Elon Musk is not your typical car guy. This is why his to-date success in the car business is so remarkable. You’ve no doubt at least heard of his best-known invention, the all-electric sedan called the Tesla, aka the iPhone of cars.
Even the most casual of observers tends to agree that Mr. Musk has done something special with the Tesla car, and that they, likely, secretly desire one in their driveway.
Tesla’s technology is world-class. Yet, that alone would not have been enough to turn it into such a desirable global icon.
Mr. Musk is fully aware of that. If you pay close attention to what Mr. Musk is really doing in his numerous PR events, you’ll notice that he clearly understands that technology alone will not be enough to keep bringing home the bacon for Tesla.
Mr. Musk is not your average innovator, either. Average innovators seem to have this tempting, almost religious belief that the rationality of their thingamajig alone will win them the day in the marketplace.
Said differently, if, in the opinion of an average innovator, the benefits their innovation promises to bring to the marketplace are new and technologically sound, then that alone will make it a viable commercial success.
Experience, however, shows us that, in the marketplace, rationality alone rarely, if ever, wins the day. But hey, don’t take our word for it.
For example, you could give a call to the good folks at SAAB, a car manufacturer in Sweden. Heads up: the phone may ring for a while before they pick it up, since they went bankrupt back in 2012 and have been trying to crawl back into the marketplace ever since.
Technology and innovation were SAAB’s middle and last names. Plus, and this was not a small plus, SAAB was financially backed for what seemed like forever (we’re not kidding — some 20 or so years) by GM — who was, at the time, the world’s biggest car company. Ultimately, however, none of that mattered. Why?
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Lucky for Tesla, Mr. Musk is waaay smarter than your average innovator. His actions clearly demonstrate that. Let us illustrate our last point using three things that Mr. Musk does for Tesla:
– He’s relentless in courting all of the available green energy subsidies the US Government has to offer.
– He’s relentless in trying to overcome the biggest obstacle in the auto-making business. It’s the size of the Grand Canyon, and the majority of rival auto-makers (yes, we’re looking at folks like Infiniti) are struggling with it.
What’s that obstacle? In a sentence: the challenge of how to evolve their companies into attractive lifestyle brands that people love.
– He understands that the recipe for building a desirable, potent icon in the world of business calls for a thingamajig or two. But the only way to emotionally connect with people is through communication. Communication in the business world is, nowadays, better known under the catch-all word ‘branding,’ so let’s use that from now on.
So, what truly separates Mr. Musk from your average innovator is this: he understands that being ok with having ‘good enough’ branding is a cancer that can spread quickly throughout an entire organization and kill it if it isn’t cut out in time. The importance of branding was underestimated by the people who ran SAAB, and that is why, sadly, ultimately, it simply had to die.
The Tesla brand is fortunate in that Mr. Musk is personally doing all he can to maximize the appeal of the Tesla brand.
He’s like the parent who knows that the journey his promising teenager must go on to become a successful adult is longer and harder than it looks. Mr. Musk is giving talks, left and right, on behalf of Tesla (including a Ted talk, of course); he’s often writing Tesla’s email campaigns; etc..
And so far, his efforts are paying off.
How can we be sure? It’s simple: you likely recognize his name, are familiar with what a Tesla looks like, and know that Elon Musk is CEO of Tesla.
Do you, for example, know who the CEO of the Mitsubishi car company is?
They, too, make cars.
Can you name one of their models? 🤔
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