Ch. 7 - Business Marketing

Model S Battery

While Tesla does not market its own products on a business level, they do, like most industrial companies, receive some parts and materials needed to produce said products from other companies who do just that. One part, in particular, that has been the focus of much debate over the last few months is the battery. Since the beginning, production and development of the 7,000 lithium-ion cell EV battery has been achieved through a collaboration with Panasonic. Panasonic was also contracted to manufacture all of Tesla's batteries thus far- which is where the problem begins. Panasonic seems to be having a hard time keeping up with rising consumer demand for Tesla vehicles. This in turn means that Tesla themselves are limited in growth to what Panasonic can produce. The problem is that even though it seems Tesla's battery design will one day become a market standard, for the time being there is a shortage in supply for them. CEO Elon Musk is openly considering cutting ties with Panasonic and opening a battery manufacturing facility of the largest scale in the world. While B2B is a necessary part of any industrial business to some level, there is a lesson to be learned here- if at all possible, certain essentials, supply of which is key to your entire line and production of which is not easy to come by, should most likely be under your own control.

Ch. 8 - Segmenting and Targeting Markets

It's difficult to say that Tesla targets any market, since they do no advertising and don't try to stick themselves in anyone's faces while they are scrolling down the facebook news feed. Not yet in any case. But when they have done is position themselves in the eyes of the consumer market as the best bet in electric vehicles for the long run as well as a legitimate competitor in the major industry of luxury car manufacturers. Although it's not just their price point that enables this positioning, it's not exactly due to any direct marketing efforts. The cumulative efforts in R&D, legal renovation and national infrastructure efforts seem to be noticed by the public at large in the form of buzz, that drives any idealist with a deep pocket to invest in this companies future. If we were to segment the market for Tesla consumers however, it seems Americas top 1 percent, and Europeans, specifically Norway, are very happy with their products.

And although Tesla is positioned as a high-priced luxury instant classic, as mentioned previously, that is bound to change by 2017 when the affordable model is unveiled. By then, if loyalty trends persist and promises keep getting met, they may just overcome a great deal of competitors by a landslide.