Toni Dimaano Auto 11.23.2022 02:Nov AM EST

Kia's New Logo Leaves People Googling Who 'KN' Is

Kia's rebrand made way for the launch of its new logo, which is the brand name written in an extremely angular manner that makes the letters "I" and "A" look connected.

Because of this, about 30,000 users of Google have been wondering what a "KN" car was, as the new design increased the level of confusion among customers since it debuted in 2021.

The New Kia Logo Is Not Going Down As The Company Has Hoped For

(Photo : Getty Images)

For companies, creating a brand and maintaining it is important in order to keep their vision and to keep themselves recognizable for consumers in the market.

Because of this, Kia decided to bring its brand to the 21st century by revamping its logo into something more modern than its previous one.

With this, it unveiled a new logo with a record-breaking pyrotechnic display last year, but it seems like the logo has been unreadable and unrecognizable in its cars.

According to The Verge, each month since its launch, there has been a spike in the number of people searching for what a "KN" car is.

In fact, there were about 30,000 monthly web searches trying to figure out what the new "KN" car was, as the joined up letters of the brand name in logo makes the brand hard to recognize.

That makes about 360,000 people every year, 986 people every day, 41 people every hour, and one person every minute trying to look up what a "KN" car was.

This confusing design was initially pointed out by a Twitter user named Ashwinn Krishnaswamy, who is also an ad agency owner.

Krishnaswamy incorporated statistics from Google, which found that the search data for when a surge of individuals tried looking for "KN" cars came at a time after the new logo went live.

The Drive writes that other popular searches on Google in relation to "KN" cars include "kn car brand," "kn car logo," and "kn carnival car," which is related to Kia's newly launched minivan at the time.

Kia has not provided any comment or reply to any of the matter regarding the logo confusion, but Google has since put Kia's website on top of the results for " KN car" searches.

The Logo Fail Is Common And Can Be A Brilliant Marketing Strategy

The confusion about Kia's logo is not a brand new event as it is important to note that Ford's logo has caused some confusion in the past as well, according to The Drive.

However, while some brands choose to immediately correct or explain the flaws in their logos, Kia seems to have embraced theirs, and to have capitalized on this marketing opportunity.

Because of this controversy, many people did not recognize Kia cars through their appearances that they continuously talked about it, bringing the company's reputation from a bargain basement to household brand.

It is also interesting to note that the logo mishap Kia is experiencing now is causing a lot of people to want to learn about the brand as proven by how it is actively searched for.

At the moment, Google Trends reveals that the logo fiasco is being talked about in the US, Canada, Australia, and the UK, unintentionally expanding the reach of the company, HT Auto writes.