Great idea doing the survey ! While I really like Tesla I, like you, am at a loss of words to describe how they could possibly have built such an amazing brand. With almost no money spent in marketing. This quote is straight from their annual report:

“Historically, we have been able to generate significant media coverage of our company and our vehicles, and we believe we will continue to do so. To date, media coverage and word of mouth have been the primary drivers of our sales leads and have helped us achieve sales without traditional advertising and at relatively low marketing costs.”