1.
Sense-of-mission marketing
Basically, a mission statement informs an organization’s overall goal, emphasizing on its either value or philosophy. In other words, this statement aims to create identity for the company’s stakeholders, especially customers and workers. Following this the principle, a company’s mission statement should be defined in social terms rather than product terms.
This will result in a precise direction for employees, a commitment of long-run interest between the brands and their customers, a belief to other stakeholders. Tesla, one of the most renowned companies in automobile industry has been exemplifying perfectly this situation. Particularly, “Tesla’s mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy”, which means the company want to do more than just sell its products but lead customers’ consumption behaviors to sustainable choices so that it will exert a positive impact on the environment and society. Indeed, while a number of traditional car manufacturers focus on short-term goals and immediate growth, Tesla adopted from the beginning a different approach towards zero emission business model with electric vehicles and battery for homes using renewable energy. In general, Tesla is hoping to convey its message about sustainable products and services via its mission statement and what Tesla has done proves exactly what the company committed and carries out its customers’ engagement in driving electric cars. It is obvious that battery electric vehicles produced by
Tesla namely Model S, Model X and Tesla Semi would save $200000 of fuel cost over a million miles, at the same time, reduce a significant 94% amount of emission like CO2 compared to other car models.
2.
Societal marketing
Kotler and Alan 2002 indicated in Handbook of Marketing and Society that "The societal marketing concept holds that the organization's task is to determine the needs, wants, and interests of target markets and to deliver the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than competitors, in a way that preserves or enhances the consumer's and the
society's well-being." This means an organization following this principle should consider several objectives. Firstly, the ultimate significance is the consumers’ needs. Secondly, the companies should continuously develop and bring latest technological innovation into the products so that the products’ life and value are enhanced. Last but not least, the organization must be responsible for societal issues in order to build customers’ loyalty.
There are 4 types of products classified when it comes to sustainable marketing.
Figure 20.4: Societal Classification of Products, Chapter 20, Principles of Marketing,
Kotler&Armstrong, 13ed.
As can be seen from the graph, both low immediate satisfaction and low long-run benefit are delivered by deficient products such as bad smell and ineffective skincare products. Pleasing products are those give customers great experiences at the beginning but might have negative effect in long term. Fast food is an exact example in this circumstance. The next type of product which captures low immediate satisfaction but high long-term benefit characteristics is salutary products, for instance, insurance products. Eventually, desirable products are what all companies are heading to, which create not only high immediate satisfaction but also high long-term benefit such as a good smell and skin-softening bath shower gel of The Body Shop brand. Another case exemplifying its sustainable marketing via societal marketing concept is Tesla’ products which are perfectly desirable ones. The majority of Tesla’s customers wants cars with safety, performance and efficiency. Therefore, Tesla has spent about millions of budget on research and development in order to define its green profile customer, thus producing appropriate products for each market. The primary target market is an upper middle class group aging from 30 to 60 with average household income of more than
USD $80000. Additionally, those families obviously pay their attention on gas consumption and economic value towards their cars, at the same time, desire for an affordable and safety luxury car. The secondary target market is a group of 18-to-24year-old college students with negligible income, studying at a prestigious university and having a specialized profession in foreseeable future. It is clear that Tesla has deep understanding when it comes to its customers so that the company has stimulated three-stage market entry process with specific products. Particularly, Tesla produces
The Roadster as a high price and low volume vehicle; The Model S and Model X as a mid price and mid volume one; lastly Model 3 as a low price and high volume vehicle. With regard to societal interest and well-beings, all Tesla’ cars run by electricity which is renewable energy with zero emission. Moreover, Tesla shows an interest in an sustainable energy ecosystem by manufacturing a set of energy solutions namely
Powerwall, Powerpack and Solar Roof allowing house owners and other utilities to manipulate how to create, store and consume effectively renewable energy.
Interestingly, Musk, CEO of Tesla company, made an announcement about doubling the power capacity of the standard Powerwall without extra fee. In addition, Tesla has completed massive Gigafactory-1 powered by Solar in Nevada which results in high volume renewable energy production, waste reduction and battery cell cost reduction and thousand-job offer as well. Those aforementioned actions indicate Tesla’s responsibility in environmental protect since it provides its customers with environmentally and socially favorable products.
To sum up, a strategy named Triple Bottom Line is used to evaluate the impact of
Tesla on its social aspect, its environmental aspect and its profit. Firstly, Tesla is bringing about several long-term social benefits including safety and satisfaction of customers, job providers for thousands of employees. In fact, there was over 37000 workers working full-time in Tesla Inc according to Tesla’s annual report. Furthermore, Tesla provides services with low operating costs, reduced maintenance, smart technology and
full warranty. More importantly, this company succeeds to encourage other transport manufacturers as well as consumers to a more sustainable economy by producing and using electric vehicles (Forbes 2014). Secondly, in term of environmental advantages,
Tesla help cut down the proportion of carbon dioxide in the air so as to decline rate of pollution. Also, there was a downward trend in demand for coal and fuel power due to
Tesla’s renewable energy along with non-toxic and recycled batteries. Eventually, looking at annual reports, it can be seen that Tesla’s profit is not really high. However, its stock price has gone up several times compared to its initial price. In conclusion, an equilibrium has been reached by Tesla among customers’ needs and long-run interests, the company’s requirements and society long-run interests so that Tesla successfully becomes a leading organization in sustainable development.
References:
1.
Paul N. Bloom and Gregory T. Gundlach, 2002, Handbook of Marketing and Society,
Sage, London.
2.
Clare D’Souza, Mehdi Taghian and Michael Polonsky, 2001, Readings and Cases in
Susutainable Marketing: A Strategic Approach to Social Responsibility, Tidle Publishing and Distribution, Australia.
3.
Belz, F, Peattie, K, 2012, Sustainability Marketing, WILEY, United Kingdom.
4.
Kotler, P, Armstrong, G, 2010, Principles of Marketing, PEARSON, United States of
America.
5.
Gordon, Carrigan and Hastings, 2011, ‘A framework for sustainable marketing’,
Marketing Theory, p143-163.
6.
Hardman, S, Shiu, E and Wilckens, R, 2015, ‘Changing the fate of Fuel Cell Vehicles: Can lessons be learnt from Tesla Motors?’, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, vol 40, no 4, p.1625-1638.
7.
Myles Edwin Mangram (2012) The globalization of Tesla Motors: a strategic marketing plan analysis, Journal of Strategic Marketing, vol 20, no 4, p.289-312.
8.
Elon Musk 2013, The Mission of Tesla, viewed 14 December 2018,
<https://www.tesla.com/blog/Mission-Tesla>
9.
Edgar online 2018, Tesla’s Annual Report, viewed 14 December 2018, http://www.annualreports.com/HostedData/AnnualReports/PDF/NASDAQ_TSLA_2017.
10.
https://teslamotorsdeca.weebly.com/secondary1.html
