Elon Musk won the Internet this past week. On February 6, his moonshot firm (literally so), SpaceX, successfully launched the Falcon Heavy, making it one of the most powerful rockets ever launched by man into space. This was a test flight. Nobody but SpaceX and Musk had anything riding on this launch. The next two flights of Falcon Heavy will have clients ranging from the US Air Force and Arabsat to The Planetary Society. But the kicker in this test flight was the payload it did carry. Not some dummy satellite, but a car. And not just any car. A Tesla Roadster. With a mannequin astronaut named Starman (in what is probably the finest tribute paid to David Bowie since his passing) in the driver’s seat. The Internet since has been full of images of the Tesla in space, with either the blue marbly Earth or a crescent ivory moon in the background. With some of the best jokes to go with these images. “When you say you are five minutes away,” or “When the Uber driver says he’s outside.” For Elon Musk, whose public image seemed to be slowly morphing into that of a near-future sci-fi super-villain, all this positive press was certainly a welcome change. And in this masterstroke of sending a Tesla roadster into space, there are some excellent lessons for an entrepreneur too.
Lesson one. Get your customers into focusing on the good things about your company, and distract attention away from the shortcomings. The full-scale production of the latest model from Musk’s company, the Tesla 3, has been repeatedly getting delayed, which means that all the hype and goodwill that enveloped it has started to dissipate very quickly. With the Tesla Roadster in space though, the attention shall be on a success. And that warm fuzzy feeling is back again among Tesla loyalists. A young startup always has a mix of the good and the bad. And a clever entrepreneur while being honest about the bad, will do his best to emphasise the good as much as possible.
Lesson two. Look for opportunities to market your product all the time, and look especially at options that are not conventional. Ford, Kia, Lexus, all advertised during the Super Bowl. Tesla sent a car to space. I think it’s fairly clear who got the most marketing mileage. A young startup definitely needs to market itself a lot. But depending solely on conventional means such as television, radio, print, or hoardings may not get as much bang for the buck, given how crowded with advertisements they tend to be. Advertise where you are both the only one among your competitors present, and also where you are sure that your target audience will view your message. And if you can make it memorable and newsworthy, like Tesla did, nothing like it.
Lesson three. The little touches. You need to know what works with your target audience. In Tesla’s case, it wasn’t just the tribute to David Bowie, but also the Don’t Panic on the dashboard, a reference from every geek’s favourite, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy . It will not appeal to the cowboy rancher in Texas, but it surely will to whom Tesla wants to reach — the rich, young geek in the Bay Area. Similarly, pay attention to your startup’s messaging too. And throw in those tiny touches and in-jokes that you know your target audience will definitely get, and only them. It is how your startup can do the *nudge nudge wink wink* routine, which will go a long way in building the right rapport with your customers.
