To all of our Hyundai customers:
It’s been an incredible year for Hyundai in 2009, and I wanted to take the time before the year ran out to say “thanks” to all of our customers this for your dedication and passion this year. 2009 was a “breakout” year for both World Hyundai and Hyundai, and you’ve each played an important role in making it happen.
2009 was an amazing year in a terribly devastated industry, however we were able to grow. We were able to leverage our product strengths with the help of great accolades and media recognition:
- Genesis winning the North American Car of the Year
- J.D. Power anointing Hyundai the highest quality non-premium brand in the IQS
- 9 of our 10 models being “recommended” by Consumer Reports
We used our “big voices in big places” media strategy effectively, with great visibility in huge forums – the Super Bowl, Academy Awards, and our new Times Square billboard.
And we delivered innovative new ideas, at HyundaiSpeed, to our customers – ideas like the Assurance job-loss vehicle-return program, and a headstart on the Cash-for-Clunkers program.
The results were terrific – we’ll close 2009 with a record market share of over 4.0%, gaining more than a full point over our prior 3.0% share record in 2008.
The good news — there is more to come. We’ll build on our 2009 momentum into 2010 with great new products. The new Tucson is off to a great start, with great reviews and strong word-of-mouth. The revolutionary 2011 Sonata is right behind, with production already started at our Alabama plant. And in the second half of 2010, our premium Genesis and Genesis Coupe products will have a new rear-wheel drive flagship sibling, the Equus. These new products are all designed to reset the bar for the competition – in quality, features, fuel economy, safety, and value.
Along with those new products, we’re going to market in 2010 with a simple “ABC” strategy – Assurance, BlueDrive, and Connection. This strategy will touch all of our products and communications, and be an important factor in our retail strategies.
- Assurance: As you’ve seen in our DCS and press release out today, we’re bundling our consumer trust-building elements — America ’s Best Warranty, our job-loss vehicle-return program, Roadside Assistance, even our industry-leading quality and safety – under the Assurance banner. This comes from an insight we gained from our most recent Hyundai owners. When we asked them what “Hyundai Assurance” meant to them, many of them told us that it represented not just the job-loss vehicle-return program, but everything we do to assure their satisfaction. We like that idea, and we think it makes a lot of sense as a retail strategy as well. Our focus is always on the customer’s satisfaction.
- BlueDrive is our broad corporate strategy to lead the industry in fuel efficiency. The good news…we achieved the #1 position even faster than we’d planned, having passed Honda and Toyota in the 2009 model year. You’ll see lots of references to our fuel efficiency leadership in our communications going forward…and you’ll definitely see evidence of our high-value/high-technology approach to achieving great fuel economy in our new models – Tucson and Sonata are both fantastic examples.
- Connection: Some critics have said that what Hyundai has been missing is a strong design personality…something that provides for a stronger emotional connection with the customer. We aim to turn that completely around with our new wave of 24/7 products. You got a taste of it with Genesis Coupe, and you see even more of it with the new Tucson and Sonata. But it keeps getting better, with an incredible new Elantra not very far away, an all-new Accent, and a dramatic new “EcoSport” coupe to follow. We call this new design language “Fluidic Sculpture,” and it will tie all of our volume products together going forward. Great driving dynamics are another key way to build that emotional connection, and we’ve been hard at work here as well. Early media and customer reviews on the new Tucson tell us we’ve successfully combined great fuel economy with a responsive powertrain and agile vehicle dynamics – that’s a tribute to our engineering team and their ability to reduce weight while increasing function. Most importantly, it’s a great way to build a stronger emotional connection with our owners.
We’ll work to ensure our team members can fully explain the competitive advantage of the Hyundai Assurance to our customers.
We’ll work to help communicate our fuel economy leadership position, and, in time, improve the eco-footprint of our showrooms.
We’ll work to deliver products that create a lasting emotional connection with our customers, and to build and consistently execute sales and services processes that create lasting connections between our dealership and our customers.
Again, on behalf of the entire team here at World Hyundai Matteson, thanks for your commitment and passion in 2009. We’ve had a great year in 2009, with even greater promise in 2010. World Hyundai Matteson is fully committed to our customer’s 100% satisfaction. We’ve got another six days to go before the sales year close on January 4th – we would love to have Chicago Hyundai last minute shoppers stop by and see why “The Right People Make all the Difference in the World”!
Thanks,
Scott Falcone
”The life which is unexamined is not worth living.”
- Plato
