Marketing Strategy of Tesla in China

Marketing Strategy of Tesla in China – An Analytical Approach
Contents
1. An introduction to the research context (~250 words)..................................................................3
2. The theoretical background of research (~500 words)..................................................................4
3. Research Question(s) (~100 words)...............................................................................................5
4. Research Aim: (~250 words)..........................................................................................................5
List of References (15-20 academic sources).........................................................................................6
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1. An introduction to the research context:
The world of automobiles is fast growing and with the Corona outbreak people are more
inclined towards their cars and vehicles over public transport and thus the companies in the
automobile industry are also innovating new products catering to the needs of the customers.
Tesla, an electric vehicle specialized company, is a multinational brand active in the field of
automobiles since 2003 when it was founded by a group of engineers (Tesla Inc., 2021).
Because of the environmentally friendly models introduced by the company, the company
has grown in more than 40 countries in the past decade. In 2018, the company debuted in the
Chinese market which soon turned into its second-largest market in the world. In the country,
the company has several competitors the biggest one being XPeng, NIO, Li Auto et cetera
which requires the company to research and develop technologies that can gain them a
competitive advantage over the others (Dai, 2020).
As per Forbes magazine, in the past year since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Tesla has been more active over the digital platforms and thus has been creating a favourable
trend for itself in the field of automobiles in the world and China is not untouched either. The
China market of the organization has witnessed a significant increase in its market through
the word of mouth (Forbes, 2020).
The customers are to be given with selective information in regards to the company’s
technology and its use and that is the significant work of marketing which also depends on
the financial standing of organization (Falát & Holubčík, 2017). As per CNBC (2021), the
revenue of Tesla in third quarter of 2021 had been recorded to 13.76 billion USD.
There have been several studies on the market development strategies of Tesla in China,
however the changes that it has brought to the Chinese market of electric cars has not been
significantly discussed and thus, this study will focus on the marketing strategies in light of
the Chinese electric vehicle market and its changes. (Habib et al., 2020). To understand these
strategies, the study will incorporate marketing mix because the marketing mix involves the
overall marketing plan and helps in viewing the marketing campaign from varied points
including the internal factors of the company (Lang, 2021). The research will also include
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secondary data that will be acquired from the published articles, journals and other
trustworthy online sources. Also, to analyse the findings, suitable data collection and analysis
techniques will be explored and incorporated in the study.
2. The theoretical background of research:
There are several theories that the companies apply when designing their marketing strategies
thus, these theories can help the researchers in understanding and forming a theoretical
framework for the same (Dzwigol, 2020). The conceptual framework that this section of the
proposal attempts to form is consisting of theories such as the marketing mix of Tesla in the
context of China to conceptualize the advertising and positioning campaign of the company.
This will also help the researcher to understand the marketing phenomenon and campaign of
Tesla in a competitive and populated economy like China (Kim, 2020).
Marketing Mix: The marketing mix of the organisation consists of the strategies
incorporated to capture the market. There are 7ps of the marketing mix that affect the
marketing of the company or product (Lim, 2021).
They are:
 Product range that the company sells in the targeted market which in case of Tesla
there are several electric car models that the company sells such as Model 3 Sedans
and Model Y sports utility vehicles et cetera (Perera, 2020).
 The price which the organization sets based on the type of its product like Model 3
cars range between 33,000 USD to 36,500 USD in China’s prominent cities such as
Shanghai (Tesla Inc, 2021).
 Place where the products are available and distributed for instance, Tesla has more
than 30 outlets scattered in several big cities of China like Beijing, Shanghai,
Guangzhou et cetera
 Promotional activities encompassing advertising and PR strategies of the firm such as
Tesla’s digital marketing campaign apart from the traditional marketing based on
electronic and print media (Jing, 2020).
 People that involve in the whole transaction such as the employees and salespersons
of the company are also taken into consideration in the marketing mix so that the
customer’s experience with a company can be briefly seen (Yaning, 2021).
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