Should Tesla Do Paid Advertising?

[ldjessee]

it can sponsor where sponsorship sells more cars, trucks and cross-overs. Perhaps a tow behind camper range designed on brutalist elements, apocalyptic specs and off-grid technologies like weapons grade bio-terrorism HVAC system for pandemic, pollution or civil breakdown scenarios which Cybertruck can easily support.

The batteries and panels they provided to Puerto Rico, especially a hospital there is a lot of good will advertising. They keep doing that and I do not think they will need to advertise for a long time.

But, that is like, my opinion man.

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[Janfoux]

How does everyone feel about Tesla’s shareholder vote to begin investing in paid advertising?

I read the proposal was $50 per car sold. I bet Tesla’s profit per car is $5k or higher, so it’s a modest 1% of margin and ~1/1,000 of total sale value.

I’m all for it. Americans need to become better educated on electric cars and running a marketing campaign allows you to control the narrative. While digital presence and engagement has been successful for the coasts and tech demos, Tesla isn’t reaching a core audience of middle America/traditional media consumers.

The math seems convincing, but the fundamentals are very wrong, as even dumber kids know that paid ads are a lie and NOT education. Also, if the answer would be yes, then the next question could be "should Tesla produce a new ICE car?" and so on. Brrrr.
Do not ruin the mission. Do not corrupt the original fundamentals that made Tesla what it is (and it is unique and superior for several reasons). Do not descend to the low, average level in the hope of making a few extra bucks, as you will end up in hell. Morals are more important than a bit of extra money. This is a very old lesson but you only experience it in the long run.

Or try this: what are the top 5 reasons for Tesla being superior? (I bet one of them will include the logical, efficient way of selling the cars - without ads and dealerships)

 

[Sirfun]

Actually, what I would like to see is Tesla not do paid advertising. But, I'd like to see them have a STOKE button on their website and under the stoke button there could be latest news and video links to videos that cause people to be stoked on Tesla and their mission. Rivian has a Youtube channel with lots of great feel-good videos. Tesla should do that, give people an opportunity to be stoked. Actually, that's kinda what this forum is!

 

[ldjessee]

Actually, what I would like to see is Tesla not do paid advertising. But, I'd like to see them have a STOKE button on their website and under the stoke button there could be latest news and video links to videos that cause people to be stoked on Tesla and their mission. Rivian has a Youtube channel with lots of great feel-good videos. Tesla should do that, give people an opportunity to be stoked. Actually, that's kinda what this forum is!

I think they should do a video contest every year, like they did back in...2017?
https://www.tesla.com/project-loveday

If they did this every year, with the winners announced and videos show at the annual shareholders meeting? I think that would give lots of 'hype' and publicity.

 

[ajdelange]

Evidently shareholders will be asked to vote at the forthcoming meeting on a proposal to do some advertising at a very modest level ($50/car)

 

[ldjessee]

Evidently shareholders will be asked to vote at the forthcoming meeting on a proposal to do some advertising at a very modest level ($50/car)

If I was a shareholder, I would vote No. Not even sure I would vote for $1 per car.

 

[thejohnllama]

Evidently shareholders will be asked to vote at the forthcoming meeting on a proposal to do some advertising at a very modest level ($50/car)

Yep, that’s why I posted this initially haha

 

[TerryMack]

Tesla is always in the news! Everyone is aware of the company. The Cow and Milk adage is appropriate here. Build in Texas AND Tulsa OK since there will be need for more production. Tesla is going 'to the moon', (Alice). Think Big! I say Tesla will sell itself!

 

[alan auerbach]

No sense giving this issue a second thought -- Tesla won't even bother with what is, in effect, free advertising.

The Globe and Mail (generally considered Canada's top newspaper, and the closest the country has to being a national daily) recently ran a major piece on the Y. You can read it on its website. The article said that Tesla did not respond to its questions about delivery plans to Canada.

 

[SalisburySam]

Advertising - just the word creeps me out. It is the loud, carefully-crafted nonsense and mis-truths bombarding me at an ever-increasing rate (and volume). Couple this with the horrors of insidious “product placement” you cannot escape. Remember when a 1-hour TV show had about 4 minutes of commercials and 56 minutes of show? Today, that 1-hour episode has 40 minutes of show and 20 minutes of commercials delivered in painful 3- to 5-minutes blasts.

Well, let’s start with that. So why should Tesla advertise?

