Genesis Brand Is Serious About Competing In The Luxury Segment - Who Should They Target First?

They don't have to "target" anyone.

They need to deliver stylish, well-built cars that are satisfying to drive. Couple that with impeccable customer care and they will gain sales. The Genesis sedan has always sold rather well for an "unknown" premium vehicle.

The volume of the Genesis has always been much greater than the total of the Jaguar brand, sometimes approaching double the sales.

+1. I was about to present the "totally original" thought of focusing on making good vehicles rather than trying to take someone down. You know, the whole "shine on your own merit" thing :-)

Acura, Volvo, Lincoln, Buick would probably be the targets that they might be able to get customers from.

Acura stands to lose the most because with a Genesis, an Acura customer could get a real RWD premium rather than a Japanese Mercury.

Lincoln appears set for a roll with the Continental and the probable rebranding of the MKZ as the Zephyr. The latter was redone very well.

Buick is vulnerable because the new Lacrosse simply isn't attractive and GM won't let them do the Avenir and the Avista which would have done well for the brand.

Bentley and Rolls Royce (everyone else was already put on notice) since those are the only two other companies on the planet that are in the same league as Hyundai when it comes to prestige, pedigree, design talent and technological innovation. Hyundai is the whitest Asian car company after all :)

They will target the German brands, but their impact will be felt most on the Japanese brands and Cadillac.

If they can bring a car to market with the styling of the concept, Audi has to be worried, as does MB.

Audi and BMW are most vulnerable because they do all-new cars that are indistinguishable from the old car. Mercedes is on a roll.

They simply do not have the prestige to target MB or BMW - and certainly not Rolls or Bentley. AS was the case when they first came into the market - they will need to produce a good quality car as price significantly lower than the selling prices of the cars they target. And yes - that means the second tier - Infiniti - Lexus - Buick - Volvo. Maybe if they targeted SKODA in Europe with similar prices - the might get some sales there too!

Neither did Lexus, but Lexus is now a player. Genesis has a better shot than Cadillac in my opinion.

MDarringer: Lexus USED to be a player. In their early days, they used to be the alternative to a Mercedes, available at a fraction of the price. At that time, they were conservatively styled (like MB), and offered low defects, high reliability, and a notably low price tag relative to what you were getting. In those days, the top luxury manufacturers were (in alphabetic order) BMW, Lexus and Mercedes.

Today, Lexus is still known for their "quality" (low defects), but they're no longer the low-cost bargain the used to be, and their conservative styling has been replaced by something that can most kindly be called "polarizing". The vast majority of Lexus's sales are in the US. Elsewhere, they're a non-event. Today, on the world stage, the top luxury manufacturers are (in alphabetic order) Audi, BMW, and Mercedes. Lexus's distance from the pack is a big one, too.

In *MY* view, Lexus today does not carry the status or prestige it once did. It's the ugly -- ahem... polarizing -- car you get because of its history of low defects and "quality."

Yet, that is a VERY profitable position to occupy. I really think that one day Toyota and BMW will merge which would make Lexus the "Buick" it currently is should a Toyota/BMW merger happen.

They need to target themselves. They need to be better than they've been. Hyundai/Kia have been following the leaders for years, both premium and non-premium To date, their products have been a good-enough-to-be-cost-effective alternatives. It's now time for them to out-innovate, out-design, out-luxury, and/or out-perform (with N) the leaders. That's the only way they will forge a true place in the premium class. BMW, Mercedes, and Audi have so many industry "firsts", which allowed them to forge their place. Lexus continues to prove more reliable than rain at 3p in Florida, which allows them to be a constant force. So the challenge for Genesis is to find that sweet spot to stake their space in the segment.

If you ask me, the place they should start is design. So much criticism has befallen Audi and BMW's static design approach. Mercedes' and Lexus' designs are polarizing.
Hyundai had something going with the previous gen Sonata and with the current Genesis sedan, despite its derivative design cues. This is where Genesis needs to attack the market. They're hardly going to come up with some dazzling technological feature in the short term that the others or Tesla haven't already introduced. They're hardly going to be able to drastically outperform AMG, M, RS, V, F, or Tesla. It would be very difficult to out-luxury the S-Class, A8 or 7. The low-hanging fruit in the attack would be design. Too bad the G90 isn't getting them off on the right foot.

So, in summary (LOL), it's not WHO they should be targeting vs WHAT they should be targeting. The last "outside company" to target a single weak spot in the premium segment was Lexus. They came in with bulletproof reliability that hadn't existed prior. Right now, design and style is a bit of a sore point in the segment and that's where Genesis can gain some footing.

@cidflekken the first and second Genesis sedan have excellent reliability and their build quality is quite nice.

They need to target their dealerships: separate showroom, specialized personnel who understand the luxury customer, and and of course a full line up of models with an identifying design signature.

Hyundai dealers that get chosen to retail Genesis will revise their showroom floor to separate Genesis from Hyundai, but fully stand-alone dealers at this point make absolutely no sense because Genesis does not have the volume to support it.

The guidelines from Hyundai are encouragingly demanding if you must know.