HYUNDAI is promising to create a “retail experience like no other” with its Genesis luxury brand, which is set to launch in October with a single factory-owned standalone dealership in central Sydney and more to follow in Melbourne and Brisbane.

The standalone store concept is seen as an opportunity for Hyundai in Australia to experiment with new retailing technology and retail concepts with all ideas “up for grabs”.

With only two niche models to sell for at least the first couple of years – the all-new G70 mid-size sedan and an updated version of the G80 large sedan – the South Korean car giant is resigned to the fact that sales volume is merely a side issue.

For this reason, Hyundai Motor Co Australia (HMCA) has not turned to its existing dealer partners but will open the new outlet – at a site that is still to be locked in. It will run its own show and seek to create a unique environment in an effort to build brand recognition and a customer base.

Discussing the company’s plans, and its prospects of success, HMCA marketing director Oliver Mann told GoAutoNews Premium last week that the retail model was still being developed but was expected to be a defining characteristic of the Genesis brand.

“Initially, a key point of difference for Genesis will be how the vehicle is retailed and presented,” he said.

“It will be a sensational retail experience, a retail experience that is like no other, that is a talking point on its own.

“We feel very confident in probably what are modest ambitions in volume terms.

“The objective is to set the brand up for a successful long-term future, but initially the model range will comprise of only two vehicles, so inevitably we’re not looking at large volumes.

“We’re looking to measure our success in terms of customer delight and advocacy.”

Clearly conscious of the sceptics who see Hyundai selling luxury cars as a contradiction in terms, Mr Mann was quick to point out that it had already achieved a measure of success with the G80, which was launched in 2014 as the ‘Hyundai Genesis’ (retailing for up to $82,000 plus on-road costs) and recorded 1193 sales before being discontinued last year.

The G80 has also provided plenty of instruction on how to launch Genesis as a brand in Australia, according to Mr Mann.

“Genesis launched as a Hyundai model was a fascinating exercise for us,” he said.

“I think many people wouldn’t have held out much hope for us selling the vehicle, and actually it turned into a significant success for us, albeit in a tiny segment.

“But certainly the capability of the vehicle, its design, its overall appeal, found a ready market with wealthier individuals who have a much more refined sense of value in their decision-making.”

Mr Mann added that Genesis, as a full-blown bona fide luxury brand that will eventually extend to at least two SUVs and a sports coupe, will be regarded as a “renegade” in the same sense.

“The learnings we can take from the launch of Genesis as a product actually exist for us as a brand,” he said.

“The insight is, fundamentally, there will always be people who are prepared to pay a lot of money for a badge and use the badge to reflect their own success.

“Whether it’s a Hyundai Genesis or even a Genesis brand, something that is new on the scene won’t carry that same lustre.

“In one sense, the product has to stand up on its own appeal, on its own merits, and in the other there is the lure of something that’s different and new and is for people who have a different approach to their thinking.

“It’s almost the ‘zaggers’ as opposed to the ‘ziggers’.

“What we’re trying to do with Genesis is to carry that through into the distribution and retail experience now. It’s playing the long game where we are setting up the brand for future success over the next 10, 20, 30 years.

“So there won’t be a push for volume. There will be a push for quality in every aspect of customer management and customer satisfaction.

“And the vehicles themselves will be over-achievers in that they will be highly competitive vehicles with anything that they can be reasonably compared with.

“Highly competitive in every sense – in performance, in value.”

Asked to nominate the key selling points of the Genesis vehicles, Mr Mann admitted: “Truthfully, I think that remains to be seen in product terms.

“We know that the product range will expand significantly over the next four or five years, and it will be a highly competitive range and it will include all sorts of different powertrain offerings.”

HMCA is banking on existing Hyundai customers being attracted to Genesis, as well as a broader catchment from other luxury brands.

“The brand will naturally attract Hyundai customers who have grown up with the range and are looking for the next step up,” Mr Mann said.

“And I think Genesis, as a brand, does have the opportunity for the first time to capture customers as a genuine competitor, a genuine alternative, to the traditional luxury marques – as opposed to being something that is just a different choice entirely.

“It is ready to be considered in the same frame as those brands.”

Mr Mann did not want to shoehorn Genesis into simply being seen as a rival for Japanese luxury brands Lexus and Infiniti, but knows it will be difficult to compete with the market-leading premium players – most notably Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi.

“As a product, Genesis will take on any other brand. Going back to the experience when Genesis was introduced as a (Hyundai) product, there was probably a stronger allure of German brands for people who are looking at brands purely in terms of status, rather than product delivery.

“I think inevitably people who choose Lexus or Infiniti may be more open-minded in their choice. I think a segment of people who buy German performance, German luxury brands do so because of the product attributes and some will do it because of the brand attributes.

“Those who look at it in pure product terms I think will be very open to Genesis.”

As with Hyundai models, the Genesis G70 and G80 will both undergo specific suspension calibration for Australian conditions.

The Sydney showroom will be followed by a similarly configured company-run dealership in central Melbourne and central Brisbane. Negotiations with retail partners (Hyundai dealers) will commence when a broader model range can justify the investment required.

He said the launch would focus on the new Sydney showroom and be carefully targeted.

“When we say ‘big launch’ that tends to mean mass-market, mass-media, mass-spend – and it won’t be that,” Mr Mann said.

“It’ll be highly targeted amongst a particular buyer demographic and a particular geolocation as well.”

Asked whether online sales and other non-traditional retail sales channels will also be considered, Mr Mann said: “Everything is up for grabs.

“I think Genesis is a useful point in time to look at the future of automotive wholesaling and retailing and build it around the customer experience.”

By Terry Martin