Why Elon Musk is high — in keyword ranking
A look into online behavior in the age of the Cybertruck
Elon Musk demonstrates marketing brilliance — how to succeed by taking everything anyone knows about anything and tossing it out the window. With 250,000 Cybertruck pre-orders within 5 days from the November 21st 2019 unveiling, there has to be something to learn from this bizarre vehicular success.
But Tesla and its vehicles weren’t always victorious in glamorous 8-bit design. After overcoming production difficulties in 2018, in the first quarter of 2019, Tesla saw a $702 million loss for now not being able to deliver and keep their Model 3 electric vehicles in customer’s hands.
Furthermore, leadership at Tesla was as focused an automotive company as Musk’s vested interests in solar panels and space travel. It was barely keeping its position in the race to electric vehicle supremacy. The company was in automotive desperation. This was confirmed by the CEO’s not so reassuring 2018 proclamation, “I think we just became a real car company.”
Learnings from Elon Musk’s strategy to prevent Tesla’s downfall can be narrowed down to:
Intentional bad publicity — it’s still publicity
Elon Musk drew inspiration from the likes of Kim Kardashian, Donald Trump and the final episode of Game Thrones. All first-movers into the industry of fame through defamation.
Cringy was the goal and Elon Musk was aware of how easy it was to obtain; to go viral with content that would be frowned upon by the masses. We are advancing into an age where virtual conversations flourish in negativity more than positivity. Cat videos no longer gain you as much traction online as your cognitive talent to see the face of a horse in Sarah Jessica Parker. Musk just gave an entire population of cyber-leeches the right content to compete amongst each other in endless meme creation. If Tesla aimed at just effective marketing, they also got fresh branded content circulated at no added cost.
Create your own niche — think way outside the box
General Motors strives to be at the forefront of vehicle autonomy and acquires a ride-sharing arm, while Ford comes close to Tesla genius with announcing a hybrid electric pickup for 2020. Tesla still trumps (no pun intended) the innovation game. Automotive innovation is growing exponentially difficult as creating added value for consumers who seek convenience in four-wheel products that can’t get any more convenient. Unless humanity somehow grows more lethargic (a topic that requires a dedicated write-up). The innovation here was that rather than with consumer needs, Tesla chose to add value with what consumers did not need. Ever.
Indeed, Vincent. Neither can we.
If you might think this was not a deliberate online marketing strategy, then let’s come up with a more appropriate name than Cybertruck.
