Surprised to hear you say this Dave. Despite Musk being all over the map, Tesla's issue is not advertising nor message. Tesla still has more orders than they know what to do with.
In a nutshell, one can illustrate the current dysfunction at Tesla as follows:
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This means (as we would expect in 2018):
1. Wi-Fi is easy.
2. No one implemented it
3. The CEO isn't even aware it doesn't work
Point #3 could be said of almost any CEO. Most are utterly clueless on day-to-day operations or technological details. However, the fact it never got implemented points to a deeper dysfunction and paralysis at the management level. And that's the real issue.
One could also refer to Musk's recent and sudden surprise at the number of contractors and/or Vice Presidents. Why is he just realizing this now?
In short, it could not be more clear that Tesla needs a COO.
Actually we might be closer in thought that you realize. I never said Tesla had an "advertising" problem per se. Actually, I think they have many problems, some major and some minor. One of their major problems is communication. So much power in Tesla is in the hands of Elon, and that's a good and bad thing. When people have to wait 6 months for certain parts and can't get an answer from anyone at Tesla, this is symptomatic of actually many problems... communication with customers, internal communication within Tesla, etc. But also it's a problem that customers can't get through to the right person that can make a difference... because often that person is Elon and it's really hard to get through to him. Back in the day, he actually had a personal email and would read them, and would either respond or take action. Now, he has so many levels between him and customers... I don't see how he can see what's going on. Sure, he responds to random tweets... but this is a very inefficient and random way to handle customer complaints and issues.
Sometimes it seems like things have to blow up to get Elon's attention. Like the Consumer Reports article about Model 3 braking. Otherwise, I don't know how Elon would find out.
All that said, Tesla really needs someone to keep track with what's going on. They really need someone to be in dialogue with lots of customers, and that person needs to have the authority to make things happen. Elon is falling increasingly behind in his ability to do this role. Sometimes in the past the head of sales (Jerome Guillen or Jon McNeil) would step in and deal with customer issues and communicate with them... but this seems to become even rarer now.
There's lots of chaos and inefficiency at Tesla. And while I understand Elon's reasons for this (to keep things nimble and fast-moving, etc), I think there are certain things that need to be addressed.
I'll say it again. Tesla needs to take control of their narrative. And don't misunderstand me, I'm not taking about advertising. I'm taking about, first and foremost, they need to be addressing customer issues and complaints better. Management is becoming increasingly aloof from the on-the-ground realities of customer ownership.
With Apple, they consider "marketing" as a very broad concept for interacting with customers and non-customers, and bridging the gap between Apple and them. Apple does a ton of stuff behind the scenes to deal with developers and customers and work out issues. Sure, there's always going to be complaints and crises, but Apple tends to quickly address them with high level management stepping in. Apple's faced a lot of crises in the past years, but we don't really remember much of them because they've taken quick action to control the narrative. For example, the iPhone X shipped late and ramped late. Apple took control of the narrative. Apple was slowing down older phones and was found out. They took control of the narrative (explained why and offered free battery replacements). The iPhone 6 Plus was prone to bending... Apple took quick control of the narrative. Actually there are dozens of crises like this just in the past 10 years that I can recount. And Apple was proactive in almost every case. Apple just won't let others steal their narrative. At all costs, they know they need to control the message about themselves. And they have dozens and dozens of ways to do so in a very advanced manner.
Compare this to Tesla and it seems like Tesla's main communication method is an erratic twitter account from Elon, that tweets sometimes some interesting things but sometimes some very strange stuff.
I do think Tesla needs a great COO. And I do think they need a great SVP of marketing & customer communication (with the authority to implement company-wide changes on a very high level). Both of these people ought to work together. The COO should have the company operating smoothly and efficiently. And the SVP of marketing & customer communication should be talking to customers all day and making them happy, and from those lessons implementing changes across the company... as well as communicating to the outside world as well, establishing the Tesla narrative.
Point is, if you don't take control of your own narrative, someone else will.
And that's been happening during a particular vulnerable time with the Model 3 production ramp fiasco. Yes, I know call it a fiasco. Not so much because of the delays, but more so because how it's been communicated to reservation holders. Tesla has done a terrible job explaining and communicating. Much like how they did a terrible job communicating with Model X reservation holders during the Model X production ramp fiasco, and I complained a lot back them saying if they didn't fix things then they could face the same issue with Model 3 reservation holders. Lots of lost potential fans and customers. Lots of lost credibility as well.
Most here on TMC will say Tesla will be fine, and I'm not one to argue against that per se. I'm heavily invested in Tesla because I think they will be fine.
However, there's also another side of things... some things that seem so strong and sturdy, might not be so. Tesla might be really strong, but then they also might be more fragile than some here are assuming. It's the right thing to do for Tesla to do the right thing here and for them to step up their game with communicating with customers and the outside world.