Tire Talk And An Upcoming Event

[Lil4X]

It's the classic chicken or egg dilemma: If you need investors or buyers, you get them by drumming up excitement for your product. To do that, you have to demonstrate the product to your largest number of potential customers - that means you go where your largest market is. If you economize by staying home and attending a handful of local events, you'll never reach the breakthrough you need. You need to be able to determine your objectives, target your exhibit to your most likely buyers, and make an effective and MEMORABLE presentation that directly addresses the buyer's purchasing motivators.

 

[booboo]

Didn't they do a car show in Detroit not long ago?

Elio doesn't seem to get the message with only one posting, so here it is again!

This tour, which could be done in a week, will expose 20,000,000 potential buyers to their car. Come on people, why spend your money in Detroit? They either already know about the Elio or don't care...

https://www.elioowners.com/threads/state-fair-of-texas-2015.6425/

 

[Lil4X]

A Detroit show is like preaching to the choir - except the choir's broke and doesn't include a significant commuter market. The oldest truism in marketing is that you have to fish where the fish are. If you can't make regular shows in Texas, California, New York, and South Florida, you're ignoring probably 80% of your potential market. Be selective in your exhibits. Go where your potential buyers will be looking. Hit the big car shows, the ones the media cover. Hit the less obvious events with a smaller exhibit, for example industry shows that are exhibiting the latest technology. Even college engineering departments show here, demonstrating their high-mileage cars, alternative fuel vehicles, and styling exercises. Forget setting up in shopping malls and street-corner venues, you need to target your attendees to make the results worth the cost.

EM needs to schedule shows in America's largest commuter markets, with sufficient public advertising to attract potential customers to your exhibit. Let those folks get their hands on the product, allow them to experience the vehicle hands-on for themselves, and give them a solid delivery date, not one that keeps moving back. OK, if you sign this paper, you'll have an Elio in your driveway on April 1 of 2018 - or we'll refund your money. You can't keep teasing a release date for five years. The only way you are going to attract buyers is by building a product. OK, it won't be perfect, but it'll be a reliable product that won't kill it's owners. That's the bottom line for any vehicle.

It seems that EM is dumping a lot of cash into development articles and dozens of running changes while ignoring qualified and motivated prospects. OK, this is classic engineer behavior: perfecting the product while ignoring potential sales to already salivating buyers. At some point a decision has to be made to get into production - even if it's in a limited manner, and if everything isn't quite sorted yet. You just need to get into production, even if the tire size or the location of the gas cap isn't quite perfect yet. You need good, reliable products out there - even if only a few hundred - to get products before the public and into the auto mags and websites to attract attention - and better yet, get examples on the STREET. Right now it's more critical to get the first production units moving than to decide on options. Those early production units, out on the streets will be by far your best salesmen. Otherwise you're only rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

There's an old story of the fine craftsman who created the intricately decorated bronze doors for the grand cathedrals of Europe. His creative talent was glorious and his workmanship, superb, endlessly adding detail and polishing his work. When asked by a curious passer-by how he knew when his work was perfect, he responded, "It's NEVER perfect, finally someone just comes and takes it away."

/rant

 

[Maurtis]

This makes complete sense but the issue now is they do not have the money to go into production. They stated at the pop-up that everyone was working on getting funding. They even laid off the tour team. So until they do get funding, the best we can hope for are more blogs giving us new information on engineering details that we had not heard before. For all we know, they laid off the engineers too. We know at least some of the info we are getting are about changes made late last year (exhaust bulge removal, fuel filler side change).

So it is not the case that they are avoiding touring or production because they are busy tweaking the vehicle, they do not have the money to tour or go into production. I do hope they find that right funding partner, the Elio has so much great potential.

 

[Grumpy Cat]

This makes complete sense but the issue now is they do not have the money to go into production. They stated at the pop-up that everyone was working on getting funding. They even laid off the tour team. So until they do get funding, the best we can hope for are more blogs giving us new information on engineering details that we had not heard before. For all we know, they laid off the engineers too. We know at least some of the info we are getting are about changes made late last year (exhaust bulge removal, fuel filler side change).

So it is not the case that they are avoiding touring or production because they are busy tweaking the vehicle, they do not have the money to tour or go into production. I do hope they find that right funding partner, the Elio has so much great potential.

And you know this for a fact how? Or are you just making things up?

 

[Samalross]

I can't believe that the tour team costs them money. You could get a crew for the price of a senior executive, and they would know enough to make sure the vehicle starts and is clean.

 

[RUCRAYZE]

It's the classic chicken or egg dilemma: If you need investors or buyers, you get them by drumming up excitement for your product. To do that, you have to demonstrate the product to your largest number of potential customers - that means you go where your largest market is. If you economize by staying home and attending a handful of local events, you'll never reach the breakthrough you need. You need to be able to determine your objectives, target your exhibit to your most likely buyers, and make an effective and MEMORABLE presentation that directly addresses the buyer's purchasing motivators.

My pop used to say:
"A million dollar idea with 10 cents worth of advertising gets you ten cents
A 10 cent idea with a million in advertising gets you a million"

 

[Lil4X]

Underfunding is the greatest danger to new products. Because engineers are often the ones who develop innovative products, while they may do a n amazing job of development and preparation for manufacture, they seldom consider the financial requirements for promoting and selling it - before the first article can be sold. Without a marketing plan and the deep pockets required to execute it, many fine new products have withered and died in development.

Now EM has a splendid breakthrough product that could change the way America commutes, a serious, purpose-built "and" car within weeks of pilot production, but without a major infusion of cash, it could all be for naught. We need to do whatever we can to help push EM over the finish line.

 

[LillyMayPatterson #1685 & #5648]

No, Maurtis is completely correct. The touring had to be suspended, money is tight. Proof is the last filing we seen. They have been frugal but now it's crunch time. All hands on deck are working on funding.

 

[Rickb]

My pop used to say:
"A million dollar idea with 10 cents worth of advertising gets you ten cents
A 10 cent idea with a million in advertising gets you a million"

EM's business is selling an idea that has generated Millions of dollars from cheap social media advertising going on close to a decade. They didn't have cheap 10 cent social media advertising back in our Pop's days.

Sondor's generating a million dollars of funding in a few short weeks is another prime example of selling an idea of a $10K three wheeler EV. He had no advertising cost only social media. People get sucked in by social media rather easily these days.