Free Paper on Hyundai and Its Sales Performance in 2018

For decades, Hyundai has been a large manufacturer of modern car designs. The name Hyundai was derived from hanja a Korean word that means modernity. The company is known in most countries of the world for its innovations in technology and the production of cars that are of high quality. Building a satisfying driving experience is what makes the company's products of the highest quality and gains many customers from their rival groups. The South Korean car manufacturer company employs thousands of people and sells to 193 countries worldwide. Over the past years, Hyundai has operated as one of the largest manufacturing facilities of integrated automobiles with sales rising way beyond expectations which created a platform for its performance of sales in 2018.

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History

The Hyundai Company was developed in 1947 by Cheng Ju Yung, an entrepreneur from South Korea. It was founded as the Hyundai Engineering and Production Firm which developed to become Hyundai Motor Company two decades after its establishment. The first brand for the Company was released one year after establishing the company and it was named Cortina (Levine 2015). Ford Motor Company cooperated with the company to release the Cortina. Sales of the Cortina were extemporary high and the brand decided that it would like to produce their own cars. In 1974, the brand hired George Turnbull a former Managing Director of Austin Morris who hired five British engineers who effortlessly collaborated to produce Korean's first car which was called the Pony.

The Pony was mainly exported to Canada and became the top bought car in the market at some point. The car was however not exported to the United States due to its inability to meet the set standards of car emissions. Hyundai started exporting to the United States in 1986 where it exported the Excel which was nominated as the Best Product #10 by Fortune magazine due to its affordability. Over the years, Hyundai developed different innovative features such as power seats, head lamp washers, cruise control, a trip computer and later their own engine in 1993 (Levine 2015). Major developments, inventions and an improvement in certain features has made Hyundai and Kia to be among the world's top automotive brands.

Target

When Hyundai produced the 2018 Sonata, it used personalized campaigns using videos on Facebook and Instagram to reach market sedan buyers instead of broad groups like the millennials. The company focuses on the purchase behavior of the audiences mainly targeting the people loyal to Sedan, those who own competing models like Chevrolet, Nissan and Honda, and individuals who have an affinity for Sonata. The company does not target specific age groups or gender but most of its advertising strategies are criticized with an argument that they target the older people because it defines the target groups as people who had bought multiple sedans in the past (Kim 516).

This campaign led to the sale of 2,227 new Sonatas during the time when it gained the attention of over five million people in most parts of the world. Hyundai also uses psychographic and behavioral variables segment the market in different homogeneous groups. This strategy has enabled different targeting strategies used by Hyundai that target different customers and work to satisfy their needs. It uses a different strategies of positioning that are based on value with a product mix which create an excellent experience for clients instead of selling products only.

Personnel

Hyundai motor company employs more than 110,000 employees in different countries worldwide with over 4.5 million cars sold all over the globe. Hyundai replaced the United States and China chiefs so that it could revive its sales in the key markets.

Total population, Rank, and File (departments/divisions)

Financials

"Global auto demand development is expected to deteriorate this year, with demand seen attenuation in major souks like the United States, China and Europe" Yeo-Chul, the vice-chairman of Hyundai, was quoted telling the employees in the beginning of 2018. The global sales 2018 increased by 1.8 percent from the earlier year hitting over 4.5 million units. In the countries stated by the vice chairman, shares of Hyundai decreased by 4.2 percent overall and those of Kia reduced by 2.1 percent (Myung 1993). Investors were not contented with the activities of the company due to certain factors such as the sales target that had been placed for the coming year. The corporate governance of the company also lacked progress as a result of the fourth-quarter results being sluggish. The sales in the biggest markets of the Company, China and the United States, were negatively affected due to the lack of models of sport utility vehicles. In China, the sales were also negatively affected by a spat between Beijing and Seoul which lasted for a year due to the installation of a missile shield from the United States by South Korea. The sales of Hyundai did not improve in 2018 despite diplomatic talks taking place. Hyundai Company also experienced losses and a drop in sales due to the mainland competitors making it possible to afford SUVs at cheaper prices.

The company's overseas sales also increased by 1.3 percent hence it posted over 3.8 million units despite the market environment that was quite challenging like faltering demands from China (Myung 1993). Hyundai increased its growth in Central American region and other rapidly growing markets such as Russia. Korean sales of the Hyundai products increased by 4.7 percent in 2018, unlike other years with more than 721 thousand units sold in the country.

Hyundai set a target of sales of over 4.68 million units in the year 2019 while expecting that there will be a continued momentum of sales when a full SUV lineup is brought out in the market to meet the needs of the growing customers (Myung 1993). The company has overseas plants in China, Czech Republic, Turkey, the United States, Russia, India and Brazil. All sales that are done overseas are done on a wholesale basis but those done in Korea are sold on a retail basis.

Conclusion

Hyundai and Kia faced a lot of struggles in China and the United States due to less demand where losses of upto 940 million dollars were reported in 2018 due to different union members' labour strikes in 2017. Wage negotiations for the previous year were pushed to 2018 which led to lots of losses which affected any efforts of boosting sales globally through the delay of launching new models of vehicles.

Works Cited

Kim, Linsu. "Crisis construction and organizational learning: Capability building in catching-up at Hyundai Motor." Organization science 9.4 (1998): 506-521.

Kwon, S-H. Historical Developments of Korean Capitalism. The Hyundai Business Group, 1940s-1990s. No. 115. 1997.

Levine, Ben. "A Brief History Of The Hyundai Motor Company". Autoinfluence, 2015, https://www.autoinfluence.com/brief-history-hyundai-motor-company/.

Myung, Cha-Lee, et al. Research and development of Hyundai flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs). No. 930330. SAE Technical Paper, 1993.

Sangode, Dr, and B. Pallawi. "Service Quality of Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai Dealer in Nagpur: A Comparative Study." International Journal of Research in Finance & Marketing 1.1 (2011).