Ch. 16 - Advertising, Public Relations and Sales Promotion

When the word "advertising" is used, the first thoughts to pop into most of our heads are all those annoying, interrupting TV and radio commercials (with a handful of positively entertaining ones) that give us a chance to use the bathroom during a show, and maybe a few billboards. If you're having a hard time remembering what a Tesla commercial looks like, that's probably because they don't have any. That's right- this 10 year old car company who's stock grew five times its values since January of this year, and who's net worth is in the $20 billion range, doesn't advertise. Yet.

Tesla does utilize social media very well, however this is still not in the realm of paid advertising. Tesla does not have an ad agency nor and internal advertising campaign at this point, as many believe it's too soon to worry about such things ,especially with such positive growth coming along on its own. This may very well be because one thing Tesla has a lot of (as anyone with a penchant for building their own version of a boat and then rocking other peoples old fashioned wooden rafts) is Buzz. Anyone who is even slightly interested in cars, and almost anybody with a hobby of gadgetry knows what Tesla is, despite never having taken a bathroom break on their expense. It's hard to say exactly how this comes about, but information does tend to have a life of it's own once it reaches the infinitely long arms of the internet and social media- and if people are naturally curious enough about what you have brewing it seems advertising is not much needed.

Between company posted tweets, news about the latest scuffle with whining auto dealers, and never ending innovation in technological coolness (Tesla invests most of its revenue back into R&D), there is enough to attract curious people seeking all sort of interesting stories to read with their morning coffee.

Now, I did say "yet" earlier in regards to the no-advertising-necessary mentality, and intentionally so. Thus far, Tesla was targeting a very niche target market that seemed to be drawn in all by themselves. However, CEO Elon Musk has already been openly discussing the 2017 estimated release of a $30,000, 200 mile range affordable sedan, to be released to a wider target market than the current luxury models, shortly after the completion of the major Supercharger project. At that point, the market being targeted is no longer niche, and the market development will require more fishing than before in order to sustain sales in the scale they expect.