What's new
By:

Will marketing finally make a turn? Ex Hyundai executive hired by Napoli

G

gaskiller

Active Member

Joined
Nov 16, 2023
Messages
1,444
Reaction score
1,398
Angela Zepeda hired from Musk”s X

Major Accolades: Named one of the "World's Most Influential CMOs" by Forbes and received the Adweek Marketing Vanguard Award.

Commercial Hits: She spearheaded massive campaigns, including the viral, award-winning "Smaht Pahk" Super Bowl commercial.

Business Growth: Under her leadership, she successfully shifted Hyundai’s brand perception away from a budget brand toward a tech-forward, consumer-centric innovator.
 
That's good and fine but you have to have something to mass market first. The Air and Gravity aren't exactly mass market vehicles at these luxury price points. And their production capacity, sales capacity, and especially service capacity are still pretty small.

And the more affordable Cosmos probably won't exist in mass market numbers until at least 2028.
 
dbsb3233 said:
That's good and fine but you have to have something to mass market first. The Air and Gravity aren't exactly mass market vehicles at these luxury price points. And their production capacity, sales capacity, and especially service capacity are still pretty small.

And the more affordable Cosmos probably won't exist in mass market numbers until at least 2028.
Click to expand...
In the meantime, you market what you have. There is a market for luxury vehicles. It can start with brand awareness. I live in an upscale, progressive neighborhood and half the people in my neighborhood have never heard of Lucid. Demographically, they would be the market. But they don’t even know this brand exists.
 
dbsb3233 said:
That's good and fine but you have to have something to mass market first. The Air and Gravity aren't exactly mass market vehicles at these luxury price points. And their production capacity, sales capacity, and especially service capacity are still pretty small.

And the more affordable Cosmos probably won't exist in mass market numbers until at least 2028.
Click to expand...
Perfect time to hire her then for Cosmos. A marketing campaign for a new product isn’t done in a week.
 
mwscan said:
In the meantime, you market what you have. There is a market for luxury vehicles. It can start with brand awareness. I live in an upscale, progressive neighborhood and half the people in my neighborhood have never heard of Lucid. Demographically, they would be the market. But they don’t even know this brand exists.
Click to expand...
Yes, but there's a big gap between mass marketing and targeted marketing for a relatively small market. The big Super Bowl ad she spearheaded, for instance, would be overkill for Lucid. I'm sure she's capable of other types of marketing, of course, but Lucid needs way more volume and the service infrastructure to support it before it can become a household name, IMO. And we've already seen how disastrous it is to set expectations and try and push a bunch of vehicles out without sufficient dependability and service capacity.

HC_79 said:
Perfect time to hire her then for Cosmos. A marketing campaign for a new product isn’t done in a week.
Click to expand...
Perhaps, but I guess I don't have a lot of faith in Cosmos being ready for prime time anytime soon. I've been expecting significant delays (based on Gravity), and now we have the first one (a big one at that). Maybe it takes a year and half to develop a campaign though. In the meantime she can start slow for Air and Gravity, I suppose.
 
dbsb3233 said:
Yes, but there's a big gap between mass marketing and targeted marketing for a relatively small market.
Click to expand...
As I said, until the Cosmos comes out, what they have is the Air and Gravity. Luxury products to be sure. But they are products. And they are available. She should be able to do targeted marketing while preparing to do mass marketing for the Cosmos. Rising sales stats make good headlines, but you have to get the sales stats to rise. And regardless, it would be good to have some brand recognition better established than it is now. so that when the Cosmos comes out, people will take notice. Projects like this don’t take hold overnight. So, good to get them started now.
 
mwscan said:
As I said, until the Cosmos comes out, what they have is the Air and Gravity. Luxury products to be sure. But they are products. And they are available. She should be able to do targeted marketing while preparing to do mass marketing for the Cosmos. Rising sales stats make good headlines, but you have to get the sales stats to rise. And regardless, it would be good to have some brand recognition better established than it is now. so that when the Cosmos comes out, people will take notice. Projects like this don’t take hold overnight. So, good to get them started now.
Click to expand...
They probably could use an "Our software has gotten a lot better than the mess it was 9 months ago!" campaign. That's usually the first question I get asked when posting about Lucid on social media, and the current reputation they've gotten from the Gravity launch that's still dragging them down.

The 2nd question is often "Is service still really limited?". Still got a lot of work to do before that can have a satisfying reply. If anything, more vehicles sold seems to be making that worse, not better. Lucid isn't so much a nationwide brand as it is a "be in range of a service center in a handful of cities" brand.