1- increase sales. Really? Let’s come back and revisit this when there are volumes of unsold product at delivery centers. And then only maybe. And see #4 below.
2- increase awareness. Really? Try to find a news day without some article about Tesla the vehicle, Tesla the company, or Elon Musk. Anyone seen any “ads” for the LEAF/Bolt/i-Pace/other lately? Certainly for Nissan, for GM, for Jaguar, but not much specific to their EVs.
3- it’s only a small % of the vehicle cost. Really? Well zero is about as small as you can get. Go for that.
4- build sales lift for the future (love that one). Really? Had Tesla advertised the Model 3 in 2016 then maybe they’d have sold more today? Oh wait, they had over 400,000 reservations without ads and still today have waiting times for some Model 3 flavors. And the CT? And companies are lining up for the Semi, a product that doesn’t even have a delivery estimate or settled configuration or known charging infrastructure, and is a $250,000 product.
5- follow the money...who benefits? Rarely can advertising be tied directly back to hard dollar increases sufficient to offset the advertising costs. Those who benefit are rarely those advertising or those victimized by it (exposed consumers), just those providing the “service.”.
6- gets the product’s story out. Really? What do ads do for unique restaurants, high-end jewelers, custom clothiers, etc.? Oh wait, they don’t advertise either other than to provide directions and possibly reservations. Even Apple’s advertising, now far more product-specific than in the past, even focuses on what something is not (“Your next computer is not a computer” for the iPad).

So what is usually agreed upon as the best form of advertising? Word-of-mouth. What does Tesla have in spades? Word-of-mouth, word-of-forums, word-of-media, all at no cost to shareholders.

What was the question again?

 

[Dids]

True! Most people don’t buy good cars though ? their decision making is guided by image over application.

That's because advertisers use psychology to manipulate them into making bad decisions.

 

[TruckElectric]

 

[ricinro]

supply and marketing can create demand. Tesla could try harder to find out people want and surprise us with their genius.
This is one of the great things about the cybertruckownersclub is that we do articulate the cool things we could want in a CT and who knows? maybe Tesla listens.

 

[Janfoux]

Advertising - just the word creeps me out. It is the loud, carefully-crafted nonsense and mis-truths bombarding me at an ever-increasing rate (and volume). Couple this with the horrors of insidious “product placement” you cannot escape. Remember when a 1-hour TV show had about 4 minutes of commercials and 56 minutes of show? Today, that 1-hour episode has 40 minutes of show and 20 minutes of commercials delivered in painful 3- to 5-minutes blasts.

Well, let’s start with that. So why should Tesla advertise?

1- increase sales. Really? Let’s come back and revisit this when there are volumes of unsold product at delivery centers. And then only maybe. And see #4 below.
2- increase awareness. Really? Try to find a news day without some article about Tesla the vehicle, Tesla the company, or Elon Musk. Anyone seen any “ads” for the LEAF/Bolt/i-Pace/other lately? Certainly for Nissan, for GM, for Jaguar, but not much specific to their EVs.
3- it’s only a small % of the vehicle cost. Really? Well zero is about as small as you can get. Go for that.
4- build sales lift for the future (love that one). Really? Had Tesla advertised the Model 3 in 2016 then maybe they’d have sold more today? Oh wait, they had over 400,000 reservations without ads and still today have waiting times for some Model 3 flavors. And the CT? And companies are lining up for the Semi, a product that doesn’t even have a delivery estimate or settled configuration or known charging infrastructure, and is a $250,000 product.
5- follow the money...who benefits? Rarely can advertising be tied directly back to hard dollar increases sufficient to offset the advertising costs. Those who benefit are rarely those advertising or those victimized by it (exposed consumers), just those providing the “service.”.
6- gets the product’s story out. Really? What do ads do for unique restaurants, high-end jewelers, custom clothiers, etc.? Oh wait, they don’t advertise either other than to provide directions and possibly reservations. Even Apple’s advertising, now far more product-specific than in the past, even focuses on what something is not (“Your next computer is not a computer” for the iPad).

So what is usually agreed upon as the best form of advertising? Word-of-mouth. What does Tesla have in spades? Word-of-mouth, word-of-forums, word-of-media, all at no cost to shareholders.

What was the question again?

Couldn't agree more! Well said. Also, I would add the fact that almost ALL ads lie. They straight lie to you, misinform, come in strong, in one form or an other. And I don't wanna see the worlds first honest paid ad from Tesla. No, thanks. Also, as a business owner (I also advertised on TV once) can say that the only beneficiary in such case would be the one who takes the money for the ad (the producer of it and the media wherever it would be shown).
So if Tesla ever made a paid advertisement it would be so lame, like adding a gas motor in the frunk because otherwise range wouldn't be enough compared to the competition, (preferably a diesel generator that was produced in a factory running on coal).
So JEEEZ, wake up, I don't even understand who came up with this nonsense idea, but not Elon, that's for sure!
Just remember the basics: "first principles thinking, no dealers, no ads, vertical integration..."