How to hook your customers early

Tesla has many grownup fans around the world, and their cars are admittedly among the most popular EVs sold. And as any marketing guru would tell you, better get your customers hooked early: and that is exactly what Tesla is doing.

The famous manufacturer of cars and batteries has launched – wait for it – an electric quad bike for kids. Inspired by its cybertruck and designed for offspring age eight years and older, the toy has a range of 15 miles and a top speed of 10 mph. I must admit, it does look cool and if you have the necessary cash (the quad costs $1900), your children will love it. Unfortunately it is available in the USA only at the moment, and even there it was sold out well before Christmas. By the way, the cyberquad is not manufactured by Tesla but by Radio Flyer, an American toy company.

Early customer onboarding (the start to finish process that enables customers to find, evaluate and eventually purchase your products through a sales process) has been popular with car manufacturers for decades: Who doesn’t remember their first car, or the car they shared their first kiss in, or both, and many people stick to a make for many years afterwards. Marketing types call this sticky branding.

One of the biggest reasons that marketers included kids in their prior marketing efforts was the hope of building future customers. A kid might be a decade off from driving a car, but if they think a particular brand of vehicle is cool, they may plan to invest in that make later on. And that applies also to banking. Why do you think banks offer student accounts without any fees but loads of goodies and freebies thrown in? These are the lucrative customers of the future with investment plans and mortgages – and of course their own kids who are potential future customers.

Consumer goods companies are particularly crafty when it comes to marketing to children. Have you noticed the number of TV adverts featuring sugary breakfast cereals, soft drinks and juices as well as toys are being broadcast during your offspring’s favourite programmes? And online it’s not much better: A study published in 2018 found that from June 2015 to May 2016 in Canada over 54 million food ads appeared on children’s favourite websites, 90% of which were for processed foods. Furthermore, according to a Canadian government website, kids see on average 4 to 7 ads for food on TV every hour per station.

Tesla clearly targets its future customers at the earliest possible age: Radio Flyer also manufacture what they call ‘My First Model Y’ for age 1.5 to 4 years and a Model S for Kids for the age group 5 to 8. Then next up is the Quad…. By the time they pass their driving test, the offspring will be well and truly hooked!