S7E18 — Does Kia’s VP of Marketing have the easiest job in the U.S. Auto Industry?

Well, today we're sitting here in the 2027 Kia Telluride, correct?

That is correct.

We are sitting in the hybrid 2027 Telluride.

With Russell from Kia, your VP of marketing and sales.

I'm the VP of marketing, Eric Watson is our VP of sales, he was here yesterday but you

get me today.

Okay, so I don't want to try, I'm not going to, I'm not trying to insult you or anything

but do you have the easiest job now in the company with this kind of cars?

You can hardly keep them in the dealership.

As soon as they get out of the production line in Georgia, they're out.

They call it the sell right, right?

Dealers do that.

We don't.

But you know, I don't know if it's the easiest job because, you know, last year we sold a

little over 120,000 of them.

Yeah.

Of course, you try to improve always.

Always.

And we increased the production in our West Point Georgia plant where it's built just

outside of Atlanta by 50%.

So I don't know it's the easiest job because now we're trying to sell more, right?

Yeah, of course.

But always in the industry they say any problem in the car company is solved with good product.

And you guys have amazing product, especially this one that has been a huge success from

the very beginning in 2019, I believe it was when it came out first.

Yeah.

So it's been on sale since 2019 and we started by selling about 60,000 in the first year.

And last year, like I said, a little over 120,000 and we've now increased capacity to

go more than 180,000.

Yeah.

So let's talk about what it's basically a new car, right?

Like even though it just debuted seven years ago, typically car companies do a kind of

refresh or significant refresh and I call it completely new.

But in this case, it's completely new, right?

Completely.

Second generation, completely new.

For the past six years, we've made improvements on the first generation, but this is all new.

All new exterior, all new interior, new powertrain, hybrid option.

So yes, all new.

So obviously the company has evolved a lot since it first came to the U.S. in West

Basel than 89, I think it was.

We've been around for more than 30 years.

30 years.

So at the very beginning, struggling, but like the whole perception has changed, especially

with this car and then the logo, or I don't know what order was it, but no, because I

believe this one still had the old logo when it first came out.

That's correct.

So I don't know what car...

So 2019 is when Telluride launched and then we changed our logo in 21-22.

Oh, 21-22.

And that's been a huge difference, right?

And again, at the beginning also, the logo was a little bit controversial, but I was

talking to Song Lee, the product manager for this vehicle, and he was telling me how that

has changed a lot the perception of, especially of younger buyers, because they don't remember

what happened 30 years ago.

Yeah.

I mean, initially there were some people that thought it looked like a logo from a band,

a rock band, and everyone kept asking us like, are you concerned about that?

And I said, no.

And the reason it's not is because any time you see our new logo, it is either on a car

or in an advertisement that we are putting on that has the car in it.

So it took a couple of years to get full recognition.

Like anything else, changes a little bit.

But now people know.

So speaking of ads, I mean, you guys do amazing, amazing, German.

You are sharing some information about the impact of those ads.

Can you tell us, because you are liking everything, you're liking the NBA, you're going to be

in the World Cup.

So tell us about all that, because that's really, really exciting.

I mean, we're going to talk more about the car, obviously, but I think your efforts in

marketing obviously help a lot and tell us the results are amazing because the return

of investment and the interest immediately after.

Yeah.

So thank you for bringing that up.

So we have been employing a simple strategy since the Telluride launched in 2019, trying

to make sure that everyone knows we offer capable SUVs and sporty sedans.

And then recently we added, of course, innovative electrified vehicles.

And because we've been talking a consistent message, we have built up that not only people

know that our Telluride is capable, but the rest of our lineup, our Sorento, our Sportage,

our Seltos, everybody feels that if they're going to get a Kia SUV, they know it's going

to have some sort of capability.

So that consistency has built up over time.

And it's allowed us that when we track our ads, anytime we're seeing an ad run, we immediately

afterwards see how much search interest it generated.

Whether it's a Telluride spot that would be Kia or Telluride, we see how much the Google

searches and all the online searches went up.

It's amazing you can do that now.

I probably, when you started in the industry, you had to wait weeks or months to see something

now like immediate.

We are getting daily updates, weekly updates.

We can see that.

And the new Telluride spots are doing amazing.

They're performing well.

People are searching for it immediately.

We've got a lot of loyalty current Telluride buyers that are looking for the new Telluride.

So far, so good.

Yeah.

So going back to, oh, no, no, before we go to that, tell us about the ad campaigns.

You started the NBA.

You were at the Ulster game.

You were the Ulster presenter almost.

Who saw your picture tonight?

So one of the strategies we've deployed is live events.

And people are much, very much more engaged in live events.

So we started with the Winter Olympics, right?

We started our campaign with the Olympic Olympics, captured the country, whether you

are from the U.S., not from the U.S., you have a favorite country.

You want to watch that.

