Elon, Tesla, & Market Research
I’ve lived in the South for nearly all of my life. Growing up in Texas and North Carolina, one simply knows George Strait and Randy Travis songs by heart. However, I’ve been a ‘big city’ Southerner that whole time — living in Arlington, Charlotte, and now Raleigh — and somewhere along the way became a ‘New Southern Democrat’ (yay capitalism & yay you do you).
After years of being the only Democrat in my fraternity, in my semi-monthly poker game, … I can firmly tell you: None of those guys have ever come close to considering purchasing an EV, much less a Tesla. Now the latest GMC Sierra… That’s a different story.
I’ve long held the belief that at some point in time, Elon estimated he reached a saturation point with his largest, easiest audience of United States car buyers — Democrats. Sure, there would be new ‘liberal’ groups to attract, but what if there was an entire other half of United States car buyers that you could just introduce your product to? How would you attract them?
Well, you’d align yourself with the Republican Party in an outsized way and you’d continue acting in a manner that should make Republicans like you — and maybe they do. Does that translate into purchasing habits however?
What if Elon didn’t read the creative brief that outlined the car buying habits of Republicans? What if there never was a creative brief to begin with?
This is where so many marketing campaigns go wrong (and make no mistake, this is a marketing campaign). An executive or executive team hasn’t considered the core drivers of their key audiences which are the building blocks of any marketing plan.
Rushing this process (or ignoring it entirely) and you’re just handicapping yourself. And now that Elon has fully committed to the bit, there’s simply no other way out than going deeper down his own marketing funnel.
