Tesla Model S
PART 2: Tesla’s Innovative, Visionary Brand Strategy:
If you are thinking of creating a new luxury real estate brand for yourself or your company, or if you are thinking of re-branding keep this in mind if market leadership is your quest: THINK BIG! That is exactly what the founders and top executives did when they imagined Tesla Motors into existence.
Since his college days, Tesla’s Chairman, Elon Musk, had the dream to commercialize electric vehicles. But, according to Musk, his BIG goal is “to help expedite the move from a mine-and-burn hydrocarbon economy towards a solar electric economy, which I believe to be the primary, but not exclusive, sustainable solution.”
His visionary leadership is evidenced in the Tesla brand strategy: Start with a premium sports car aimed at early adopters, those who could afford the premium due to higher initial production costs, and then move as fast as possible into more mainstream vehicles, including sedans and affordable compacts. This strategy has worked in Silicon Valley, but has not been attempted in the automotive industry.
Mission critical to executing this strategy was creating an exclusive luxury electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster (depicted in Part 1) that was “designed to beat a gasoline sports car like a Porsche or Ferrari in a head to head showdown… and have twice the energy efficiency as the Prius. When someone buys the Tesla Roadster sports car, they are actually helping pay for development of the low cost family car”, said Musk.
The next step was the creation of the fully electric Model S (see photo above), which won The Motor Trend Car of the Year awardin 2013 and competes price-wise with similar gasoline luxury sedans such as Mercedes, BMW, Lexus and Audi. To market this magnificent sedan Tesla hired former Apple and Gap Executive George Blankenship as Vice President of Design and Store Development to build Tesla's retail strategy and network of retail locations worldwide. Show-rooms in Los Angeles are in upscale shopping centers, where you can find Apple stores.
Then, they launched a network of Tesla Charging Stations in highly trafficked corridors. It takes only 30 minutes to recharge the battery at these stations. But, if you are in a hurry, you can swap the entire battery in less than 2 minutes. They call it "'The Fastest Charging station on the Planet".The cost of electricity is a fraction of gasoline. And, the range per full charge is as much as 300 miles.
Launching a new luxury brand with the aim to achieve market leadership requires visionary thinking and strategizing; it requires that you THINK BIG! How can you think big in your own community?
In Part 3 of this article series we will cover the launch of Tesla’s Model X. For us, this was the most exciting consumer product launch since Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad. By studying Tesla’s presentation of the Model X you can learn extremely important lessons when it comes to your own luxury real estate listing presentations. (All photos, courtesy of Tesla)
Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-
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