The Tesla Motors company is one of the pioneer developers of cars running on electric power. Incorporated in 2003, it became the leading producer of electric cars in the world, yet it does not present much competition to other companies. The demand for green energy in the society is still small, and this makes the company develop unique strategies for surviving in the automotive industry.
Marketing Strategy
Target Market
Tesla cars cannot be considered as affordable to most people. Nor it is a family choice vehicle, either as a first car or another family vehicle. Tesla Motors mainly targets the customer group of working adults who have been working from few years to several decades. This is the group which possesses the largest income and is willing to spend it on a more expensive car. The target customer group is broken down into three subgroups. Firstly, the company targets people who are concerned with the current ecological state of the planet. The greenhouse effect raises severe debates in the society, and responsible citizens are searching for the ways they could improve their impact on nature. The second target audience is people who wish to buy a luxury car, but do not have enough finances to do it. Tesla Motors offers such vehicle affordable to customers who have a stable job but who have not achieved any high positions yet. Finally, the Tesla cars combine comfort with unique technology. It may be a benefit for customers who are interested in the technical side of a vehicle, making it their priority for purchasing. Thus, these customers make up the third target group of Tesla Motors.
Product
As it was mentioned above, the Tesla cars are unique since they run on electricity. Currently, the company offers two model lines, including Model S and Model Z. Apart from the green technology, the Model S cars have several other features. Mainly, it is the focus on safety. The cars have the lowered center of gravity, steel railing on the sides, and the increased amount of the safety air bags (“Model S” par. 4). The vehicle also has a touchscreen as a navigation tool. The Model Z has the similar approach to safety. This model is bigger, having seven seats and being suitable for companies. The vehicle is positioned as a sports car, and the design is corresponding, offering the so-called falcon wings and corpus elements designed for better aerodynamics. Tesla Motors company also plan to produce the Model 3 vehicles in the next few years, which would be more affordable.
Price
The prices on the Tesla cars cannot be considered as low. The planned Model 3, which would be the company’s cheapest option, would be offered for about $35,000. The existing two models come at the starting price of more than $50,000 and $75,000 respectively. These numbers prove that Tesla vehicles belong to the luxury segment of the car market.
Place
In the case of Tesla Motors, the place element would include the selling points and other platforms, where the company communicates with potential customers. Firstly, it is the official website of Tesla Motors. People may use it not only to review the vehicles’ features but to order them as well. The website has the option to choose a country and order a vehicle when a customer can define the overall car modification and decide on the payment options, whether it is a lease, loan, or cash. Secondly, Tesla Motors also has its own stores and service centers, which mainly play the role of only presenting the cars to customers, while they still would need to make an online order.
Promotion
Tesla Motors has several approaches to their promotional campaign. The primary source of information reaching customers is short video commercials and clips. Customers can view them directly on the company’s website or the other resources like Youtube. The focus of these videos is to show stories of Tesla cars’ owners, to which customers could relate themselves. People featured in the videos usually talk about their experience with Tesla vehicles. The company also implements the ideas of the viral content, supposing that their target audience would receive the information through the social media. Apart from videos, Tesla Motors uses its stores and service centers for promotion as well.
Industry analysis
Competition and Development
The primary competitors of the Tesla Motors cannot be identified within the same technology principle. There is no such company which is as well-known for its green energy cars as Tesla. This way, the main competitors are all the rest of the car making corporations. For instance, in the USA those are Ford and Chrysler corporations. The competition is solely among the green technologies and the gasoline running cars.
As more and more people become concerned about the ecological issues, the need for green technologies grows each year. Moreover, the government is also interested in these technologies, especially in California, as they respond to the climate change threat (Baker 1). Thus, there is a potential for the company’s further growth through customers and the governmental support. Besides, since it is the most well-known company that makes vehicles running on electricity, its market share in this particular industry is covering almost every position.
Economic Outlook
Nowadays, American car production companies suffer from competition imposed by the Asian automobile industry. Japan and China have the cheaper labor force, so the final product price is lower than the price of Western products. Thus, Asian cars are more appealing to the major part of Americans. The event of mass import of Japanese and Chinese cars in the past century has led to the Chrysler corporation experience the desperate economic situation, and the city of Detroit, which used to be a home to several automobile factories, has become bankrupt.
The current GDP review of the USA shows that the automotive industry, more specifically the motor vehicle production sums up to almost 700 billion dollars (Lyndaker et al. 13). This industry nowadays has a high potential for solving the unemployment issue. As more and more people and businesses wish to end the manufacture processes’ outsourcing, new jobs may be created in this sector. Of course, such industry requires the newest technologies, which can be extremely expensive. However, with the Tesla’s case, the government along with several privately owned companies are interested in the corporation’s development, so the financing should not be a problem.
Conclusion
Tesla Motors company offers a product, which is supported by the developing demand from the society on green technologies, thus creating an opportunity for the further growth. As government and society start to recognize the importance of ecology, Tesla corporation has growing chances for success in the future. Nevertheless, there is a chance that the company will stay as a choice for luxury options instead of affordable vehicles.
Works Cited
Baker, David R. “8 States Sign Deal to Boost Electric-Car Sales.”SFGate, 2013, Web.
Lyndaker, Amanda, Edward Morgan and Jeannine Aversa. “Gross Domestic Product by Industry: Second Quarter 2016 Annual Update: 2013 through First Quarter 2016.” US Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2016, Web.
“Model S.” Tesla, Web.