Most of the major mid-range auto manufacturers also sell highly sought-after luxury vehicles. This is evident in the brands’ Lexis, Acura, and Audi, which are owned by the same parent company as Toyota, Honda, and Volkswagen, respectively.

But up until 2015, Hyundai didn’t have skin in the luxury market game. This all changed when the automaker introduced its luxury brand Genesis.

But don’t make the mistake of thinking this is an afterthought or a “me too” attempt. There’s a whole lot to the story of Genesis, and that’s what we’re going to explore here today.

Forward-thinkers

If you have more than just a passing interest in auto design, you’ve probably heard of Peter Schreyer. He is the mastermind behind the design of the original 1998 Audi TT that turned heads and has had a ripple effect that is still evident in today’s auto designs. And as you may have surmised, Schreyer holds the position of creative director for the Genesis brand. And he’s also one of three presidents of the company.

One of Schreyer’s bolder staffing moves was to hire the former Bently design boss and overall maverick Luc Donckerwole as the head of Hyundai Motor Design Center. Lamborghini’s Manfred Fitzgerald was charged with the brand strategy for Genesis.

If you haven’t heard much of the buzz about Genesis yet, you can bet that with names like these behind the scenes, that buzz is inevitable.

Market saturation

As with any smart marketing plan, Genesis began with humble plans to introduce to a select few markets. To begin the Genesis was only available in the US, South Korea, the Middle East, and China. But there are plans to expand to other markets, including Europe.

Genesis models have also been laser-focused on market demand. As such, they include the G70, G80, and G90 models.

Target market

With the K-Pop craze and the unique and attractive vibe of Seoul, Genesis is smartly targeting millennials. As such, the brand is attempting to redefine luxury for a younger market with a fresh approach and new materials. They have identified that millennials simply aren’t connecting with traditional definitions of luxury, and so this automaker is meeting millennials with a redesigned approach to the high life.

To accomplish such lofty goals, the Genesis tea is working with students at the London Royal College of Art and the Art Centre College in California to research new ways to express new and rewarding ways to express luxury. What we’ve seen from Genesis so far is exciting, and we can only expect it to get even more innovative. It’s amazing what can happen when you have a team of out-of-the-box thinkers with a mission to solve the same problem in a completely different way.

One of the things that are so interesting and enticing about this brand is that they get to start from scratch. It’s rare that we see an entirely new brand emerge in the auto industry. And it’s even rarer tath such brand would have heavy hitters like Schreyer and company pulling the strings behind the scenes.

We’ve already gotten a taste of what this luxury brand has to offer, and it’s exciting to see where the Genesis brand goes from here.

It’s highly likely that this brand will go from relative obscurity to a household name in lightning-quick speed.