Elon’s Emotional Marketing and Tesla’s 100 Year Shortcut
The Rosetta.ai Ecommerce Real Talk Series
The Rosetta.ai Ecommerce Real Talk Series is where we get to know the marketers who are so busy living their ideas that they don’t have time write about them! These are the insights not being posted by “thought leaders.”
What follows is part 3 of our 3-part series based on the June 2021 webinar, Creating Desire with User Data. Dean tells the story of Elon Musk’s 100 year shortcut, and the importance of Elon’s “captivating vision.”
Who is Dean Lockard?
When Dean Lockhard shakes your hand his last name comes to mind because his grip is like a vice — he locks in hard on you! This is how it’s done in the real world of B2C, folks, with firm handshakes and original ideas driving big wins.
Dean is a Marketing Director and Natural Born Entrepreneur with 19-years experience in Australia, Europe and the US. And besides that, he…
- created over US$ 500m in combined ecommerce sales in the European luxury fashion marketplace, and in the Australian 4x4 automotive industry.
- Now, based in Taiwan, he’s the Founder and CEO of Mission.ai, where he’s exploring new distribution models for AI and B2B.
Mason:
So let’s go to the captivating vision you were talking about. What’s the 100 year shortcut?
Dean:
Yeah yeah, this is one of my favorite examples of how good products with emotional connection can create value. We all think companies depend on how much they sell to determine how big a company is but it’s not.
Look at Tesla. Tesla is an example of a 100 year shortcut. Because Tesla today has a higher valuation than any other car company. This slide compares Toyota but it’s higher than all the other companies, Ford, GM, all of them. The point is they get there by making fewer cars, a quarter of the cars that Toyota or any of the other manufacturers make. And the thing is that the cars aren’t even that great. People post a lot about how they have a lot of problems.
So why is Tesla valued so much? Why is it so popular? Because Elon Musk has this captivating vision about Tesla leading into the future. About us still travelling, still enjoying going out there, meeting our friends and everything and doing it in an environmentally friendly way. And in this way we can change the world. We can say goodbye to fossil fuels, we can say goodbye to destroying the environment. We can welcome a better world for our kids. And we can do this by supporting one company, or buying stocks, right? Or buying the products. And that’s a vision. It’s Elon Musk bringing it to life, it’s what makes Tesla the most valuable company. Not how much they sell, not how good the product is. It’s the vision. So that’s why I say it took them 100 years less time than Toyota, Ford, or any other company.
Mason:
So how do we get that vision in our ecommerce stores?
Dean:
It’s like what I was talking about before. You have to find out how to make this emotional connection with the customer. You have to find out what they care about. You have to talk to your customers. Send a survey! And make the survey fun. Ask some interesting questions. Make something funny. It’s not just about helping your company, it’s also about making something fun and interesting for your customers to see or learn. Talk to your customers and see what’s really important to them.
Is it really important to them to save another 10%? Or will they pay 20 dollars more if they know that your product is made from an environmentally friendly material? From a material that uses less water? So you find out what your users are passionate about. And remember these users will be the ones that will be the most profitable. Because what you want to do is create this cash that you can put back into serving your customers. It’s a magical circle of love actually that you create in ecommerce. Also, remember that the man who got up at 6 o’clock in the morning to check my website wasn’t forced to get up, he loved it! It was an emotional connection (more detail on this tidbit in Part 1 if you haven’t read it yet).
But you have to talk to your customers. Offer to refund a product, offer some competition, sharing their photos on social media. And then reward them, talk about them, put them in the center. And discover together with your customers what it is about your products that gives you a market advantage and what is the experience of buying your products compared with everybody else.
Mason:
So it’s not really just about building your product or building your company, it’s about having that ambition, that drive to actually connect with your customers.
Dean:
Yes and when you’re a small or medium sized company you can do these crazy things that you cannot do when you’re a big company. Elon is the exception of course, his company is huge but he can still connect with his customers. I like the Winston Churchill quote, “Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.” I always remember that. I love that because it’s true. You have to be brave. You have to build your brand on something you believe in. Another quote that I have on my Mission.ai website is from Rick Hoffman, “in an ever-changing world, playing it safe is the riskiest thing you can do.” And that’s where I agree. Things change constantly and you have to evolve too, evolve together with your users.
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