Kia Motors introduces ‘sonic branding’

Kia Motors has launched its newest sensory branding initiative aimed at enhancing customer interaction with the brand—a sonic signature titled “The Rise of Surprise.”

This tune is the auto industry’s first-ever fully integrated brand signature sound applied to vehicles as well as numerous customer touch-points with the Kia brand.

The signature sound combines an elegant tone, cheerful rhythm and restful melody that express Kia’s core brand identities—Vibrant (symbolizing Kia’s outstanding growth), Distinctive (expressing the unique value provided by Kia) and Reliable (reflecting Kia’s world-class product reliability)—and will be utilized as an emotional trigger for the Kia brand.

Modified versions of the signature sound have been created to suit the characteristics of each customer touch-point, ranging from TV commercials and official websites, to mobile ringback tone, ringtone, applications, customer service calls and much more. For the first time in the automotive industry, the signature sound will be applied to convenience and safety functions of vehicles, such as welcome and goodbye sounds, in addition to various warning indicators.

Kia’s first full-electric model for overseas markets, the Soul EV, and the all-new Carnival MPV (Sedona in some markets), will be the first models to feature the sound signature. Kia plans to apply four different versions of “The Rise of Surprise” to all future models according to the vehicle type, categorizing them as eco-friendly vehicles, RVs, small/compact vehicles and mid- to large-size sedans.

“At Kia Motors, we have been putting a tremendous effort into creating sonic branding with a unified signature sound that delivers Kia’s distinctive brand identity to our customers. Now we are excited to introduce and share ‘The Rise of Surprise’ with our customers at various points of interaction with our company, its products and services, both inside and outside of our vehicles,” said Ike Kwon, Kia Motors Corp. global brand strategy group director.