Eighth Sonata Breaks Through Korean Brand's "Ceiling"

For a long time, although sales of Korean cars have grown rapidly, they have made few achievements in the B-class market that represents brand influence. The monthly sales volume of Lian Xiang and Yuan Jian had been hovering around 2000 vehicles or even hundreds of vehicles, which directly restricted the brand power of the entire Korean car. This situation was ended after the eighth-generation Sonata sold 10,000 vehicles in September this year. The Korean car finally rushed into the "ten thousand clubs" of Class B vehicles. The eighth-generation Sonata has successfully entered the mainstream of mid- to high-end models, and Beijing Hyundai has also become the seventh domestic manufacturer of mid-to-high-end models with monthly sales of over 10,000 units.

Objectively speaking, the eighth-generation Sonata was able to achieve such sales in the context of the market downturn and fierce competition this year. In addition to the product strength of the model itself, Beijing’s modern and effective marketing strategy and system-wide resource scheduling capability are also key factors for success. It is worth mentioning that while the eighth-generation Sonata achieved a breakthrough in sales volume, its price system was relatively firm and did not appear to be out of control: the main model, which accounted for 34% of sales, was currently trading at a price of 174,000 yuan, which is higher than the Japanese market. The price of a strong main model is 10,000-1.8 million higher than the previous generation, which is 34,000 yuan higher than the previous generation. This shows that the growth of Sonata’s sales is not only achieved through price cuts, and it maintains a considerable brand premium capability, which lays a solid foundation for the vehicle brands to gain market discourse power, including corporate brands.

The significance of the eighth-generation Sonata’s sales of over 10,000 vehicles lies in the following points.

First of all, Sonata has thus become the "new force" and "new mainstream" in the mid-to-high-end market. With outstanding product strength and marketing power, Soba has become the only product in the new generation of mid-to-high-end models (with a main model of 200,000 yuan or less) that has sold more than 10,000 vehicles. Its fluid design, leading luxury configuration at the same level, and leading the future of market segments Development trend.

Secondly, this incident opened the Korean brand's brand upgrade journey. The status quo of Korea's long-term low-end brand camp has been broken, and the “ceiling” of the B-class car has also been exceeded for the first time, and the “curse” that the Korean Department cannot win in the B-class market has been broken. Sonata has become a meritorious model for leading Korean brand upgrades, and Beijing Modern’s brand hierarchy and image have benefited a lot from this.

Once again, Beijing Hyundai switched from a simple sales growth model to an intrinsic growth model. The successful sales of Sonata not only reversed the company's long-term stagnation in the high-end market, but also established a strong voice, and also boosted the brand image of Beijing Hyundai. Beijing Hyundai’s brand power and market influence will all be significantly enhanced, which will drive the sales and marketing of all of its models.

In addition, after Sonata’s successful sales of 10,000 vehicles, the middle and high-level markets were dominated by Europe, the United States, and Japan, resulting in the formation of a diversified European, American, Japanese and Korean competition. The "double-junction" of the Japanese top three, the North and South Volkswagen and the General Department will face the challenge of a strong Korean flow from the modern world (including Kia).