Pioneer's DVD-Video Players Help Kia Customers Select The Perfect Car

Pioneer's DVD-V7400 Industrial DVD-Video Players Provide Interactive Sales Experience for Car Shoppers

Interactive DVD kiosks at more than 600 Kia Motors America dealerships across the country give prospective car buyers a virtual sales experience, serving as a guide to help shoppers purchase their "ideal car." Kia Motors America, a car company dedicated to providing high-quality vehicles at competitive prices, in partnership with DCI Marketing, chose Pioneer's DVD-V7400 industrial DVD-Video players for their in-dealership sales kiosks, providing product information about Kia's full line of automobiles. The kiosks, conveniently located in dealer showroom's nationwide, are designed to assist customers in choosing the car and features best suited to their needs via an interactive touch screen. The Kia kiosks recently won the 2001 Gold Award for Best of Industry from the Point of Purchase Advertising Industry Association.

Wanting to upgrade the outdated CD-I equipped kiosks originally installed in their dealer showrooms, Kia and DCI turned to DVD-Video for increased reliability, durability and the ability to store more high quality digital video content. Pioneer's DVD-V7400 industrial DVD-Video players with their compact design and unparalleled reliability fit the bill perfectly, providing a means for delivering highly interactive content to customers in a reliable manner.

"As we added additional features and new models to our lineup, we needed the kiosks to evolve with us," said Rick Weisehan, Kia's director of marketing. "The CD-I units we reviously used did not have the capacity to show the content we desired, so making the move to DVD-Video was a much better choice."

The ability to make individual selections on the screen menu and navigate through product information was important to provide prospective customers with an interactive car searching experience. Pioneer's industrial DVD-Video players are equipped with an RS-232C port allowing direct connection to special video touchscreen monitors, enabling Kia and DCI to create customized touch screen kiosks with a variety of menu options. With the seamless search capability of Pioneer's DVD-Video players, car seekers can make individual choices from the many menu options available and instantly view the corresponding video content.

"The versatility of the DVD-V7400 makes it a great choice for a variety of demanding applications including retail kiosks," said Linda Toleno, vice president of sales and marketing for Pioneer's Business Solutions Division. "Pioneer's industrial DVD-Video players are ideal for kiosks because they are easy to integrate and can seamlessly run an entire interactive exhibit. Our players supply high quality images and audio that provide Kia customers with important vehicle information."

The DVD-V7400, weighing a mere 10.5 pounds and measuring 8-1/4" x 4-11/16" x 16-1/8," was a natural choice for Kia since showroom space is at a premium. The player's highly interactive capabilities also allowed Kia to integrate the kiosk with no additional computer hardware, only a DVD-V7400 and a monitor are used in the kiosks, which helped reduce total installation cost as well as save valuable floor space.

Pioneer's DVD-V7400 also offers a reliable design, a very important consideration for point of information applications in retail environments. The DVD-Video players can be programmed to automatically power-on and off as well as operate throughout the day without incident to provide sharp, life-like images. The rugged design makes it ideal for enduring the rigors of daily use in a retail kiosk application such as Kia showrooms.

Outfitted with Pioneer's DVD-V7400 industrial DVD-Video players and monitors, the kiosks allow Kia customers to navigate through a variety of specific car information at their leisure. Car shoppers can choose to learn about one of Kia's vehicles - such as the Sedona minivan - and can then make individual selections to learn about that car's specific features, safety ratings and available options.

"The DVD player acts as a virtual reference library," said Kia's Weisehan. "It's simple: When people know about our company and our cars, they're more likely to become a Kia owner."

About Kia
Kia Motors America is the U.S. sales, marketing and service arm of Kia Motors Corp. in Seoul, South Korea. For more information, visit www.kia.com.