Ssangyong puts the bite on Oz buyers

The all-new Korando will target young buyers with a dark and edgy vampire-inspired ad campaign
discount new cars  » Get the best price on a new Ssangyong

Korean carmaker Ssangyong will enlist the supernatural to help attract Aussie new car buyers. Set to launch a 'Twilight' style vampire-inspired ad campaign to spotlight its new softroader, the Korean brand is seeking to establish itself as a viable brand Down Under.

Ssangyong has had an on-again off-again relationship with Australia, but its latest distributor Sime Darby says the launch of the new Korando compact SUV signals a shift in the way the brand will do business in this country.

Ssangyong Australia will adopt the vampiric theme to promote its new car. It follows Volvo's lead -- the Swedish brand had an 'official' link with the Twilight 'frachise' and used the undead to expose its cars to a younger demographic -- with some success.

Ssangyong vehicles are imported to Australia by the Sime Darby Group, the same Malaysian-based company that controls the importation of Peugeot cars.

With 35 dealers in Australia plus a new investor (Indian carmaker Mahindra and Mahindra has purchased a stake in Ssangyong's Korean operation), Ssangyong is confident of rebuilding the brand in Australia.

"Our print ads for Korando have a vampire theme leveraging the enormous popularity of the genre in the 25-40 year age group -- the vampire 'cult' having been estimated to have generated $7 billion across the global economy in 2010," explained Sime Darby's Steven Thomas, Ssangyong Australia national sales and marketing manager.

Locally Ssangyong has forecast sales of 170 Korandos per month, and general manager and director of the car brand, Jeff Barber, told the Carsales Network that the importer has been spending big to promote a new era of Ssangyong vehicles.

"Sime Darby has invested a lot of time and money into this, as has the team behind it, and the future of Ssangyong will now be determined by Mahindra's involvement and product like what we see here in Korando."

Barber acknowledged that growth may be slow due to past events, particularly the worker strikes at the Ssangyong plants in Korea, but was positive about the future.

"We have to recognise of course the difficulties the brand has had over the past couple of years, and the small dealer network we've got, so it'll take some time to grow before we can reach some reasonable volumes ... [But] compact SUVs for some brands are generating 600 to 1200 units per month. These are phenomenal volumes," Barber told the Carsales Network.

"For us to say we want to sell 170, when we've got the only 2WD diesel in the segment and the only Euro 5 [diesel engine], I think the combination of what we offer in the Korando should generate strong interest in the car.

"Our volume aspirations are based on the research we've done on the market and what our competitors are achieving. I think they are fairly conservative volumes," Barber stated.

The Ssangyong Australia boss says that word of mouth will also play a big part in the car's success: "Once the car is on the road and people start to drive it, word of mouth will be a very strong (driver of sales)."

Read the latest Carsales Network news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at carsales' mobile site.