There is little doubt we are living in tumultuous times. Everything from the weather to the Superbowl halftime show have become heavily politicized.
The current economic and political climate has left the public deeply polarized and increasingly agitated. Sharing personal opinions and perspectives, or affiliating with a single group, can create strong reactions, ranging from quiet boycotting to overt backlash.
Following the unpredictable behaviour and questionable political involvement of company CEO Elon Musk, there have been many substantiated reports of Tesla vehicles, dealerships and Superchargers being vandalized all over North America.
Elevate, Vancouver’s International Auto Show, made the heavily-publicized decision to remove Tesla leading up to the opening of the exhibition for fear of picketing, and violence between protesters and show attendees.
Data released from Autotrader.ca identified that used Tesla models are flooding the market, with year-over year inventory increasing by 12.5 percent. List prices are 21.9 percent lower than the same time last year — far under than that of the national average for BEVs.
Employees and customers may not openly disagree with your views, but it doesn’t mean they agree with you either, or want to listen to your opinions on matters unrelated to buying or servicing a vehicle.
Musk’s affiliation with a single political party has evidently turned off the left-leaning public who previously purchased his vehicles for environmental reasons.
Jaguar is another automotive brand that recently took an interesting turn with how it chose to position itself. The new marketing campaign they launched late last year has resulted in a great divide among the few who seemingly applaud the bold stance and the rest who question if the company’s marketing team has any clue what it’s doing.
The creative decisions taken in the “Break Moulds, Copy Nothing” campaign drew a great deal of vitriol and backlash from consumers and media alike. The New York Post described it as: “The latest example of idiotic and woke corporate virtue signalling.”
In one fell swoop, the brand virtually alienated anyone who has ever purchased one of its vehicles over the company’s 103-year history. If its ambition was to get people talking about the brand, it achieved that goal in spades. Jaguar is a car company, however, and selling cars didn’t seem to play into the strategy, nor the advertisements themselves.
By politicizing their entire brand, they have thrown 103 years of heritage equity in the trash and effectively made purchasing their vehicles a bold and symbolic act of “Us versus Them.”
Finding an audience willing to spend well into the six figures on an EV coupe will be enough of a challenge. Regardless of where luxury EV buyers fall on the political or cultural spectrum, they likely don’t want to spend the entirety of their vehicle ownership experience defending their purchase and living in fear of violence and vandalism.
What does this mean for dealers? What may seem a simple act of posting or sharing messages about your personal political allegiance on your social media channels or placing election signs on the lawn of your dealership could do significant damage to your business. Political opinions are like bellybuttons — everyone has one and your customers probably aren’t all that interested in seeing yours.
It may be a personal struggle to remain neutral on important hot button issues that you feel particularly passionate about, but the alternative is the likelihood of alienating those around you. Employees and customers may not openly disagree with your views, but it doesn’t mean they agree with you either, or want to listen to your opinions on matters unrelated to buying or servicing a vehicle. They will simply take their skills or business elsewhere.
This isn’t an endorsement of a middle of the road automotive design ethos or not taking a stand for what you believe in, simply encouragement to retain separation between your views and your business when it comes to polarizing topics. The chances of changing someone’s mind to share your viewpoint is minimal. There is a far greater possibility of aggravating employees, alienating customers and scaring away investors.
Remember, people are visiting your business to enlist your service and expertise, not to get advice on who to vote for or how to live. Focus on the business at hand and keep politics out of it.