I know they're in a Catch-22. Gotta sell more vehicles to generate revenue to pay for more service centers (and increase dependability in the first place so service isn't needed as much). But pushing lots of vehicles out without good dependability and available service just damages the brand, like Gravity launch did. I just don't want to see them get ahead of themselves again. It really comes down to dramatically improving dependability and service availability first. Fingers crossed they can do that otherwise it'll continue to seriously limit their reach. Better that people never have heard of Lucid yet than to hear bad things.
 
dbsb3233 said:
Yes, but there's a big gap between mass marketing and targeted marketing for a relatively small market. The big Super Bowl ad she spearheaded, for instance, would be overkill for Lucid. I'm sure she's capable of other types of marketing, of course, but Lucid needs way more volume and the service infrastructure to support it before it can become a household name, IMO. And we've already seen how disastrous it is to set expectations and try and push a bunch of vehicles out without sufficient dependability and service capacity.


Perhaps, but I guess I don't have a lot of faith in Cosmos being ready for prime time anytime soon. I've been expecting significant delays (based on Gravity), and now we have the first one (a big one at that). Maybe it takes a year and half to develop a campaign though. In the meantime she can start slow for Air and Gravity, I suppose.
Click to expand...
Don't know Zepeda. Glad Lucid is hiring someone who knows the business.

That said, I think marketing Cosmos under Lucid is a Herculean task! Unlike Air and Gravity which are aimed at consumers who (most of the) are willing to spend 6-figures on the vehicle and own multiple luxury cars and can afford to have their vehicle sit at the dealer for weeks/months for services, the typical Cosmos buyer/family are probably more dependent on their cars (work, school, etc.). The value-proposition is not just that Cosmos is a more affordable, well-appointed mid-size with great pedigree.

Lucid is many country-miles behind competition (e.g., Hyundai/Tesla. even Rivian) in service locations, quick resolution of owner's issues, robustness of its products, etc. to serve the mid-size market. The pertinent question is not whether Zepeda can put together a good market message. The real test is whether Lucid, the whole company, can rise to the occcasion. (reliabiliyty, quality, service, SW, customer interface, etc.).

I hope Napoli can drive the team toget there. It remains to be seen!
 
Of course they are behind Hyundai and Tesla, they will be for the next decade. But hopefully they can catch up to Rivian, which is not that big a task. They just need the own the narrative instead of letting hit articles take all the headlines, and the past C-suite made that easy by releasing both Air and Gravity with crappy software. The market cap reflects that- 2 billion vs 20 billion.

Lucid = 40 Rivian = 100, Tesla = 210 , in US
 
We need solid software before marketing will have any significant impact on sales.
 
dbsb3233 said:
They probably could use an "Our software has gotten a lot better than the mess it was 9 months ago!" campaign. That's usually the first question I get asked when posting about Lucid on social media, and the current reputation they've gotten from the Gravity launch that's still dragging them down.

The 2nd question is often "Is service still really limited?". Still got a lot of work to do before that can have a satisfying reply. If anything, more vehicles sold seems to be making that worse, not better. Lucid isn't so much a nationwide brand as it is a "be in range of a service center in a handful of cities" brand.

I know they're in a Catch-22. Gotta sell more vehicles to generate revenue to pay for more service centers (and increase dependability in the first place so service isn't needed as much). But pushing lots of vehicles out without good dependability and available service just damages the brand, like Gravity launch did. I just don't want to see them get ahead of themselves again. It really comes down to dramatically improving dependability and service availability first. Fingers crossed they can do that otherwise it'll continue to seriously limit their reach. Better that people never have heard of Lucid yet than to hear bad things.
Click to expand...
I agree, it is a catch 22. For the exact reasons you said. In a much earlier thread I made the comment that it would be good to see them roll out a software update that’s relatively meaningful, meaning a few new features, and have it go as close to perfectly as possible, recognizing nothing’s completely perfect. And then promote. At the same time, do anything possible to increase the efficiency of existing service centers, while building new capacity. For the reasons you and I have said, this could and should be done gradually. But unless it’s started, it doesn’t happen, gradually or not.
 
gaskiller said:
Of course they are behind Hyundai and Tesla, they will be for the next decade. But hopefully they can catch up to Rivian, which is not that big a task. They just need the own the narrative instead of letting hit articles take all the headlines, and the past C-suite made that easy by releasing both Air and Gravity with crappy software. The market cap reflects that- 2 billion vs 20 billion.

Lucid = 40 Rivian = 100, Tesla = 210 , in US
Click to expand...
Rivian's revenue is ~5X that of Lucid's. Aside from cars, Rivian develops and sells SW, partnership with VW, sells delivery vans to Amazon, etc..

I have a 2022 AGT and a 2023 R1S. Thus far, my Rivian have had zero service needs. SW works great! Never had a problem with SW. I have both cars in my garage in AZ. When I walk into my garage, the Rivian ALWAYS responds and unlocks. The Lucid doesn't. Recently, someone hit the front right fender of my Rivian while parked at a shopping center. Rivian has more than 4 body shop I could take my car in to be serviced. The body shop quoted 2+ weeks. But it was done in less than a week. Getting parts from Rivian wasn't a problem. In contrast, Lucid has one body shop location in all of metro Phoenix. I have no idea how long it takes to get parts to fix a Lucid.

