Interpretation of Tesla’s marketing system!

Tesla has become synonymous with electric vehicles almost all over the world. The chairman of a competing car company once asked: Why does Tesla, which produces only a few hundred thousand vehicles, have a higher market value than BMW, which produces millions of vehicles? Why is Tesla, which only produces hundreds of thousands of cars per year, known to almost everyone?

Founded in 2003, Tesla released its first pure electric car Roadster in 2006, and subsequently launched Model S, Model X, Model 3 and Model Y, and SpaceX rocket launches... Since its establishment, every move of Tesla has attracted the attention of the world, and its brand power cannot be underestimated. Following Apple, Tesla seems to be once again staging a "drama" in which its innovative strength gradually subverts traditional forces.

It is worth noting that, under normal circumstances, the marketing cost of a car accounts for at least 10-20% of the selling price. Large automakers spend billions of dollars on advertising and marketing every year. Looking at Tesla, it has achieved exponential growth without spending almost a penny on advertising. While traditional car companies have been fond of promoting their cars through commercials, Musk has repeatedly emphasized in public that Tesla does not advertise or pay for spokespersons, and the company will always use its resources to maintain its excellent products.

So, how does Tesla formulate its business strategy? Why can it attract attention from all walks of life around the world? How to create a top brand with zero advertising budget?

Key points:

1. Business strategy: The three-step strategy accelerates the global transition to sustainable energy

2. Product matrix: S3XY CARS covers all price ranges and all categories of models

3. Marketing strategy: No advertising budget, extreme use of "people, goods and places" marketing strategy

Business Strategy

The “three-step” strategy accelerates the global transition to sustainable energy

Tesla founder Elon Musk said that Tesla strives to provide every ordinary consumer with pure electric vehicles within their consumption range; Tesla's vision is to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy.

Specifically, as early as 2006, just three years after Tesla was founded, Musk proposed the "Master Plan", or the "three-step" strategy, for Tesla's future strategic roadmap: the first step is to build an expensive, niche sports car (Roadster) to gain a foothold in the high-end market segment; the second step is to build a cheaper, medium-selling car (Model S, Model X); the third step is to build a more economical best-selling model (Model 3, Model Y).

Through three solid steps, just like the Ford Model T back then, Musk's ultimate dream will be realized, and Tesla will drive electric vehicles into hundreds of thousands of households.

From the perspective of competitive advantage, Tesla Masterplan sets out seven core strategies, including connectivity, electrification, autonomous driving, energy storage systems and charging networks, data business models, new mobility and organizational structure.

For example, in terms of interoperability, Tesla's idea is to directly build a dedicated operating system, which is not only more flexible, but also can allocate performance based on different extreme situations and offset most network security issues. For example, in the autonomous driving revolution, Tesla has also taken the lead. Similar to Apple, Tesla's chips are self-developed and the purpose is very clear. At the same time, Tesla has also adopted a disruptive mode in its data business model. Any physical company or commercial organization can use Tesla's automatic bidding software to allocate energy based on predictions, backed by Tesla's continuous anonymous user and vehicle data.

Product Matrix

S3XY CARS covers all price ranges and all categories of vehicles

Tesla's product line can be described by a phrase - SEXY CARS, which refers to: Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, as well as Cybertruck, ATV (Cyberquad), Roadster, and Semitruck.

3XY is a car that Tesla has already released and mass-produced, and is currently the main force in commercialization; CARS is a car that has been released but not yet mass-produced, but has always brought huge attention to Tesla.

Specifically, Tesla's first car product, the Roadster, was released in 2008 as a two-door sports car; in 2012, Tesla released its second car product, the Model S, a four-door pure electric luxury coupe; the third car product was the Model X, a luxury pure electric SUV, which began to be delivered in September 2015; Tesla's next car was the Model 3, which was first unveiled in March 2016 and began to be delivered in late 2017; in March 2020, Tesla delivered the first batch of the Model Y, a compact SUV that shares the same platform as the Model 3.

Marketing strategy

Without an advertising budget, the “people, goods, and venues” marketing method is used to the fullest

Many people will ask, Tesla is on the “hot search” every day, how did Tesla do it? As a top brand, the magic of Tesla lies in the fact that it claims to have never spent a penny on advertising and marketing, does not do any promotions, and has no CMO. Different from the traditional advertising-driven automobile marketing approach, Tesla has attracted the attention of the world through the ultimate "people, goods and place" marketing without spending a penny.

People (founders-employees-high-end circles-fans

>>Musk's halo

The temperament conveyed by the founder of a company often determines the temperament of the company in the minds of users. When closely tied to Musk's name, Tesla's brand image building also took a shortcut. Musk is hailed as the next Steve Jobs, Ford, and Edison. He is both a business genius and a crazy creator.

Musk has mastered the art of building his personal IP. Not only has he created a perfect personality that never stops and changes the world of technology and business, from PayPal, Tesla to Space X and Hyperloop, he has also deepened the public's recognition of his personal values ​​by guest-starring in different roles in shows such as "The Big Bang Theory" and "Iron Man".

