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RCA Works In Marketing Too.

(RCA: Root Cause Analysis.)

I blogged here about Hyundai offering nervous consumers a "no harm, no foul" right to return a new car within 12 months of purchase if the buyer loses a job and is unable to make payments.

Today, the news reports are full of carmakers' plunging sales except for Subaru (sales up 8%) and, you guessed it, Hyundai (sales up 14%).

Domestic and several foreign manufacturers - even Honda and Toyota - talk as if a turnaround is mostly out of their hands. They're in the "wishing and hoping" category - wishing and hoping for sales to stabilize or at least fall more slowly, for a bailout to arrive, for a few more months breathing room, anything. Sales, meanwhile, are in the tank.

Hyundai, on the other hand, stayed home from Washington and got after it, responding directly to the ROOT CAUSE of customers' concerns: fear of job loss.
Lo and behold, sales are up 14%.

Go figure. Maybe this stuff works after all.


Did I mention Hyundai's sales are up 14%?
Root cause. You get that, right?


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