Hyundai
South Korea is taking the world by storm. The culture and legacy of the country is very much felt all over the world. Now, even in the global car industry, Korea is starting to make waves. The sixth biggest car brand is South Korea's pride and currently bestseller locally---Hyundai. The car brand is a live demonstration of the Koreans' nationalistic and patriotic support for its own brands.
Hyundai was very unique because it was able to penetrate the United States and other important global car markets, particularly those in China, Europe and the rest of North America. However, the initiative was not very easy and some embarrassment had to be endured by the car brand.
Hyundai's maker, Hyundai Motor Company, was originally founded in Seoul, the Korean capital city, in 1947 as Hyundai Engineering and Construction Company. As a thriving company, that entity has been reorganized and was transformed into the Hyundai Motor Company that people know now. As an independent car assembler, HMC was actually not alone in launching its initial car model offering, Cortina, which was collaboration with US-based Ford Motor Company. The year was 1968. That time, HMC became prestigious and promising. Little did car industry watchers realized that the company was up for some major shake-ups.
Hyundai was recognized in Korea for its contemporary design, engineering feature and comfortable characteristic. However, Hyundai vehicles had nothing else to offer to car fanatics. Marketing strategies kept the company's sales increasing and the internal morale upbeat. When Hyundai penetrated the United States car market beginning 1986, the company had its major challenge.
Hyundai introduced its Hyundai Excel car model in the country. Surprisingly, sales of the car model picked up and that year, the brand reached record sales. But because Hyundai Excel was popularly received, it became subject to criticisms. Thus, the popularity and warm market welcome was short-lived.
It was later established and well publicized that HMC's initial offering in the US was a big flop. Most of the buyers of the Excel car were furious when they found out for themselves that the car was no good at all. The cars were not performing well and were substandard in terms of car assembly. Consequently, Hyundai's sales drastically plummeted.
But that occurrence was taken by the company as a wake up call. After the humiliation it received, Hyundai did more research and increased efforts to improve its performance and quality. HMC achieved its goal of producing quality cars. But it took some time before the market forgot about the blunder.
Now, Hyundai boasts that it has significantly improved the quality of its line-up of car models. Not only that. Hyundai car models are now more attractively designed than ever. Sales figures for the cars are rebounding, and car buyers' perception of the brand is improving, as evidenced by the constantly increasing demand for Hyundai cars in the most important car markets around the world. Indeed, South Korea is taking the world by storm.
Original Authors: Manny
Edit Update Authors: RPN
Updated On: 15/08/2007
