The increasing competition in the electric car industry may have finally convinced Tesla CEO Elon Musk to embrace conventional advertising efforts.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, recently said that the company might “try a little advertising,” marking a dramatic departure from Tesla’s traditional anti-ad stance.
The electric vehicle manufacturer has relied on the enthusiasm of its customers and supporters rather than investing in expensive advertising efforts during the course of its twenty-year existence.
When asked why Tesla has never before invested in advertising, Musk has gone so far as to say he “hates advertising.”
At Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting on Tuesday, however, Musk abruptly shifted direction, saying the business would test an advertising campaign in the near future and “see how it goes” after realizing the value of doing so via ownership of Twitter, as reported by The Verge.
In answer to an inquiry from a potential investor, he replied, “Twitter is highly dependent on advertising, so here I am, never used advertising really before, and now have a company that is highly dependent on advertising.” “It’s safe to say that I think advertising is great and that everyone should engage in it.”
It’s unclear what a Tesla advertising campaign would look like, but in a follow-up interview with CNBC, Musk said that advertising can “start to approach content” if it’s informative and entertaining, and that he would use advertising to highlight the company’s vehicles’ lesser-known features.
It’s worth a shot, he told the American news network, and we’ll evaluate its efficacy from there. It’s not a completely established plan since I merely agreed to it.
The announcement comes a month after Musk said that, in light of the sluggish economy, Tesla will put increasing sales ahead of increasing profits, thus triggering a pricing war in the EV industry.
After reporting its lowest quarterly gross margin in two years in April, the firm lowered prices in the United States and China to remain competitive.
According to Musk, “it’s better to shift a large number of cars at lower margin and harvest that margin in the future as we perfect autonomy.”
It conforms to the forecasts of Marketing Week writer Mark Ritson, who said that a short-term plan was hiding behind Tesla’s remarkable waiting lists and gross profit on each vehicle sold.
You market automobiles not only for the next 12 months, but for the rest of people’s lives, he said.
While Musk’s outspoken antics have earned him a devoted audience, they have also been used as a marketing weapon for Tesla. But since he bought Twitter, this strategy seems to have backfired, with Musk facing criticism for his handling of free speech and his introduction of paid verification.
Seven months after Musk’s purchase of Twitter, the social media site has allegedly lost tens of millions of dollars in advertising due to advertisers pulling their budgets. Musk named new CEO Linda Yaccarino last week with the aim of turning around Twitter’s advertising difficulties.
Musk told CNBC, “I’ll say what I want, and if the consequences of that are losing money, so be it.” Despite this, Musk is sure that he will not moderate his language.
