Genesis resisting the urge to chase volume

With an Australian debut just around the corner, Korean luxury brand Genesis wants to hit the ground running, but will resist the urge to chase volume.

Speaking to media at the 2018 New York motor show, Genesis senior vice president, Manfred Fitzgerald, told CarAdvice it's a slow burn process to establish a new brand.

"Creating a new brand – that, first of all, doesn't come overnight. I think a prerequisite for that is to have patience," Fitzgerald said.

"And you can only prove your point by experience. That means the people have to know who we are and what we stand for, what values do we believe in and hopefully our products and services will resonate with them."

"So there is no such thing as cutting corners to get to success. You have to prove yourself time and time again and hopefully with spending and desirable products.

"It's more about, if I look at defining success, I think it would be great if we could, in a couple years' time, look at us and be seen as a true competitor in the most competitive field out there," he concluded.

As we've seen with past efforts, launching a new brand — especially a luxury one — in Australia isn't an easy task. Brands like Infiniti have struggled to engage consumers in and, as a result, haven't been able to secure those all-important  marketing efforts.

We asked Fitzgerald why consumers would buy a Genesis over an established luxury brand like BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi or Lexus.

"It's a combination of many things. I don't want to boil it down and I think that is the huge advantage that we have with incoming players. We're starting with a clean slate so defining this brand doesn't put us in any kind of corner.

"We have a pretty, white canvas and a big picture to paint and what we definitely want to do with each and every product that we deliver, we deliver that proposition," Fitzgerald said.

"It should address and cater to the different profile, people who are having certain necessities and demands or just desires."

"I'm not one of those marketing guys who look at it at a specific target group, the Millennials, or the Generation X and Y and what have you. That's not down my alley.

"I just want to believe that we cater to all the people, like I said before, who we see something special in this brand and that only comes through experience and how we talk, how we treat a case and how we present ourselves and definitely by the virtue of our products and services," said Fitzgerald.

Genesis will launch in Australia with the G70 and G80 – previously known as the Hyundai Genesis – with more products to come.

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