In line with the industry-wide shift towards electrification, many carmakers have recently taken the opportunity to unveil their updated logos. While most of them were merely rehashes of their existing logos with a more modern and minimalist appearance, Kia has instead opted to introduce a brand-new design, which has now been revealed to cause some confusion amongst car buyers… and well, we can see why.
According to Twitter user Ashwinn, search engine data have shown that over 30,000 users have been searching for ‘KN car’ every month, ever since it was unveiled in much fanfare with a record-breaking pyrotechnics display back in January 2021, with interest for the ‘KN’ search term significantly increasing when the logo began appearing on cars like the Kia Carnival and EV6.
On the surface, this certainly looks like bad news. However, Google Trends data shows that the search interest for ‘Kia’ hasn’t tapered down one bit since the new logo was introduced, which means you could argue that the models with Kia’s new logo have brought more eyeballs and interest to the brand.
‘KN’ searches have also been trending downwards in recent months. And on top of that, Tire Meets Road also noted that ‘Kia’ gets approximately 1.83 million searches on average every month. In this context, 30,000 ‘KN Car’ searches – while not ideal – is just a miniscule figure that Kia probably won’t mind too much.
ALSO WATCH: 2022 CKD Kia Carnival now in Malaysia, from RM231k
Now, for a personal take: A logo is really just a representation of a brand, and does not necessarily need to spell out the brand itself – just look at Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Mazda, and even Toyota. I’m willing to place a wager that two years down the road, this wouldn’t even be an issue when ever Kia model has this logo on their bonnet.
In other words, we’ll just have to get used to it.