Musk may be Tesla's most valuable asset. His personal charm and leadership enable Tesla to build its brand value from the inside out and layer by layer. His dreams, his views, and his actions always bring extremely high traffic and exposure, and empower the Tesla brand. Musk, the "Iron Man of Silicon Valley", has also become a unique spiritual idol.

He once said that he started Tesla or SpaceX not to make money, but because he believed the world needed these companies. Without a switch to sustainable energy, humans on Earth face a dire future; without electric cars, climate change will pose unimaginable dangers.

>>Employee Marketing

Every employee in a Tesla store is a "promotion ambassador" of the brand, not a promoter or salesperson. Walking into a Tesla store is very much like walking into an Apple store. Any consumer can look at the cars without any pressure, get in to try out the car, and play with the car’s built-in “large touch screen PAD”.

The staff in the store actually play the role of "pre-sales consultant" and the questions they ask are not the standard questions of 4S stores: What is your budget? Do you have a car model you like and want to know more about it? It is reported that Tesla's pre-sales consultants will never ask customers what kind of car they drive, and will never pick and choose their customers. Their job is to spend about 45 minutes patiently explaining to customers what electric cars are, Tesla's charging network layout, driving safety and other issues, in order to shape Tesla's brand image in the minds of consumers. They never talk business with customers during the entire process. Afterwards, the user will receive a questionnaire in their email box and the user will rate it.

>>Seed users and celebrity effect

As a car company that focuses on high-end models, Tesla gave up the promotion model of celebrity endorsements and instead invited a group of politicians, technology giants and upstarts, and entertainment stars as its first users, and created a dissemination effect through their influence. The owners of Tesla's first seven Roadsters included Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, eBay founder Jeff Skoll, and others.

After entering China in 2014, the first 15 domestic car owners included: Sina CEO Cao Guowei, Ctrip founder Liang Jianzhang, former Alibaba Digital Entertainment Chairman Yu Yongfu, and No.1 Store founder Yu Gang... The celebrity effect and word-of-mouth communication ignited the technology circle where its core users are located, making Tesla's high-end and innovative product image deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

>>Fan relationship management

There is a fan area on Tesla's official website, which includes blogs, user stories, forums, pictures and videos, event notifications and other sections. Through the forum, users can discuss and exchange experiences and problems encountered during use, and the official can also provide solutions to users. In the car owner community, you can also directly participate in various vehicle Q&A, car usage consultation, and food, drink and entertainment gatherings. Orders generated by fan recommendations account for an important part of Tesla's sales.

In addition to the official forum, users also spontaneously create communities. A senior user founded the "Tesla Drivers and Friends" (Tesla Fahrer und Freunde) forum, allowing all Tesla owners and followers to get to know and communicate with each other in the forum, which later became a major platform for Tesla's communication. Through social links, users' communication energy is collectively amplified.

>>Fans actively become brand promoters

There are also more proactive loyal fans who pay for advertising for Tesla out of their own pocket. As early as 2014, a studio called Everdream Pictures spent $1,500 of its own money to produce a commercial for Tesla for free, and uploaded it to Youtube, which received millions of exposures across the entire network.

Launching advertising UGC activities among fans and asking fans to create advertisements for Tesla has also become a routine action. In fact, the idea came from Bria Loveday, a little girl who was in fifth grade at the time. She wrote a letter to Musk, telling him that she could start a fan submission campaign for self-made Tesla videos. Musk responded to the letter: "Thank you for writing this letter. This is a great idea! Let's do it!" A few days later, Tesla's official website immediately launched an event named after the little girl, "Project Loveday."

>>Fans drive product sales fission

As early as 2013, users would not receive any benefits from selling Tesla to others, purely based on their recognition of the product. Later, Tesla launched the "Referral Program" in 2014 and continued to experiment and explore the most optimized reward model to achieve the goal of promoting more sales.

For example, for bilateral rewards, if you invite a friend to order a Tesla, both of you will get a $1,000 coupon, which can be used to purchase Tesla cars, accessories, and peripheral services. For rewards for reaching the top of the world rankings, a Chinese user once successfully sold 188 orders in two months. In addition, you will be eligible to participate in a lucky draw, and the prize is a trip to the SpaceX headquarters.

Cargo (Car-Rocket-Tunnel

>>Good products speak for themselves

Musk once said that a good product is its own advertisement. Instead of spending money on advertising, it would be better to use the money to build good cars. In July 2006, the Roadster caused a sensation when it made its debut: it could accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.7 seconds, had a top speed of 200 km/h, and a range of 350 km on a single charge. People's understanding of electric vehicles has also been refreshed: electric vehicles can reach the level of fuel vehicles!

The Model S, announced in March 2009, is a newly designed 4-door luxury sedan: it has a lightweight aluminum body, a slim body, and almost no excess weight. In order to reduce air resistance, the door handles are integrated with the door surface, and when the owner approaches the car body, the door handles automatically flip up... As soon as the Model S was launched in 2012, it became a benchmark for high-end new energy vehicles.

