Photo: James Musk on Instagram
If all carmakers behaved like Tesla starting next year, the advertising industry would probably implode, because the Palo Alto company has only spent $6 on paid promotions for each of the cars sold. That's more than 500 times less than the biggest spender, Jaguar.
Of course, in order to do that, all the other companies would need a CEO like Elon Musk, somebody who doesn't believe in the traditional way of selling cars and can capture the limelight and stay in it with ease, even though sometimes not for the best of reasons.
It's been common knowledge that Tesla doesn't spend on advertising, but up until this point, we didn't have an exact number. Thanks to Global Equities Research and its study published by Teslarati, we can now say for certain that less than $6 of the price of a new Tesla car went into advertising for the company or that particular model.
The calculations are simple: you take the whole sum spent on promotion, and you divide it by the number of cars sold. The results only cover the North American market, but even so, they paint a surprising picture. For instance, you probably wouldn't expect to find Jaguar sitting in the top spot, but the British company (now under Indian ownership) is hard at work trying to establish itself as one of the premium brands. You can't do that without money. Or Musk.
The chart isn't exactly homogenous regarding premium versus mainstream brands, even though you'd expect the former to place high since they sell a lot fewer cars. However, after Jaguar ($3,325) and Lincoln ($2,550) comes Fiat with $2,158 invested in advertising for every car sold. At the other end, besides Toyota ($248) and Honda ($258), there is Porsche ($267) and Daimler's smart ($290).
Tesla, on the other hand, is the kind of company that people make commercial spots for without requesting to be paid. It's just something they want to associate their names with, and since Tesla's core target isn't exactly the couch potato type that spends too much time in front of the TV, the fact that these materials only circulate on the Internet isn't particularly a problem.
But Tesla did have the privileged position (which is entirely the company's merit) of not being faced with any true competition. It single-handedly created the premium EV segment and it's been occupying it ever since. Once this town starts to get more populated, the need for more active advertising might prevent itself. But not right now.
It's been common knowledge that Tesla doesn't spend on advertising, but up until this point, we didn't have an exact number. Thanks to Global Equities Research and its study published by Teslarati, we can now say for certain that less than $6 of the price of a new Tesla car went into advertising for the company or that particular model.
The calculations are simple: you take the whole sum spent on promotion, and you divide it by the number of cars sold. The results only cover the North American market, but even so, they paint a surprising picture. For instance, you probably wouldn't expect to find Jaguar sitting in the top spot, but the British company (now under Indian ownership) is hard at work trying to establish itself as one of the premium brands. You can't do that without money. Or Musk.
The chart isn't exactly homogenous regarding premium versus mainstream brands, even though you'd expect the former to place high since they sell a lot fewer cars. However, after Jaguar ($3,325) and Lincoln ($2,550) comes Fiat with $2,158 invested in advertising for every car sold. At the other end, besides Toyota ($248) and Honda ($258), there is Porsche ($267) and Daimler's smart ($290).
Tesla, on the other hand, is the kind of company that people make commercial spots for without requesting to be paid. It's just something they want to associate their names with, and since Tesla's core target isn't exactly the couch potato type that spends too much time in front of the TV, the fact that these materials only circulate on the Internet isn't particularly a problem.
But Tesla did have the privileged position (which is entirely the company's merit) of not being faced with any true competition. It single-handedly created the premium EV segment and it's been occupying it ever since. Once this town starts to get more populated, the need for more active advertising might prevent itself. But not right now.
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