Meet and greet a new car luxury marque, the first one of the 21st century. It's been more than 25 years since a major automaker launched a luxury brand, the times of Infiniti and Lexus joining the U.S. market as the luxury vehicles of Nissan and Toyota.
In the next 18 months you need to expect for the Korean carmaker to peddle its G80 and G90 sedans, both are descendants of products which used to be once under Hyundai's brand. Meanwhile, the brand is challenging its brand image, promoting it from scratch to scratch, and conveying it to consumers. The automaker knows how to advertise itself, and how to set its Genesis brand apart from many other luxury car brands. Despite the huge strides, Hyundai hasn't fully shed the stigma of the sub $5,000 cars it sold when first arrived on U.S. shores. We all probably remember the times when Hyundai's luxury offerings sat in the same stores as value-priced Accents and Elantras. Lexus, Infiniti and Acura all struggled at times to connect with customers while disconnecting from their parent brands or companies, same for Lincoln and Cadillac as they plot their current reinventions.
Genesis will offer, test drives at home, valet pickup, and drop-off cars for service. A big advantage the Genesis has is that it seeks to build awareness, a four-year sponsorship deal with the National Football League, separate from Hyundai's, it designates the brand as the league's official luxury brand and provides a large, live-TV audience for game broadcasts at least three days a week. Marketing a new brand won't be easy, but with patience and hard-work the U.S. car buyers will start loving the brand.
