication (which this article suggests is the case) we're really looking forward to this change in design thinking.

Source - Wall Street Journal - Link to article - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704754604575095102431859856.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Hyundai's Super Bowl Commercials

Assuming you were one of the 105 million American who watched the Big Game, chances are you saw one of Hyundai's Super Bowl commercials. After all, there were quite a few of them. But in case you missed or couple, or if you just would like to watch one again, we figured we'd put them all here for you. So without further ado, here are all of Hyundai's 2010 Super Bowl commercials (with a special bonus clip at the bottom).

















And finally, here's the full-length MVP locker room footage from the Hyundai Brett Favre commercial.

What are all these "Sign & Drive" events I keep seeing?

Let's face it, this country has Sign & Drive fever. It seems like everywhere you go today, you can always find a TV on with a Sign & Drive commercial playing. There are so many nowadays, that it's not too hard to block all of these commercials out in your head after a while, once you've seen them for the oh, the 500th or so time. (Or at least it feels like we've seen them that many times.)

But despite the pervasiveness of these events, many people still aren't exactly familiar with how a sign and drive event works, so allow us to explain.

The whole point of having this event for you (you can see the details in the picture above) is that you stand a good chance of taking a car home today, without having even dropped a cent. Sign and drive events, reward spontaneity. They ask, "Why don't you come on down and give our car a spin?" You don't need to worry if you can afford the down payment right now, because there will be a good chance that there isn't one. In this case, we're offering the beautiful Elantra GTS for only $189 dollars a month. We dare you to beat that anywhere else

But not only is the monthly price good, the initial down payment is good too: Try $0.

That's the beauty of Sign & Drive. And that's also how Sign & Drive earned the nickname "Sign and Drive", because let's face it, there's usually a third step: PAY, sign, and drive.

We think that extra step is overrated...