Tesla Makes Another Purple Cow: Recap of Tesla CyberTruck Event
Remember Donald Rumsfeld? If you don’t, that’s a very good thing! Don’t bother looking him up because I can summarize the only good thing he ever gave humanity: he coined the phrase “Shock and Awe!”
If I had to summarize the Tesla CyberTruck event in just two words, there are no two words than fit better than Shock! And F*in AWE!!! Ok, maybe three words, but I digress.
Let’s break down the event by starting with the shock. I was among the thousand or so that had gathered for the unveiling of Tesla’s CyberTruck. The excitement and energy in the room had built up to maximum pressure when Elon Musk came on stage and re-iterated what he had told us before: that the Tesla CyberTruck was going to be very different than all the other trucks in the past 100 years! While Elon had been trying to prepare us for a very different truck for nearly 2 years, the preparation was not enough! The moment the truck was revealed, the shockwaves of how different this truck is started to reverberate. This was not the truck anyone had expected! A Tesla fan standing next to me turned and said “Tesla’s stock will drop $15 tomorrow.” I replied “Yep — it sure will!”
You see, as a Tesla fan and investor, a lot of us battle the ridiculous claims of the $TSLAQ short sellers. Seeing an insanely different looking triangular-shaped truck show up on stage, was sure-fire ammunition for everyone who bets against Tesla. I could already hear the arguments that “no self-respecting truck driver would ever get into that monstrosity.”
Even for a fan like me, the CyberTruck was so different that I was definitely concerned. The comments on my twitter post weren’t helping my confidence either:
But as Elon started to get into the specs of the truck, the “Awe” started to kick in. The truck is virtually bullet proof! Wait, what!? Bullet proof? Holy shit! I never knew I needed that, but after knowing that having a virtually bullet proof truck is an option, I must have a bullet-proof truck! Then the range, tow capacity, and pricing started to come out — and wow! All of it is better than anything anyone expected. To put things in perspective, a tow capacity of 14,000 pounds is a full 6,000 pounds more than the most any F150 can tow. At $39,900, the starting price is also $10,000 lower than even what Elon Musk had previously stated.
Okay, the truck was starting to grow on me, but I was still concerned. The shattered glass didn’t help, and while the new ATV intro was awesome, and I was definitely going to get me one of those, I was still concerned about the look and feel of the truck. Then, as the ATV approached the truck, something amazing happened. The truck tailgate came down and opened all the way down to the ground, creating an on-ramp for the ATV. Alright, things are getting interesting! This is not your normal truck. Elon revealed that not only can the CyberTruck provide power to all your power tools (no generator needed), but it also charges the ATV. Wow!
After the ATV reveal, Elon’s presentation was over and the crowed moved to a waiting area for test rides. While waiting, I got a chance to see the truck up close. This.Truck.Is.Massive! I have a Ford F150 Raptor, and as I got close to the Tesla CyberTruck, the deceptively small truck started to reveal just how big it really was:
At this point I knew I was going to preorder the CyberTruck, but I still wasn’t sure if this was going to be a mass-market vehicle. Then, I took a test ride:
After the ride, I started to realize the brilliance of the CyberTruck and Elon Musk’s intuitive marketing genius. One of my favorite marketing books of all times is a book called Purple Cow by Seth Godin. It’s a classic. A summary of the book in one sentence is this: “The key to success is to find a way to stand out — to be the purple cow in a field of monochrome Holsteins.” The CyberTruck is the purple cow of trucks! This is not going to just be a successful EV Truck, it will be the most successful truck in the history of trucks! Why? Because when you create a purple cow, there will always be extreme emotional reactions that fall into two camps:
- Those who hate the distinguishing feature
- And those who think its the best thing ever
But here is the thing: Irrespective of which camp you fall into, one thing is for sure, you are talking about it! And that talking is worth billions of dollars in free marketing to Tesla. And if you happen to fall into the camp that loves the purple cow, after knowing that a purple cow is out there, you can no longer go and buy a black-and-white cow!
That is Tesla’s marketing strategy in a nutshell: create purple cows! People sometimes naively think Teslas are different because they are EVs. No. Every Tesla vehicle has had a controversial and insane feature that that no other vehicle has ever had. They have been doing it all along:
- The Tesla Model S was a purple cow, not because it was an EV, but because of the ridiculously enormous 17” center console display. They also got rid of all the buttons. At the time, this created enormous love/hate. “People don’t want a giant screen in their car, they want the tactile feel of buttons” is how the arguments went.
- The Model X was a purple cow because of the “insane, impractical, falcon-wing doors that were impossible to build” according to every other car executive.
- The Model 3 was a purple cow because it got rid of the instrument panel! “Nobody would accept a car without an instrument panel” went the wisdom.
- And the Tesla CyberTruck is a purple cow because of its triangular (or polygonal) shape! “No self-respecting truck owner will ever drive a CyberTruck.”
Wrong! The conventional wisdom was wrong about the Model S (which became the best selling luxury sedan), and they were wrong about the Model X, then they were wrong about the Model 3.
They are also wrong about the CyberTruck. Its distinguishing features is precisely why the Tesla CyberTruck will be the most successful truck of all time. Today, in less than 48 hours, virtually everyone in the world has heard about the Tesla CyberTruck — maybe even has argued about its design. More people now know about the CyberTruck than those who could name [any other truck]. When you combine the universal free marketing (worth billions), with the best specs in any truck, it’s game over!
