Consumer Profile And Brand Perception Of Tesla Motors In Canada

1. Demographic profile of who exactly this consumer is: Age, Family Structure, Social Class and Income, Ethnicity. You will need to develop this thoroughly and comprehensively by providing finite details about this consumer.

2. Geographic profile of exactly who this consumer is: Urban, Suburban and Rural, Where do they tend to live. Be specific of where this consumer lives.

3. Psychographic profile of exactly who this consumer is, what kind of activities, interest and opinion do they have. BE SPECIFIC and back up why you think this to true. What is their lifestyle like? Again, be very specific and back up why you believe this to be true. 

Perception of Brand

How does the consumer perceive the brand and themselves and what role does this play in their purchasing of this brand? (Self Concept) Pg.121 Does this brand help them be the person they want to be, does what is its significance to this person?

What motivation and needs are being met by purchasing this brand? Are they strongly motivated? What needs are being met according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Explain.

Are reference groups an important influence on the consumer when purchasing this brand? If so, please explain why and what kind of power the reference group has on this consumer? (pg325).

How has social media affected this ideal consumer for your brand? Please explain in detail what affect social media has had in their daily lives. IE. This person uses Twitter, Facebook, SnapChat, Instagram etc and speak about their usage rates, do they like or follow your company or brand? How involved are they in your brand? (Low, High and explain)

Profiles

The purpose of this paper is to prepare specific consumer profile of Tesla motors according to the demographic, geographic and psychographic aspects.  It will further elaborate perception of the products among the targeted customer base. This report will try to find out what are the sources of motivation for a consumer while choosing a Tesla car. Social media plays a crucial role in this case; hence, its influence will be discussed in detail too. Towards the end of report, a summary is going to be drafted regarding characteristics of an ideal consumer.

It is universally acknowledged that Canadians tend to shop goods with high price if it is worth the money. In general, they consistently look for a good quality product at a convenient price and preferably through physical mode. However, this is partly true in case of rich influential Canadian community when it comes to luxury or sports cars. Therefore, Tesla targets the rich and affluent families, businesses and individuals who have special considerations for electronic sports vehicles. The demographic orientation of Canadian electronic motor customers is dependent on few aspects. People irrespective of gender, aged from 25 to 45, mostly belong to nuclear higher-class families with high income; believe in spending for premium quality electric drives, which are sporty and luxurious in their specifications.

Electric car owners mostly live in Canadian Urban and suburban areas. There are confusion among them in terms of its utility in winter until they realised the fact that those heated batteries are capable of working in freezing cold weather too. However, they have felt due to the cold weather batteries need to be charged more often than usual. Charging stations are far from the residential places in case of sub urban areas. Therefore, people having a stable financial background living in urban areas of Canada tend to buy a luxury Car from Tesla more than sub urban residents do. In order to solve the problem of charging stations Tesla has launched Cars with advanced battery life with longest range targeting the new generation electronic car enthusiasts over gas-powered vehicles.

Tesla markets their cars globally and they circulate advertisements based on population of a certain country to avoid additional cost of promotion. The motive is to establish more stores in areas where people have higher income like in urban territories mostly.

According to Doszhanov and Ahmad (2015), Tesla initiated discovering electronic luxury cars in response to environmental need of green vehicles. It runs on battery instead of burning gasoline. Therefore, people who are looking for environment friendly luxury vehicles can consider Tesla electronic cars to remain environment friendly and proud owners of sports cars as well (Li, Linn & Muehlegger, 2014). However, it not only depends on psychology. It requires a strong financial background to serve both the environment and own luxurious interests.

There are certain considerations, which determine a consumer’s behaviour before buying a luxury car. In case of such luxury products, customers are willing to pay more for the products with more perceived value. As per Canadian shopper’s general behaviour, they tend to spend money on products with high-perceived value. Besides, these sports cars are symbol of high status and helps to boost self-esteem for some individuals with high income and social status. According to Albert and Merunka (2013), some people are quality conscious and hobbies of being owner of luxury vehicles determine the shopping behaviour of Canadian customers too.

Demographic

As mentioned before, Canadian customers believe in perceived value of the product whether it is of daily purpose or luxurious. Tesla is beyond a car manufacturing company. It aspires to be environment friendly and simultaneously severs luxurious needs of the consumers (Zsóka et al., 2013). It influences to think further than the traditional boundary. In case of Tesla sports cars, people have a high-perceived value as it indicates the responsibility of being environment friendly. People from higher social status and rich financial background are the target of companies like Tesla in case of high price- high quality strategy. Consumers tend to pay higher amount in case of higher perceived value. In addition, a luxury car works as a status symbol, satisfy hobby of buying exclusive collection of vehicles. For some of the consumers it works as a boost to the confidence and inspiration. Tesla has a responsibility of maintaining the quality and satisfy the customers’ perception as promised.

As per Kapferer and Michaut-Denizeau (2017), there are different opinion of people regarding the price of gasoline according to the economic condition of Canadian population. When the oil prices gets unusually high for a prolonged period, consumers tend to seek for vehicles, which are efficient in saving both the energy and money. There are people who like to keep the environment green and clean. According to the same journal remaining green is equivalent to showing a responsible behaviour towards sustainability too. This customer base are not influenced by the price of gasoline, keeping the carbon emission in control is the highest priority for them.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a theory about human motivation. It suggests that human or consumer behaviour is influenced by certain requirements . According to the theory, an individual is motivated to fulfil some general requirements before heading towards more advanced needs. Unlike other physiologists, Maslow has chosen to explore the sector of people’s happiness that means what are those aspects that makes an individual happy and their actions to achieve them. Maslow with a help of a hierarchical pyramid has explained the five stages of human needs. In order to live a basic lifestyle, people have needs of food, water, clothing and a shelter. Besides, sexual reproduction is another addition in the list of psychological needs. In addition, safety requirements like financial, health and wellness, and accident policies. Romantic relationships, friends and community gatherings are social needs, whereas, fulfilment of personal hobbies, support, respect of community members, family and friends boost self-esteem. Self-actualization needs drive a man to ignore people’s opinion and establishing his/her own. From this theory and analysing consumer behaviour, it can be stated after reading the study of Wicker and Becken (2013) that consumers tend to buy an energy efficient, electric, luxury vehicle by Tesla to satisfy their self-esteem and self-actualization needs.

