This referral program is not an innovative idea because this type of marketing strategy has been around for a long time. However, it is the first time that Tesla is stepping into the scene to promote their Model S cars.
Elon Musk, CEO of the company announced the experimental program in a recent conference. It gives an opportunity for friends of Model S owners to save $1000 on their next purchase. You have to know a person who already owns the car and if they could refer you to the showroom, they will give a discount.
At the moment, the program is open only for new car buyers, while Tesla motors confirmed that if it proves to be a successful venture, they are planning to expand it to the used car models as well.
The pricing of the cars launched by Tesla is much higher when compared to models released by Mercedes and Audi. The company tried to bring it down by launching the S 70D which is priced at $75,000, but that is the cheapest that they could offer at the moment. Even though, the car manufacturer has plans to bring it down to $35,000, the proposed model will not be available for consumers until 2018. Meanwhile, Mercedes has already launched a model priced at $30,000 and so did Audi!
The car companies are vying to grab the market that is still unexplored – the one that is comprised of customers, who are not so wealthy, yet wouldn’t mind buying the brand if there are models available at affordable rates. For a long time, luxury car manufacturers focused on the uber rich people. Unfortunately, there are just a handful of such people in the world and after saturating the market, they obviously have to focus on the less wealthy population.
Tesla is planning to do the same in the next two years. However, their current focus is on acquiring friends of people who already own a Tesla Model S and are interested in buying one for themselves. According to this referral program, a person who refers five friends will get to tour their Giga factory and ten friends will get them the Founder’s Series Model X coupled with a $20,000 deduction. If you manage to refer ten friends before anyone else does in the region, you are entitled to receive the Model X for free.
Musk confirmed that the Tesla store has to spend at least $2,000 in marketing which can be saved through this referral program. The idea is to share their good fortune with their loyal customers.