Okonkwo Samuel
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, launched a new perfume called Burnt Hair yesterday, with a price tag of around $100, or 74 thousand naira per bottle on Wednesday.
Something remarkable happened afterwards. Within hours of its launch, 10,000 bottles of the perfume were sold, which earned Musk over $ 1 million in revenue.
Furthermore, the new business received free publicity after Musk announced the new perfume business on his Twitter page.
International media organizations like Bloomberg and Reuters picked the story up and gave Musk free PR on their platform
According to Musk, the perfume can be purchased from The Boring Company website and you can pay via Dogecoin.
Elon Musk, for all his eccentricity, is a big influencer per se.
Musk has 108 million followers on Twitter.
He is so influential that media organizations assign a staff member with the job role of following Elon Musk’s tweets.
The staff’s job description is to wake up, take their bath and then stalk Elon Musk’s tweets.
No business executive in the world comes close to Elon Musk’s social media capital and reach And, as a result of his social media reach and influence, Tesla, of which he is the largest major shareholder, spends 0 dollars on advertising and marketing.
Elon Musk is their chief marketing officer on Twitter, as everything he tweets about Tesla goes viral & gets free media coverage.
For proper context, Telsa’s direct competitors, Ford, GM, NIO & Volkswagen, all spend millions of dollars targeting consumers for their electric vehicle products
Rivian, a new entrant in the EV market, spent over $7m to advertise in the Super Bowl, while Telsa spends none, year in & year out.
Here is the interesting part, even though Telsa does not spend any kobo on marketing & advertising, Telsa cannot meet demand as the demand for its Electric vehicle products outweighs supply.
So let’s say I want to buy 2022 Tesla Model S Long Range. I will join the queue of buyers awaiting before me and it takes like 8 months to get to my turn.
The Elon Musk effect
Elon Musk’s super presence and influence on Twitter is why I believe that younger entrepreneurs should strive to build their social media capital before building up their business.
A new business/brand owned/launched by a credible social media influencer can penetrate the market faster as this person has built his/her brand as a credible influencer & that credibility built over the years influences, & permeate any product that the influencer builds or launches into the market.
An example of this theory is Obi Cubana.
Once Obi solidified his brand as a lifestyle influencer from the fame he got from his mother’s burial. There was no looking back.
Odogwu bitters was a commercial success because of OBi’s social media influence.
Not that consumers care so much about the taste of the drink, but because it belongs to Obi Cubana, who is an influencer, they can relate to his story.
Daily News Reporters
