Advertising – Not Their Forte
I have finally found it! The worst advertising campaign ever. It is so ill-conceived, I cannot find anything good to say about it. The campaign is for the launch of the Kia Forte, a new car on the Canadian market.
If you go to http://www.mykiaforte.com/base.html and click on “Watch the Forte TV Spots” you will see what I am talking about.
First, in all of the situations presented, the Forte owner is a baffoon. Whether inept at bee keeping, kung-fu or social graces, the geeky looking guy in all of the commericals is definitely the loser of the spots. But boy is he proud of his Forte.
Second, the spots have been running heavily during the basketball playoffs and during 24. I have to take from this that the target demographic is males between 18 – 34. Perhaps women may find something charming about nerds, but let me assure you, guys between 18 – 34 do not want to be seen as a dweeb, nor do they have much time for guys who are. Certainly the millhouse of the situation is not the one most guys look to for car advice.
Finally, the car is shown along with the price point: $15,695, I believe. At the same time, Mazda is promoting their new Mazda 3’s for the same price point. Kia provides no rational or appeal for why anyone would want to choose one of their Forte’s over a Mazda 3.
From my experience, making quality cars is not Kia’s forte. After seeing their marketing prowess, I guess that’s not it either.
This entry was posted on May 19, 2009 at 11:35 pm and is filed under marketing. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.
Tags: advertising, Kia Forte, Mazda 3, the worst ad campaign ever
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May 20, 2009 at 8:31 am
You should see the stuff Aliant puts out…
May 20, 2009 at 9:04 am
I have to agree with you. These commercials have been swamping the prime time slots for the last month and I hate them too. The Kia executive that approved these…that person should be fired immediately…and he/she should be made to drive a Forte..straight off the lot!
May 20, 2009 at 11:03 am
You definitely hit the nail on the head with this post. I don’t know why anyone in their right mind would go buy one of those car after seeing those commercials. Maybe you should go work for Kia and straighten them out. They appear to be struggling.
May 21, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Great post and great insight. I will always buy a Mazda 3 over ANY Kia. They gotta shake off the “Killed In Action” nickname too.
May 25, 2009 at 7:27 pm
don’t forget baby blue.
June 4, 2009 at 10:47 pm
Been thinking about AJ’s point…
Please tell me you are in no way responsible for:
“Some people want the whole kit and caboodle,
Some people just want a kit,
Some want a caboodle,
Some want a caboodle with a kit”
What genius came up with that?
June 4, 2009 at 10:54 pm
2 things:
2. I don’t work for Aliant or Bell Aliant.
1. I have no idea what you’re talking about. Thankfully.
June 4, 2009 at 11:01 pm
There is a new radio commercial that has been running on News 95.7 – it is absolutely brutal. You should know these things…