We spend a lot of time trying to segment our market as part of our definition of product development. Once we take care of that, we create marketing programs and product messaging so we can reach our target market and convince them to buy our product. However, sometimes things don’t go as they should. What should we do when the wrong customers start buying your product?

The problem with Kia’s Soul Car

A few years ago, product managers at the Kia car company decided they wanted to create a car that would allow them to capture more of the prized customer segment in their 20s and 30s. The reason they wanted to do this was because this demographic is huge: could become as big as the huge segment of baby boomers. It sure sounds like something that, if done correctly, could have ended up on your resume.

To go after this market segment, Kia created a new line of cars called “Soul.” You may have seen some of the TV commercials Kia bought where dancing hamsters danced and conducted Souls. The car’s features were aimed at this market segment and included speakers that had rings of light that pulsed to the beat of the music that was playing at the time. Sounds like a winner, huh?

Well, things didn’t go exactly as planned. Kia’s soul is one of the top 10 cars that are being bought by the baby boomer segment. There are a number of reasons why this has happened, but buyers cite the fact that they find the Soul easy to get in and out of as a key factor in their purchase decisions.

What Kia is doing to solve its wrong customer problem

I feel a little bad for Kia’s product managers: They missed the mark with their Soul line. However, they are generating sales for his product, and at the end of the day, that’s what being a product manager is all about. So what’s a product manager to do? when the wrong customers start buying your product?

At Kia, product managers have decided take a two-way approach to promoting its Soul car lines. They continue to buy television ads that will attract younger buyers. At the same time, they’ve started buying newspaper ads listing Soul features they think will appeal more to older buyers.

Kia product managers have to be careful here. They want grow the youth market for your product (They will be around for a long time to buy more products), but at the same time they should treat the people who are actually buying their product right now with respect. Last year, 40% of all car sales went to baby boomers, so it sounds like Kia’s product manager strategy is probably the right move.

What all this means to you

It’s a sad fact of life that product managers don’t run the world. Instead we can try very hard to make things happenBut it won’t always work the way we want it to, no matter what our product manager’s job description tells us to do.

Product managers at Kia, the automaker, have run into this problem with the Soul line of cars. These cars were designed to allow Kia to capture the young millennial segment of the car buying market. However, seniors currently make up the largest segment of Soul buyers. This has forced Kia to introduce two parallel advertising campaigns.

Product managers will create plans for who should buy their products, but they must carefully consider what the data is telling you. If different segments start buying the product, product managers need to respond quickly. The customer is always right, and product managers must learn to listen to them, no matter who they are.