Kia Strives to Repeat Soul’s Success With Evolutionary Next-Gen Model

TEMECULA, CA – The auto industry is littered with vehicles that sold well in their first iteration but failed following a redesign.

But a top U.S. Kia official says thanks to added refinement and technology features, plus little deviation in style, the Korean brand has the right recipe to replicate the success of its boxy Soul compact car the second time around.

The next-generation model, due in late summer, is “a really nice evolution of what the current-generation Soul is. I think it’s going to be another home run,” Michael Sprague, executive vice president-marketing for Kia Motors America, tells WardsAuto at a Kia media event here.

In developing the second-generation Soul, Sprague says Kia sought to learn from competitors’ missteps, including those of Toyota’s Scion youth brand. Sales of Scion’s xB box dropped from a record 61,306 units in 2006 to 17,017 in 2011, WardsAuto data shows.

Industry-watchers blame a 2007 shift to a larger, more Americanized and less-quirky xB for the second-generation’s underwhelming performance.

“We study the competition…in all respects to figure out how we can do it better,” Sprague says. “And our (Soul) designers definitely had (the fear of ruining a good thing) looming over their heads, because we were like, ‘Don’t mess it up.’ But the designers nailed it.”

It appeared Kia had made a bad bet debuting the Soul in the U.S. in spring 2009, just as boxy competitors were suffering a steep decline in demand.

But the Soul surprised the auto maker and industry-watchers alike with 31,621 sales in its first year, outselling the Scion xB and Honda Element, as well as the Nissan Cube, which also debuted in 2009. By 2010, Soul volume had more than doubled to 67,110, and in 2011 the vehicle surpassed the 100,000-unit mark.

The momentum carried over to 2012, with Soul deliveries climbing 13.2% to 115,778 units, compared with the xB with less than 20,000 and the Cube with less than 10,000. The Element was discontinued in the ’11 model year.

Perhaps with the xB’s downward trajectory in mind, the new Soul is just slightly larger than the first model, and retains most of the exterior design language. Designers did tweak the car’s signature “tiger nose” grille, headlamps and taillamps, but most of the changes to the compact are found within.

The second-generation Soul offers more powerful engines for ’14, as well as a more refined interior. Sprague says designers upgraded the passenger and cargo space with softer, higher-end materials, spurred by media criticism of cheap-looking plastic in the cabin of the original model.

While hard-plastic trim would seem adequate for a vehicle that begins at roughly $14,000, Sprague says low-price-car buyers should enjoy the same high-quality interiors as those purchasing cars costing more than $20,000.

“The interior (of the new Soul) is stunning,” he says. “We took (seriously) the comments you guys gave us (at the Soul media drive) in 2009: ‘Too-hard plastic. It scratches.’ I think (the new interior) is going to blow people away.”

Sprague still sees the Soul as an under-the-radar choice, despite the fact it sells in high volumes and is cross-shopped against some of the industry’s heaviest hitters, including the Ford Focus.

“There still are a lot of people that don’t want to follow the mainstream,” he says. “With (the) Soul, we captured 100,000 consumers every year who said, ‘I can buy a compact car or another boxy car, but I really like what Kia offers (in terms of value and design). It’s different.’”

But blowing past last year’s 115,000 sales probably isn’t in the cards for the new Soul this year, Sprague says, noting Kia’s ongoing capacity crunch will limit U.S. exports to roughly the low 100,000-unit range. The car is produced exclusively for the U.S. at Kia’s Gwangju, South Korea, plant.

Too few units could prove to be a good thing, he says, as it will keep buyers interested. “We’re always trying to find balance. You want one less than what the demand is.”

Sprague believes Kia’s consistent marketing of the Soul over the years has played an important role in the model’s U.S. success, and the brand doesn’t plan to fall back from that intense messaging schedule, he says.

However, the ’14 Soul’s marketing blitz won’t match that of the new Sorento cross/utility vehicle and Forte compact sedan, which were introduced during February’s Super Bowl.

“We’ve made a concerted effort to market (the newest Soul) every year,” he says. “Usually, you launch a vehicle and three, four, six months out you move on. Every year, we’ve come out with a major campaign to support (the car). Awareness was not built in a day.”

Sprague hints that the Soul’s mascots, Kia’s dancing hamsters, will return to promote the new-generation model. The hamsters made an appearance last month at Kia’s ’14 Soul press conference at the New York auto show.

“The (hamsters) in and of themselves have huge brand awareness, and we’ve always said we’d continue to use them provided that (it’s) in a compelling, interesting, fun way,” Sprague says. “From an advertising standpoint, you’ve always got to be careful not to jump the shark.”

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