Does the Elon Brand Hurt Tesla?

It may be the talk of the town, but it’s nothing new. For years, people have wondered about how Elon Musk’s personal brand impacts Tesla. We at Predicta didn’t want our AI engine to feel left out, so we let it ponder the same thing!

We gathered some online conversation about Tesla and told the AI that it could pull out whatever topics it wanted, so long as Elon was one of them. It then measured the amount of positivity and negativity for each topic and joined that with each topic’s frequency. It could have compared Apples to Elons if it wanted to, but it decided to compare Acceleration to Elon instead. 

We’ll take it. Here’s what it found.

Overall, Tesla drivers are very happy with Elon…

On a scale of -1 to +1, Elon’s average sentiment is +.81. That’s quite a bit higher than Tesla’s overall mark of +.72. And check out where he ranks among some of Tesla’s product attributes! Tesla drivers are as happy with Elon as they are with the Acceleration of their cars!

… but other factors are far more important

When talking about a Tesla vehicle, people mentioned its Performance a whopping 58% of the time, and its Price 50% of the time. By comparison, only 5% of people brought up Elon.

And so, while this topic is fun to explore, Tesla will ultimately succeed or fail based on the strength of its products – just as it always has. With more viable BEV competitors coming to market, the product gap is finally starting to close and switching barriers are becoming lower. This opens the door for smaller factors, such as Elon’s adventures, to nudge purchase behavior.

Predicta automates brand and product market intelligence using deep learning AI techniques. Unlike "social listeners" that only tap into Twitter and similar social media to grasp basic consumer sentiment and behavior, Predicta provides in-depth brand and product SWOT analysis - anytime - that keeps pace with market changes. Gain granular insights about your competitors’ products - how your customers think, feel and act. Contact us today at info@predicta.com.

To Tesla or not to Tesla?

That’s the question we posed to AI. Electric Vehicle buyers have an abundance of opinions about Tesla’s brand and products. They share them by the thousands across hundreds of websites every day. How does an EV shopper make sense of it all, especially if they’re brand new to the EV world?

We thought it would be fun to let Predicta’s AI engine take a crack at it, with no preconceptions, biases, or any idea at what it was even supposed to look at. So we sampled the online EV chatter and let the AI pick out the 50 topics it felt were most relevant. Then we looked at the strength and type of sentiment for each topic, along with each topic’s frequency. Then we sorted them based on the difference between Teslas and non-Teslas.

Here's what our AI told us. What do you think?

Three things Tesla does better

1. Charging: Tesla holds the advantage in both public charging infrastructure and in at-home charging technology

2. Power: The pure acceleration factor still blows Tesla owners away

3. Range: Buyers are happier with Tesla’s range and road tripping ability

Three things Non-Teslas do better

1. Service: Service departments at existing dealerships outperform the current Tesla service experience

2. Safety: Other brands and products are more synonymous with safety

3. Price: With more options on the market, folks are looking at other premium brands and deciding that they offer more bang for the buck

Predicta automates brand and product market intelligence using deep learning AI techniques. Unlike "social listeners" that only tap into Twitter and similar social media to grasp basic consumer sentiment and behavior, Predicta provides in-depth brand and product SWOT analysis - anytime - that keeps pace with market changes. Gain granular insights about your competitors’ products - how your customers think, feel and act. Contact us today at info@predicta.com.