So we did that for two weeks, got people to start seeing what we had out there.

The NBA All-Star game, we just switched over.

The broadcast used to be on TNT Turner, Great Station cable network, switched over to NBC.

Viewership went from four to eight million people, doubled.

We're fortunate enough that we sponsor the NBA and the All-Star and the MVP.

So, yeah, I was able to give the MVP trophy for the All-Star game.

That's what I saw, yeah.

It was very nice.

It was a very nice gentleman, a little taller than me, but it was very nice.

And now we're going to continue into its March.

It's March Madness for NCAA.

We'll be part of that.

And then there's a small little thing coming up this summer called the FIFA World Cup that

will be around as well.

So, last night at dinner, we were talking about our past lives.

I was a sports writer.

Okay.

I covered six World Cups.

And yeah, it's an amazing thing.

And also going into the new ways of immediate communication, immediate post and all that,

like the World Cup this year is going to be incredible because one is in three countries,

Mexico, US, and Canada, your biggest markets, I guess, for Kia in the world, I don't know.

North America is the largest market.

Yes.

So, you're going to have a huge impact on that.

And then, like, if I'm seeing the ads for now that you have, I just can't imagine.

Obviously, you don't need to tell me now because you're working on that.

But the ads that you have put, especially for the hybrid and then the expo version of

the off-road are really, really amazing and engaging.

I mean, all the ads.

I mean, I remember the one with the Skate.

Skating.

The Skating.

Yes.

That was like two years ago.

That was two years ago for EV9, yes.

Yeah, amazing.

Creative ads there.

And so, they're working, right?

I mean, you cannot keep up with sales.

I mean, they're like keep going.

You said a good double.

So, tell us.

I mean, you said it's new.

What are the highlights?

I guess there are so many, but the hybrid powertrain is one of them.

So, let's start with, we're giving customers more choices, right?

So, prior to this generation, the second generation Telluride, we had a great Telluride.

It offered a V6 and that was it.

It was a V6 engine.

Now, what you can get is first and foremost, you can get a hybrid.

The hybrid, it has more torque than the outgoing V6.

It has more range over 600 mile range.

So, it does everything you need it to do and saves you a little bit on the fuel, right?

Absolutely.

So, that's one side.

Then we go to X-Pro.

The X-Pro gas engine also has more torque, even though it's a 2.5 turbo.

It has more torque and power than the outgoing V6 engine.

So, no one's going to miss anything.

They're going to get a better performance of that.

And then we've added even more capability elements.

On the front and rear are tow hooks.

Not that anyone's...

They look really cool, by the way.

And they're completely useful.

They will work if you need them.

Most people won't.

We've also raised the ground clearance.

It's 9.1 inch ground clearance.

So, when you are doing any sort of off-road, it's making it so that you can go over usual

rocks that are in there, no issues.

We've got all-terrain mode.

There's a whole bunch of elements that we put in that are some nice premium touches,

but also some nice capability.

Speaking of the powertrains, other brands, other cars that have changed from bigger engines

to smaller engines, the immediate reaction from customers is,

oh, I want the bigger one because it's big.

But in reality, again, technology has evolved a lot.

In this case, what I'm referring to is the Dodge with the V8, the Hemi.

But now the six-cylinder engines are much better, more efficient.

It's the same case here, right?

It's the same thing.

So, our 2.5 turbo is as powerful as many or most of the V6 engines in the segment that

are there.

I'm not going to say it's as powerful as a Hemi.

That's a V8.

But again, most people...

No, we're not comparing it.

I'm just comparing the reaction of people, the initial reaction, oh, I want the bigger.

It's not better.

Most people are looking when they get three-row SUVs or three-row minivans or MPV.

They're like, I must have a V6.

That's no longer needed anymore.

The technology is such that it gets you the better fuel economy and it gets you better

performance with it.

Yeah.

So, in this one that we're driving, which is the hybrid...

What's the top level, the name?

The SXP.

SXP.

This is the hybrid?

Yeah.

I mean, it is a luxury vehicle.

I mean, Kia is not officially a luxury brand.

But the way your designers, your engineers, your product planners are putting things together,

I mean, and I've been telling these people, if you see it from the sideways, like we're

seeing one here, and you don't read the emblem on the wheels, you will think it's a British

car from a very, very long history car manufacturer.

And again, I don't know, I always compare it since I'm kind of bad, but I mean, that's

not a bad one.

Yeah.

We've had a lot of people tell us that, geez, it looks like a Range Rover.

It's like, okay, we'll take that.

We'll take that.

You won't have to pay as much for it.

That was going to go there next.

You don't have to pay as much for it, but we are adding more premium elements, right?

I mean, people are demanding a little bit more, willing to pay just a little bit more.

You know, a lot of people have a simple thing is when you're trying to put your seatbelt

buckle in at night, you can't find the buckle, so we've made it so that the seatbelt buckle

lights up.

