Tesla has laid off its entire marketing team in the US, a move that has resulted in around 40 employees losing their jobs, as the company’s layoffs continue into a second week.
Historically, Tesla has built its brand identity through non-traditional marketing tactics. The company’s reliance on word-of-mouth promotion and strategic product placements has been a hallmark of its brand development strategy, steering clear of traditional advertising methods, something which CEO Elon Musk repeatedly said he felt was unnecessary.
However, in a recent departure from this approach, Tesla decided to embrace traditional advertising. The change in stance happened after being asked about advertising during last year’s Annual Shareholder meeting, where Musk said he would agree to “try a little advertising and see how it goes.”
Apparently it didn’t go well enough for Musk, who confirmed the team had been laid off following a report from Bloomberg. Musk critiqued the content created by the marketing team as being “too generic.”
Exactly. The ads were far too generic – could’ve been any car.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 22, 2024
While the team is relatively new, having only been formed late last year, it included some long tenured employees, some who had been with the company for nearly a decade. Tesla does still have a small marketing team in Europe.
Tesla content crew 🦾 pic.twitter.com/0J0E9oTYZa
— Alex Ingram (@Alex_M_Ingram) December 2, 2023
The disbanding of the US media team comes one week after Musk announced layoffs at the company, which he said would impact more than 10% of Tesla’s global workforce. The layoffs are part of a larger effort to streamline operations in order to prepare the company for its next phase of growth, according to Musk.
The layoffs have impacted virtually every department within Tesla, including at the company’s Design Centre in Hawthorne.
Although not part of the layoffs, executive Drew Baglino announced he was leaving the company on the same day, following more than 18 years at Tesla. Additionally, Canada’s favourite executive, Rohan Patel, Vice President, Public Policy and Business Development, also announced his departure last week.
