In the lead-up to the release of Tesla's third-quarter earnings results, several prominent investors, upset over ongoing price cuts, urged the company to make more serious efforts on the advertising front.
Gary Black, managing partner at The Future Fund, said that the price cuts won't do any good if the majority of potential customers remain unaware of the real savings and positive experience around owning a Tesla.
"I’m not asking that Tesla spend (money) on advertising that it could spend on product quality, engineers or battery technology," Black said. "I’m asking that Tesla take 5-10% of the billions it will spend to cut price and try advertising to educate non-EV users why they should buy an EV."
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Though Tesla (TSLA) -) CEO Elon Musk has made clear his disdain for advertising in the past, he noted in May that the company would "try a little advertising and see how it goes.” But in the months since that statement, the price cuts have continued and the advertising push remains tentative.
On the heels of an earnings report that saw Tesla shares plummet over missed earnings expectations and consistently falling gross margins, Musk maintained a somber tone through the conference call, saying that Tesla's main goal at the moment is to make its vehicles affordable in the midst of the current inflationary environment.
"I don't want to be going top-speed into uncertainty," Musk said. "I'm not saying things will be bad. I'm saying they might be."
Musk went on to address Tesla's advertising situation, noting Tesla is advertising and that "there is something to be gained" from the approach.
But his overall stance on advertising remains directly inverse to Black's position. Advertising, Musk claimed, won't do any good if the car remains unaffordable.
"Informing people of a car is great. But they cannot afford ... (it) doesn't really help," Musk said. "That is really the thing that must be solved is to make the car affordable for the average person."
In response to the call, Black said that Musk is "overplaying the macro card."
"I still think relying on price cuts rather than advertising is a mistake when the average person is clueless about how easy Teslas are to charge and how inexpensive they’ve become, but I’m excited Tesla is starting to advertise," Black said, adding that Cybertruck deliveries should provide a boon to the stock.
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Black maintained his price target of $300 even as the shares fell to $211.99 on Friday, down 15.6% on the week and 29% since its July 19 peak.
The price cuts pushed Tesla's gross margin down to 17.9% for the quarter, down from the 25.1% margins the company reported in the year-ago period. These steadily falling gross margins, according to Deepwater Management's Gene Munster, will allow investors to tell whether Tesla is the tech company that was promised, or indeed just a car company all along.
As price cuts continue, the margins will continue to fall. The lower they fall, the more in line with a traditional car company Tesla becomes.
"I'm surprised that the stock is not down more," Munster said in response to the report.
Tesla's stock plunged more than 9% the day after Tesla posted its results.
