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Tesla's marketing strategy

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Maverick77

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Oct 12, 2021
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Evening ?

What do marketers make of the marketing strategy of companies like Tesla?

They say that they have zero marketing budget, other than a website, and they say that they plough all of their money and resources into their product to make it as good as possible.

So why do so many people know about Tesla if they have zero marketing budget?
 
Though the Tesla vehicles produced inspire a great amount of passion in their drivers, the vehicles themselves are felt to be ‘some of the biggest fault-magnets you can buy’. None modular battery design seems to be the biggest design flaw by design to keep repair prices as high as possible.

They have a high marketing spend but decided not to use paid advertising on google, Facebook Instagram that's where the 0% percent kicks in.
 
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It usually boils down to individual definitions of marketing.

Dyson is very keen on telling us that they don't spend money on marketing - by which they mean advertising (they also spend money on advertising, but assure us that's because big retailers make them).

Meanwhile, they have a marketing director, a marketing department and award a PR contract worth millions each year. By most definitions that is marketing.

I suspect Tesla will be similar
 
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One thing is not distinguishing between marketing and advertising, as @Mark T Jones suggested. An example of a significant marketing cost to Tesla is its distribution channel in the form of stores with direct selling.

The other thing is that a business can conduct marketing activities that are not under marketing function. In fact, some companies do not have a marketing function nevertheless the marketing activites are conducted by other functions/departments such as sales, R&D, or commercial.
 
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WaveJumper said:
This from my 2021 archives
www.visualcapitalist.com

Comparing Tesla’s Spending on R&D and Marketing Per Car to Other Automakers

How much does Tesla spend on a per car basis on innovation and marketing, compared to more traditional automakers?
www.visualcapitalist.com www.visualcapitalist.com
Click to expand...

This is a really bad example of a hyped graphics with no sources given but here are the real world numbers.

"Tesla spends $0 of its budget on advertising, but instead spends a dramatic amount on research and development (R&D)" from your 2021 archives

What a pile of shit reminds me of the Apple cult publishing numbers. Tesla’s R&D is below industry standards of 5 – 8% in the car sector.

In 2020, Tesla generated $31.54 billion sales

Tesla's research and development spending 1.5 billion dollars 2020

Only 4.83 % spending R&D ( below average )

As a random comparison:


Mercedes 154.3 billion in sales 2020

8 billion R&D

About 5.19 % R&D spending ( about average )



Tesla’s Referral Programme they had running and got way too costly for them is definitely direct marketing spend and cost them a fortune with heavily losses hence why they had to stop it.

Newsletter : Be the first to receive the latest Tesla news, events and product updates.

There is another marketing spend , I doubt they get that the content written, published and checked for free.
 
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Maverick77 said:
So why do so many people know about Tesla if they have zero marketing budget?
Click to expand...
Because of shows like this:

www.topgear.com

Tesla Model 3 Review 2023 | Top Gear

Everything Tesla has done up to this point has built towards the Model 3... and it's been worth it
www.topgear.com www.topgear.com

Plus associated car magazines, social media, news stories and umpteen other channels.

Anyone with a nous of maketing skills knows a referral can generate a whole load of leads. So if a celeb is seen driving the car it influences a whole load of potential buyers.

Musk doesn't need to do anything when people make adverts for him:

 
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Maverick77 said:
Evening ?

What do marketers make of the marketing strategy of companies like Tesla?

They say that they have zero marketing budget, other than a website, and they say that they plough all of their money and resources into their product to make it as good as possible.

So why do so many people know about Tesla if they have zero marketing budget?
Click to expand...
Of course a brand like Tesla invests in PR & marketing ?
 
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There are thousands of businesses out there that don't have a marketing team. The product or service is so well considered and positively spoke of that it grows through word of mouth.
That said, there are thousands of sleek, shiny new cars on our roads with Tesla logos on them.
There are building traders out there with the name, number and logo on the side of their van.
Sometimes that's enough.

Also, with the super wealthy often their philanthropy is as good as any advertising for their business than any marketing team could deliver.
 
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In cribbs causeway shopping mall, I remember a huge tesla store, with 2 wholes teslas and a stripped down tesla, with just chassis and components.

If that's not marketing, then what is it called?
 
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MyOfficeInChina said:
They do make good cars, so that’s proof enough to go and buy one, if you can afford it.
Click to expand...
No they do not make good cars actually. They're well known to be extremely poorly built...

That in itself shows that they have done something right though in terms of "marketing" (or maybe its branding?) if they can get people to part with £100,000 for a piece of trash car!
 
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Gordon - Commercial Finance said:
No they do not make good cars actually. They're well known to be extremely poorly built...

That in itself shows that they have done something right though in terms of "marketing" (or maybe its branding?) if they can get people to part with £100,000 for a piece of trash car!
Click to expand...
I'll rephrase it . . . . .

They make cars that are wanted.

They have the wow factor, as does most of Elon Musk's ideas. A visionary in my book, apart from his odd digressions!
 
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Gordon - Commercial Finance said:
No they do not make good cars actually. They're well known to be extremely poorly built...

That in itself shows that they have done something right though in terms of "marketing" (or maybe its branding?) if they can get people to part with £100,000 for a piece of trash car!
Click to expand...
For a motor vehicle nuso who are very much in their infancy, I'd say they're doing fairly well.
 
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they don't advertise , because they don't need it. nowadays their top notch products don't even need it at all. Their quality speaks for them, no need to invest in advertising.
 
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Electric vehicles, you say?

2004.jpg
 
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I have a mate who worked for them a few years back - they heavily targeted those working in Apple stores like him previously as it was the same kind of sales - a Tesla is a lifestyle aspirational product, people (at least then) were ordering them to say "I have a Tesla" more than because it was a good alternative to other cars on the market

The fact he had an automotive engineering degree was actually non helpful to him as he had to ignore some of his knowledge
 
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