In 2015, Tesla launched the Model X off-road vehicle. The rear door has an eagle-wing design, which looks luxurious and cool when folded upwards. It can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.1 seconds and has a range of 400 kilometers on a single charge, making it the first in the history of off-road vehicles.

When people get into a Tesla car, they will be deeply attracted by the huge 17-inch touch screen for the first time. No car had ever used a touch screen so boldly before, and when it was designed, Apple's iPad had not yet been released. No physical buttons or switches are needed. With simple and convenient operation, the entire vehicle can be controlled and connected to the entire Internet.

>>Bundled SpaceX space marketing

Not only the cars themselves, the Tesla team also knows how to create extremely interesting events to generate buzz through the products of other companies founded by Musk. Musk crossed over into the space field, created SpaceX, and successfully launched the Falcon 9 rocket. During this space launch, Musk placed one of his cherry red Tesla Roadster sports cars at the core of the Falcon rocket, making it truly the world's first "space sports car."

The entire process can be watched live on YouTube from the perspective of a Tesla "driver" in space. YouTube alone has 17 million viewers

>> Boring tunnels drive Tesla to 300 mph

In addition to Tesla and SpaceX, Musk also owns the Boring Company, which is dedicated to researching the commercialization of road transportation. The latest news is that Boring has confirmed that its upcoming Loop underground public transportation system will use three Tesla models: Model S, Model X and Model 3.

It is reported that the tunnel can reach a maximum speed of 250 kilometers per hour. Through Tesla, the tunnel can transport more than 4,000 people per hour, shortening the walking time of at least 15 minutes to less than 2 minutes.

Field (stores-official website-social media-e-commerce)

>>Stores as billboards and experiences

Tesla has said that its insistence on selling cars directly to consumers is mainly to control the way it brings its products to market. Their own stores are both retail locations and “educational venues”.

Therefore, most of Tesla's direct stores are opened in high-end shopping malls such as Huamao and Qiaofu, which have huge offline traffic exposure and can also enhance the brand's high-end sense. These stores are Tesla's showrooms, responsible for pre-sales work, and have a relatively concentrated concentration of high-end traffic, allowing users to experience Tesla at any time. In Tesla's stores, users can enjoy the luxury of leisurely strolling, an experience that is in stark contrast to the transactional atmosphere often found in traditional dealerships.

>> Make good use of social media marketing

As a brand with zero advertising budget, Tesla has made full use of social media. Below the main site are Twitter, Facebook, Google and Vimeo HD video homepages, through which it publishes information and interacts with potential consumers.

There is a video on YouTube called "24-Hour Tesla Autonomous Driving Test", which was uploaded by a Tesla user and has been watched by tens of millions of people. Tesla itself also has an autonomous driving video. Tesla will continue to create and share brand-related content, or inspire users to produce UGC content, to further enhance Tesla's popularity and expand its influence.

>>Use the official website as the main marketing platform

In fact, Tesla’s official website has strong marketing attributes and provides membership registration function. Whether it is to understand or place an order, users will be asked to submit valid emails and phone numbers, and then emails and text messages will be pushed to users for database marketing.

For example, Tesla once conducted a marketing campaign called “Drive to believe”: car owners who were skeptical about electric cars could exchange their cars for a Tesla car for free for one week. Tesla simply pushed the campaign in its email subscription and on social media, and thousands of owners signed up.

>>Free marketing of film and television content

Tesla itself does not spend money on content cooperation, but as a "top-tier" brand, many film and television dramas are willing to take the initiative to use Tesla as the "protagonist", gaining a lot of free publicity from loyal supporters.

For example, there is an episode in the popular American TV series "Silicon Valley" in which a programmer bought a Tesla with his newly increased salary in order to show off and appear to be progressive. The whole episode revolves around Tesla's price, style, and functions, and there are a lot of laughs.

>>Deepen localized new media marketing

In the field of new media, Tesla has already established a deep presence in the Chinese market, and has opened official accounts on social media platforms such as Weibo, WeChat, Douyin, and Kuaishou. In terms of e-commerce, Tesla also actively participates in activities on third-party e-commerce platforms, opening stores on Tmall and Pinduoduo and other platforms.

In the most popular live broadcast section, on April 28, 2020, Tesla and Viya jointly live-streamed the sale of products, using the "1 yuan test drive" and 1 yuan T-shirts of the same model as Musk, attracting many fans to watch, with the number of fans approaching 4 million. Although Tesla is a high-end brand, it is very good at using emerging marketing methods and communication channels.

Challenges and difficulties facing Tesla

>>Chip shortage crisis and rising material costs

>> Traditional car manufacturers "wake up" and start to promote electric vehicles

>> Competition in the Chinese market intensifies, with new car manufacturers catching up

>> Safety accidents occur frequently and negative news emerges in an endless stream

>>The arbitrary pricing strategy caused strong dissatisfaction among consumers

…

Author: Media 360

Source: Media 360