Kia Motors has created another conundrum for auto magazine and website editors with the name of its new European-built, five-door family hatchback which will finally make its production-ready debut in Paris next month – the cee’d (pronounced ‘seed’).
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
Given that many reporters and editors have enough trouble with apostrophe locations as it is, we look forward to seeing many variations on the cee’d name in print and in cyberspace. We can only imagine how ‘cee’d’ will appear a few years hence once these cars reach independent used car dealers and local paper advertisements…
It joins smart (this editor rules it to be Smart as it’s a brand name), MINI (doesn’t Mini know that it’s rude to use capitals – interpreted as shouting in emails or text messages) and the Mazda3, etc. (so, guys, is it a Mazda Mazda3 or a Mazda 3?) in the ‘interesting names for products thought up while drunk or on the toilet in the middle of the night’ category that challenge those of us charged with maintaining grammatical standards in ‘print’.
Many sub-editors in England and abroad seem agreed: smart is Smart, MINI is Mini and a Mazda3 is, well, a Mazda 3. For this new Kia, we nominate Ceed and stand back…
Anyway, cue the usual marketing-speak reasoning from Kia Europe: “Our new C-segment model marks a major turning point in Kia’s history and is named cee’d for several reasons,” said senior vice-president Jean-Charles Lievens.
“cee’d is a short, dynamic and innovative name. It’s unconventional, a name which breaks the automotive rules. A surprising name for a car destined to surprise our rivals and delight our customers. I’m sure the name will get people talking about Kia and also be easy to remember.
“The ‘CE’ symbolises that this model is made in the European Community and the ‘ED’ indicates this car is a European Design created especially with European consumers in mind. ‘cee’d’ represents the ‘seed’ for abundant growth in Kia sales that the new model will undoubtedly ensure. Finally, we wanted to introduce a fresh name in line with Kia’s brand attributes — quality, trustworthy and dynamic,” added Lievens.
Kia has also released interior photos of the new car which weighs into Europe’s highly competitive C-segment from December.
It’s being built at the automaker’s first European manufacturing facility in Slovakia and will be marketed only in Europe to start.
“Conceived in Europe, made in Europe and sold in Europe, cee’d is a modern Kia designed to fulfill 100% of European consumers’ needs,” trumpeted Lievens.
Graeme Roberts