Lucid needs the mid-size to survive. My opinion is that it is not enough that the Cosmos is as good as or even beats the competition. The entire eco-system has to be there to serve the mid-size market. I don't think Lucid can catch up with Rivian in the next decade!
 
BS8899 said:
The entire eco-system has to be there to serve the mid-size market. I
Click to expand...
Agreed

BS8899 said:
I don't think Lucid can catch up with Rivian in the next decade!
Click to expand...
They can, it just won't be easy or cheap. The question is whether the folks with the purse strings and new leadership recognize that and are actually willing to do what it takes.
 
doubletwist said:
Agreed


They can, it just won't be easy or cheap. The question is whether the folks with the purse strings and new leadership recognize that and are actually willing to do what it takes.
Click to expand...
Lucid needs to relook at their business model and see how they can scale their "virtual" service network. I don't think Lucid has the lead-time, manpower, or management bandwidth to scale their operations in time to benefit Cosmos. Failing that, it is game over!

I am not a car-guy, so I don't pretend to know the path to get there. But others have figure some of this out. Examples:

> Rivian does not do tire-change/tire-rotation. They send you directly to Discount tires.
> what about wheel alignment? Discount tire does that too!
> Windshield wipers?
> upholstery maintainance?
> windshield?
> 12V battery service
> etc.

The Lucid service centers should just focus on the powertrain, info system, SW, HV Battery/Wunder box, cameras etc.

Doing the "low-tech" stuff might make them more money per service appointment. But Lucid must instead focus on the high-tech, high value-add item.

Rivian does a good job in parsing these service items. Their network with the tire shops, body shops, glass shops allow them to focus on the stuff only Rivian can do.
 
In many ways it’s already ahead of Rivian- better efficiency, longer range, better performance, more space, better handling, 900v architecture vs Rivian still 400v…..software almost fixed, easy to build service centers. The hard part is already done.

Rest of the pieces for Lucid just needs money……..Rivian maybe ahead on paper, but EV tech is already far behind Lucid.
 
Yea
BS8899 said:
Lucid needs to relook at their business model and see how they can scale their "virtual" service network. I don't think Lucid has the lead-time, manpower, or management bandwidth to scale their operations in time to benefit Cosmos. Failing that, it is game over!

I am not a car-guy, so I don't pretend to know the path to get there. But others have figure some of this out. Examples:

> Rivian does not do tire-change/tire-rotation. They send you directly to Discount tires.
> what about wheel alignment? Discount tire does that too!
> Windshield wipers?
> upholstery maintainance?
> windshield?
> 12V battery service
> etc.

The Lucid service centers should just focus on the powertrain, info system, SW, HV Battery/Wunder box, cameras etc.

Doing the "low-tech" stuff might make them more money per service appointment. But Lucid must instead focus on the high-tech, high value-add item.

Rivian does a good job in parsing these service items. Their network with the tire shops, body shops, glass shops allow them to focus on the stuff only Rivian can do.
Click to expand...
Agree, but these are EASY fixes……
 
gaskiller said:
Yea

Agree, but these are EASY fixes……
Click to expand...
If, indeed, they are essay fixes, just do it!

Lucid's issue is not its vision, like you, Iwas drawn toit.

But visions need "hard core" EXECUTION, that's where Lucid has fallen short.

Yes, let's give Napoli and his crew a chance.....but the clock is running!
 
I mean, at the end of the day, do you believe Napoli can execute as well as RJ or Elon? I'm sorry, I just don't see it, and I hope I'm wrong. More competition is always better for the consumers.

Lucid sends a team of 5 to areas for consumers to test-drive their vehicle; however, their reps really don't know much about their own car they're showing. I just went to a similar R2 event; the rep there does know everything about the R2. It blows my mind how Lucid is run, but with the new CEO, I certainly hope it's gotten better. I've never seen a company so wasteful in my life until Lucid. From car presentations to car services with weeks of rentals.
 
LVAGT said:
I mean, at the end of the day, do you believe Napoli can execute as well as RJ or Elon?
Click to expand...
Notably both of these individuals are founder CEO’s with a tight grip on the vision and leadership of their companies. The visionary behind Lucid is long gone. And I suspect, based on a career of leadership roles in Fortune 100 organizations, that the Board and company leadership haven’t been aligned in some time. Cycling through CEO’s creates a leadership vacuum. And when that happens the consequences permeate the organization. Hopefully Silvio Napoli succeeds where others have failed. Because having a class leading product is meaningless when an organization is rudderless.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top