Although needs do not follow a particular pattern or hierarchy, still irrespective of several criticism it is regarded as important because it has highlighted consumer behaviour in terms of its shifting nature. Real life examples from the society is limited, therefore, self-actualization theory is not scientific and it is difficult to establish with evidence. However, there is no scientific evidence to put such needs in a hierarchical order because there are individuals who depends on social and self-actualization needs more than their basic needs.

Geographic

There are several aspects related to cars, which influences an individual to buy it. Any car with high price range and specifications tend to provide safety and security. There is a tendency among family persons to evaluate this matter to be safe and secure. Moreover, Kapferer, (2014) suggests the term luxury does not fit with needs. As per the study of Cheung, Xiao and Liu (2014), luxury means things or actions, which are not required to live a basic lifestyle. Although, status conscious people with strong financial background have a tendency to buy cars depending on beyond safety and social needs. A luxurious car also depicts social prestige, power and an ego boost. Therefore, apart from being environment friendly Tesla must consider these dimensions of consumer behaviour in order to be successful in meeting needs of society (Newton & Meyer, 2013).

After the technological revolution and globalization, social media has an immense influence on the purchasing behaviour more than an individual realises. Even when it comes to buying a Car, there are certain aspects that have impact on consumers. A current research suggests that no less than 80% of people have started to believe on social media over a sales representative (Spurling et al., 2013). People believe on friends’ recommendation over social media to consider an automobile brand before buying. Social media connects people from various boundaries. It becomes easy for a potential buyer to collect feedback regarding the desired brand and choosing which suits the security and luxurious needs.

 YouTube plays an important role in buying the cars where there are review videos to guide the consumers towards a good purchase. As argued by Goh, Heng and Lin (2013), it is up to the consumers to understand the authenticity of those reviews as biased contents can be found as well. More than television, newspaper and magazines, digital the number of digital advertisements have been increased as well. Around 4.9 million people like to follow Tesla on Instagram which indicates its huge fan following. As described in Frederiks, Stenner, Hobman (2015), Facebook friends can be categorised as a part of primary secondary and aspirational reference groups who influence a person’s decision while buying a Tesla car.

Liam Wilson lives in Ontario, Canada who inherits his father’s property. His father used to be an influential businessperson and an automobile enthusiast. Liam since his childhood is a fan of his father’s collection and used to aspire of making his own collection. Now, he is working as one of the board of directors in a multinational company and simultaneously operating his father’s business too. With such a strong buying power, there is no doubt Liam is in an ideal position to afford and carry a Tesla car as a status symbol. It fulfils the needs of security, hobbies and works as elevating the self-esteem as well. Moreover, it satisfy his concerns of being environment friendly as well. Liam invests on SUV before such innovation comes into his sphere. After that he realised it is better to invest on a luxury yet energy efficient vehicles, which satisfy both the needs of need and luxury. Liam prefers to ride on his own to countryside with the most expensive Luxury collection from Tesla on weekends.

Conclusion:

Therefore, to conclude, it can be stated consumer behaviour is dynamic in nature and it is a consistent process of transformation. Any business organisation, working on satisfying the social requirements must follow the pattern of this shift in purchasing behaviour. In case of Tesla, it has been detected that consumers who prefers to remain status conscious and purchase cars of limited edition as a hobby or conscious to remain energy efficient generally opt for Tesla cars.

References:

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Cheung, C. M., Xiao, B. S., & Liu, I. L. (2014). Do actions speak louder than voices? The signaling role of social information cues in influencing consumer purchase decisions. Decision Support Systems, 65, 50-58.

Doszhanov, A., & Ahmad, Z. A. (2015). Customers’ intention to use green products: the impact of green brand dimensions and green perceived value. In SHS Web of Conferences (Vol. 18, p. 01008). EDP Sciences.

Frederiks, E. R., Stenner, K., & Hobman, E. V. (2015). Household energy use: Applying behavioural economics to understand consumer decision-making and behaviour. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 41, 1385-1394.

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Kapferer, J. N., & Michaut-Denizeau, A. (2017). Is luxury compatible with sustainability? Luxury consumers’ viewpoint. In Advances in Luxury Brand Management (pp. 123-156). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

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Newton, P., & Meyer, D. (2013). Exploring the attitudes-action gap in household resource consumption: Does “environmental lifestyle” segmentation align with consumer behaviour?. Sustainability, 5(3), 1211-1233.

Spurling, N. J., McMeekin, A., Southerton, D., Shove, E. A., & Welch, D. (2013). Interventions in practice: Reframing policy approaches to consumer behaviour.

Wicker, P., & Becken, S. (2013). Conscientious vs. ambivalent consumers: Do concerns about energy availability and climate change influence consumer behaviour?. Ecological Economics, 88, 41-48.

Zsóka, Á., Szerényi, Z. M., Széchy, A., & Kocsis, T. (2013). Greening due to environmental education? Environmental knowledge, attitudes, consumer behavior and everyday pro-environmental activities of Hungarian high school and university students. Journal of Cleaner Production, 48, 126-138.