Elon Musk is one of the most controversial business and technology gurus today. As the founder and CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, PayPal, The Boring Company, OpenAI, and Neuralink he has extensive experience and success in his endeavors. In 2020, Tesla grew in revenue by $31.5 billion and is now one of the top-earning brands in the world alongside Apple, Netflix, and Google. As intelligent as Musk is, he is also very unpredictable, which is in essence his brand. Musk is not one to sit back and keep his opinion to himself. He has gotten in some hot water with his Tweets, public statements, and his practices. Continue reading for the full brand analysis of Elon Musk.
Personal Brand
At times, Elon Musk’s personal brand can even overshadow Tesla and SpaceX because he is the face of those companies. Building a brand around a person can be risky. For example, a few years back Nike made Colin Kaepernick the face of their brand and as he became a focus in headlines, so did Nike despite whether the publicity was positive or negative. When Musk makes a statement about something, it can reflect on his companies but since he is such an integral part of them, they have yet to fail from that and tend to have minor setbacks instead. However, Musk is not the first founder to become the face of a fast-moving technology brand. Steve Jobs at Apple or Bill Gates at Microsoft both were in similar positions although each has a very different personality.
Cryptocurrency Hype
Recently, Elon Musk made an appearance on Saturday Night Live where he made negative comments about Dogecoin, a new cryptocurrency. After making that comment, Dogecoin fell roughly 30% the following day. So not only does Elon Musk’s personal brand have influence over his own companies, but he has a powerful hold on cryptocurrency. Days after the SNL appearance, Tesla replied that they were dropping all of their Bitcoin holdings by Q3 2021. Hours after Musk Tweeted that, Bitcoin had fallen by over $43,000. They had announced weeks prior that they were reversing their statement that Tesla would accept Bitcoins as a form of payment citing a high environmental cost that Bitcoin creates.
Tesla Stock Plummets
Not only is Bitcoin a volatile form of currency but it would not be one brand for an electric car company to utilize something that would not be environmentally friendly. With all of this controversy, Tesla stock took a hit as well dropping over 15% in the course of the week. Elon Musk cut his net worth by $20.5 billion because of that recent decrease in Tesla stock proving that Musk faces direct consequences of his actions.
Elon Musk has brilliant ideas and creations that he chooses to invest in even if others don’t understand. He has chosen a path of high risk and high reward, and in his case, it has been a high reward even after a few setbacks.
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CEO | Brand Champion
Michael Doyle has been changing the face of Brand Marketing for over two decades. He built a tech-based advertising agency, DNA Advertising, into a multi-million dollar company. Michael sold the company as part of a national IPO in 2000. Michael founded Brand Iron in 2002 and has since lent his expertise to hundreds of other businesses in dozens of industries around the world.