Yeah, details.

Just a little thing, right?

But it's really important to customers.

Yeah.

And then the third road here, in this case, it's actually usable because the car has

grown too, right?

The car has gotten longer and wider, and the third row is easier to get to.

We've made the accessibility when you come in from the second row, the tilt seat moves

forward that it's simple for even adults to get in.

So speaking about the attractive pricing, I mean, it's really amazing because where

are the ranges, like below 40 and below 60?

So, it starts at just under 40 at 39,000, and fully loaded, top of the line, X-Pro,

you only can get up to about 56, 57.

Yeah.

So, over the years, we've known each other for, I don't know, maybe 10, 15, and maybe

longer, I don't know, if you want to do the math, I thought.

But we have shared many, many stories, including people who, let's say, 10 years ago will

never consider Kia because, like in my neighbor, I think I shared the story with you last night,

oh, in Brazil, that's a cheap car.

Yeah, but this is not Brazil, this is North America, different cars, different markets.

But everything that you have done, actually, now seriously, like your hard work, your very

successful work, has brought the whole brand to a completely different level from what

it was years ago.

And it's not just us telling us, I mean, you've been number one in quality for how many years

now in DD Powers.

Four out of five, and we've got a good history there.

So, again, it's amazing when you have this product, and the job is never easy, all seriousness.

But, I mean, you, Kia's in a very good place, right?

Yeah, you know, I think the best story that I love telling that kind of epitomizes that

is, my company car is a Telluride.

Yeah.

I currently drive a 2025 Telluride, I'm going to get a 2027.

Of course.

We want the customers to get them first, so they're sending them all to the dealership.

But I'm driving a 2025, I go to the gas station, I pull up, I'm pumping some gas, and a Range

Rover pulls in next to me.

And the guy gets out, and he looks, he goes, hey, is that a Telluride?

He has no idea I work for Kia.

He goes, is that a Telluride?

I said, yeah, it is.

He goes, oh, I wanted one of those.

I'm like, oh.

Oh, really?

Couldn't get it?

I said, okay.

He goes, but, you know, I didn't want to wait six months for it, so instead I settled for

the Range Rover.

Oh, my God.

I paid like 50,000 more.

So, you know, people see what the value is for these cars, but they also realize they're

not sacrificing a whole lot relative to luxury brands.

We're not trying to go luxury.

We're just trying to give some people that are ready to step up a little bit more some

of those elements.

What it's happening, you mentioned also that you've seen data, actually, the trade-ins

are Porsches and like Rovers and Lexus and some other brands that are coming for this

because they get more.

So we are 45 days into the X-Pro having been a dealership since the middle of January.

First thing we see is a lot of Telluride customers are like, I'm stepping up for the next one.

I'm never in a lot of trades, which is great.

And the next thing that we, it's not surprising, it's very encouraging.

We see a lot of BMW X5s, Porsches, Land Rovers, Range Rovers, so it's not who we're targeting,

but people are seeing.

It's happening.

That's a natural thing.

Well, again, like that's a result of very hard work, a lot of expertise, a lot of people

working on it.

I mean, thousands of people in Korea, here in the US, everywhere.

So congratulations.

And I really have enjoyed the experience, both of the hybrid and the off-road because you

didn't set up a special off-road to make sure that it worked.

But this is a living, working cattle ranch where we go through bulldozers and everything

on and the Telluride went in with no problem.

You went through streams that were not just like one inch streams, right?

You were plowing through.

You went through hills that had steep grades.

We went from places where at times, and I think I was following you and I saw that one

of your wheels was off the ground and you were still able to do your thing.

So the car is meant to have the capability to do the extreme things that some customers

want.

Most will never need it.

But they have the confidence.

Well, hopefully some, a lot of them will, hopefully will do it.

Yes.

And get into it.

Well, thank you very much, Rahul.

And we're going to drive back to another beautiful place here in California.

Thank you very much.

And I'll see you in the World Cup, I guess.

No, I'll see you in New York first.

You will see you in New York first.

But if there's more stuff there, have a great rest of your trip.

Thank you.

That's it for today's AI Auto Podcast with Javier Moda.

Hope you enjoyed the ride as much as we did.

Tune in next time for more on how AI is steering the wheel of tomorrow's autos.

Drive safe, stay curious, and catch you later.

S7E18 — Does Kia’s VP of Marketing have the easiest job in the U.S. Auto Industry?

About this episode

Kia Telluride

hybrid

production line

sell right

West Point Georgia plant

production increase

good product

sales success

second generation

logo change

electrified vehicles

Kia Sorento

Kia Sportage

Kia Seltos

search interest tracking

Kia EV9

V6 engine

torque

600 mile range

2.5 turbo

tow hooks

ground clearance

all-terrain mode

Dodge Hemi V8

V6

luxury vehicle

BMW X5

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