Tesla's marketing team, established just 4 months ago, has been completely laid off
Tesla's marketing team has been downsized, with Musk announcing a 20% reduction in workforce. Tesla's stock price fell by another 3.4%. The scale of Tesla's layoffs exceeds the previously announced 10%. Tesla has always avoided using advertisements, but investors are calling on Musk to pay more attention to marketing. The layoffs at Tesla reflect a reassessment of advertising strategies. Tesla's stock has fallen by over 40% year-to-date, ranking second worst in the S&P 500 index
Elon Musk, who has only been in charge for 4 months, has "fired all" the traditional marketing team focused on making car ads.
On April 23, according to sources, the U.S.-based marketing team "Growth Content Team" that focused on creating car advertising for Tesla was completely laid off. The team, consisting of about 40 employees, led by senior manager Alex Ingram. Of course, both leaders Alex Ingram and Jorge Milburn, who was in charge of the global team, were also dismissed.
In addition, Tesla's design team in Hawthorne, California, and other employees have also become a "hard-hit area" for layoffs. Despite the large-scale layoffs in the U.S., Tesla has retained a small number of marketing personnel in Europe.
For a long time, Tesla has avoided using television, radio, print, or online advertising, instead building a strong brand image through word of mouth. With global electric vehicle sales growth slowing down and more competitors joining the market, investors are increasingly calling on Musk to pay more attention to marketing.
Until last year, Musk said, "Tesla will try to do some advertising and see how it works." Therefore, Ingram started building the growth team about four months ago.
However, it is reported that Musk was dissatisfied with the ads produced by the company's newly established content team. He mentioned in an X post that he thought the car ads made by the content team were too generic and did not highlight the uniqueness of Tesla cars. Therefore, after the ad content was criticized, Tesla decided to reduce its advertising team. This round of layoffs reflects Tesla's reassessment of the advertising strategy it only started trying last year.
Tesla announced a global layoff of over 10% last Monday, about 14,000 employees. According to media reports this Monday, Musk has pushed for a 20% layoff, meaning that over 20,000 jobs have been cut. Influenced by this news, Tesla's stock price fell more than 3% in overnight trading on Monday. So far this year, the company's stock has fallen by more than 40%, ranking second worst in the S&P 500 index.
