Marketing Plan Analysis and Presentation – Tesla Company

Brand Story

Tesla is a car manufacturing company founded in 2003 by Marc Tarpenning and Martin Eberhard. The founders’ main aim was to develop an electric sports car. The company specializes in electric cars, car batteries, and solar panels (Hoffman, 2011). The company released its first car in 2008. The vehicle, known as the Roadster, played a significant role in raising Tesla’s brand awareness due to its unique features. It also made the Tesla company gain recognition as the first company to manufacture an electric car. This was because other manufacturers had failed and were struggling to produce a battery that would hold enough power to keep cars moving and a cost-effective motor that could accelerate a car to highway speed and fit inside a consumer vehicle.

The company’s success skyrocketed when Elon Musk became CEO and transformed the company culture to encourage more innovation, and by 2015, the company had sold 10,030 cars. Tesla has gained a reputation for launching new vehicles with advanced features that target many customers. The company has also expanded its operations to the United States and China to create a competitive advantage (Jenčová et al., 2019). Tesla is also one of the companies with a reputation for sustainable manufacturing. The most significant step towards sustainability was when the company’s partners built a Gigafactory located in Nevada to produce energy storage products and battery packs to replace lithium-ion battery packs. The company currently focuses on manufacturing new electric car models with long battery life, allowing users to travel for long miles without recharging.

Company Vision: To create the most fascinating 21^st-century car company by driving the world’s transition to electric cars.

Company Mission: To hasten the arrival of sustainable transport by bringing compelling mass-market cars to market as soon as possible.

Company Marketing Objectives

Company Marketing Strategies and Tactics

Tesla’s market is dominated by white, middle-aged men who own their homes, have a higher household income, and have no children. The company also targets ambitious and determined upper and middle-class consumers, seeing the perception of being environmentally friendly, status, and the long-term cost-effectiveness of Tesla cars. One of the marketing strategies and tactics that the company uses to meet its marketing objectives is word-of-mouth marketing. The company has established a referral program that rewards individuals who share experiences with others (Ian, 2019). The second tactic is using unique after-sale services. For instance, the company introduced Tesla Rangers, a mobile service team that repairs Tesla cars regardless of whether the vehicle breaks down on the road or at home. The third tactic is customizing cars to meet customer preferences. The company introduced the make-to-order segment that allows customers to propose the exact features they want and make changes until the final product meets their expectations.

Tesla has also embraced social media marketing to increase global brand awareness. The company uses Twitter to share technology and business ideas, respond to customer suggestions and address customer complaints. Tesla also uses online videos to demonstrate its car models’ unique features and value proposition to customers. Eliminating intermediaries in the supply chain has enabled the company to maintain direct contact with its customers, hence being better positioned to control the whole purchasing process and complete the user experience. This tactic has also helped the company manage to offer temporary car samples in shopping centres where customers can ask any questions and get practical demonstrations of how the car functions.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

· Rapid sales growth.

· Dominating the luxury and long-range electric cars market.

· Access to financial resources, hence promoting innovation culture.

· High revenue and sales growth (Chinta, 2018).

Weaknesses

· Manufacturing challenges because the company only has one manufacturing plant that can only handle a limited number of productions.

· Overreliance on the United States automotive market.

· Small target group due to high prices.

· Poor employee management. The company was fined for letting employees produce cars in tents without a safety or permit inspection (Tesla SWOT analysis,2020).

· Wrangles between the company’s board and management.

Opportunities

· Expanding to other markets across the world. The company may focus on Asian markets because they are the fastest-growing globally.

· Sustainability trends increase the preference for electric cars as people become more conscious about the importance of abandoning fossil fuels.

· The prevalence of autonomous diving technology creates the opportunity to venture into the production of autonomous cars, given the fact that Tesla is among the most innovative car manufacturers in the world.

· Hertz plans to order 100,000 Tesla cars to stay ahead of competitors by meeting the demand for gasoline-powered vehicles due to a shortage of chips (Tesla SWOT analysis,2020).

Threats

· Intense competition.

· Product deficits could ruin the company’s reputation due to lawsuits that expose safety issues caused by flaws in design and manufacturing.

· Supply disruption due to shortage of materials required in the manufacturing process.

· The rising concern about the safety of autonomous cars.

· Lack of proper regulation of autonomous cars.

· Tesla relies on customers’ willingness to adapt to the use of electric vehicles.

· Elon Musk’s impulsive behaviour, such as the incident where he smoked marijuana on Joe Rogan’s podcast, is affecting the company’s reputation. The incident reduced the company’s stock value to around 9%( Tesla SWOT analysis,2020).

Citation of Sources

Name of Source	Citation Information
ResearchGate	Chinta, R. N. (2018). Tesla SWOT Analysis. ResearchGate.
Sage Business Cases	Hoffman, A. N. (2011). Tesla Motors, Inc.: The first U.S. car company IPO since 1956. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526429469
Marketing Strategy	Ian. (2019). How Tesla used a $0 marketing strategy to dominate a market. Marketing Strategy. https://www.marketingstrategy.com/marketing-strategy-studies/how-tesla-used-a-0-marketing-strategy-to-dominate-a-market/
Serbian Journal of Management	Jenčová, S., Vašaničová, P., & Litavcová, E. (2019). Financial indicators of the company from electrical engineering industry: The case study of Tesla, Inc. Serbian Journal of Management, 14(2), 361-371. https://doi.org/10.5937/sjm14-15692
Business Strategy Hub	Tesla SWOT analysis (2020). (2020, May 26). Business Strategy Hub. https://bstrategyhub.com/tesla-swot-analysis/

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Question

The purpose of this assignment is to conduct research and collect data, analyze findings, and explain how this information is used to formulate marketing strategies and tactics.

Marketing Plan Analysis and Presentation – Tesla Company

Review the topic resources “Forms of Marketing Research” and “The Marketing Research Process.” Using what you have learned about marketing research, assume the role of a marketing professional who has been tasked with completing a marketing plan for a client.

Select a publicly traded, for-profit company that will be your client. Conduct research about the company by visiting the company website and obtaining a copy of the annual report. Locate three to five additional resources that provide additional data and information about the brand. You will use this research to tell the brand story, share the company vision, mission, and marketing objectives, and describe the strategies and tactics the company is currently using to meet the marketing objectives. You will also perform a SWOT analysis based on your research.

Using what you learn from your research and subsequent analysis, complete the “Marketing Plan and Presentation: Part 1 – Research Template.”

While APA style is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and documentation of sources should be presented using APA formatting guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide located in the Student Success Center.

Benchmark Information

This benchmark assignment assesses the following programmatic competencies:

BS Applied Entrepreneurship; BS Applied Management; BS Applied Marketing and Advertising

1.1: Determine how organizations formulate marketing strategies and tactics using market and consumer data.

BS Business Information Systems

3.4: Determine how organizations formulate marketing strategies and tactics using market and consumer data.

BS Business Analytics; BS Business Management; BS Marketing and Advertising; BS Sports Management

3.5: Determine how organizations formulate marketing strategies and tactics using market and consumer data.

BS Accounting; BS Business Administration; BS Entrepreneurial Studies; BS Finance; BS Finance and Economics; BS Hospitality Management; BS Supply Chain and Logistics Management

3.7: Determine how organizations formulate marketing strategies and tactics using market and consumer data.

BS Business Secondary Ed

6.2: Determine how organizations formulate marketing strategies and tactics using market and consumer data.

Marketing Plan Analysis and Presentation – Tesla Company