4P’s Analysis: Model S – TESLA

What kind of a persona are you? Flaunting your possessions or silent and heavy, who does the possessions do the talking? Well CAR is one of the tools that does exactly that. Define the owners persona.

Do you love the BMW / Merc? Or Are you the quintessential “Kitna Deti Hain?” guy? Or Are you more of a value for money kind? Or maybe  the Environment Savior? This is where the concepts of Marketing like Target Marketing, Product, Promotion, Positioning, Price etc. comes into picture.

Let us just analyse the Tesla Model S for the Marketing concepts mentioned above.

So what is the Target market for a Tesla Model S. It’s a young & mid aged crowd of 26 to 50 years, great job and a good family income of approx. 90 to 100K USD per annum. People who needed a Luxury vehicle & have around 2 to 4 hours’ drive time each day. They wanted this long rides to be luxurious and enjoyable.

Tesla positioned the Model S, as a vehicle with Style, comfort, luxury, safety and reliability. They have developed a product that addresses, both the wants and needs of its customers. Their target customers wanted a stylised car with comfort and safety. They also needed the car to be luxurious and reliable. So Tesla has positioned themselves in both segments the Luxurious and Electric Cars, with the kind of features it offers.

So looking at the Product offering with Model S. It offers following – 3 battery pack options – 40 kWH, 50 kWh, 85 kWH, drive range of more than 300 miles on single charge, Top speed of 125 miles, 0 – 60 in 5.6 Seconds, 17” LCD touch screen to control the entire vehicles, navigation, communication, cabin controls, vehicle data, etc. Steering mounted controls that seamlessly integrate with the above features. The ease of plug and charge with 120V wall sockets is also an appealing product feature.

This huge list of features, at a price point of slight more than USD 60K makes Model S a steal compared with its competitors. So similar to Model S is a Lexus GS which is just below the USD 60K mark, Mercedes Benz hybrid S400 is priced at USD 90K+ & Porsche Cayenne S Hybrid is priced at USD 65K. So all in all it an be said that Tesla is calling the pricing shots in its segments and competitors have to align themselves to the Tesla Pricing strategy.

Click here to know more on : Tesla’s Product Specs / Features:

When last year Tesla mentioned that they are in no hurry to launch in India, it makes one thing very clear, that they have also chosen there locations very smartly. Tesla has launched their operations primarily in US, Europe & China.  It shows that it is aware that for EV’s to be sold, what is important is the strong and reliable power grid and experimenting rich people. They are in no hurry to push their product in wider areas and then get in trouble for service. This appeals a strong Place strategy similar to their Promotion strategy.

Tesla is not a mass market car and thus they refrain from Television promotion, the promotion has been more to the target market with print media like in magazines – Business Week, Forbes, etc. Also they have promoted their brand with a message “We do not inherit EARTH from our ancestor, we borrow it from our children.” Pushing the envelop of being a environment caring company. Apart from advertising Tesla also arranges to that their vehicles on a documentary road trips – to make the cars feel more popular. This is a quite innovative and efficient promotion strategy.

Tesla has a heavy trust on Social Media Marketing. Elon is master at this tactics of attracting & building the audience, may it be smoking weed or breaking the glass of his launch cars, he does that with such fluency and then you are glued to his rebellious personality.

On Typical basis – Tesla is taking the Technology sales approach than the product sales approach. You see the launches are similar to Apple iPhone launches / Windows launches. They are not taking the typical Automotive launch / Marketing approaches at all.

We are all aware that the traditional marketing campaigns are going nowhere now and for Technology Products (non-mass products – to start with) will only dent your pockets without the traction on sales.

Refer another nice article on: Tesla Marketing Strategy

So to conclude this article, In mere 16 years what Tesla has achieved against its well established competitors on there own turf is absolutely appreciable. They have been making great headway in the field with strong out of the box marketing and product strategies.

They are disrupting not only the Automotive Market but also the whole value chain & reinventing the process making it more interactive than unilateral.

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