Ecoist Chooses Tilix
Ecoist is a Swedish electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer, founded by Thomas Koch in 2017. Thomas is an experienced automotive engineer and product designer. His vision is to create an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) which provides sustainable personal transportation for future generations.
Ecoist has chosen Tilix to help it transition from a successful prototyping phase into production through winning 20-50 pre-orders for the Tian: an electric three-wheeler for two, maximum speed 110km/h and 100km range.
“I chose Tilix because they bring world class excellence in innovation and marketing to Ecoist.” - Thomas Koch, Founder of Ecoist
Ecoist has a strong sense of community and an innate connection with nature. It is not driven by a moral imperative but by a deep realisation that personal mobility need not cost the earth.
Ecoist is a revolutionary organisation in the automotive industry. It wants customers who can let go of the pre-conceived ideas of what they think cars should be. It is a place where all stakeholders are on a journey of discovery to unfold unique individual and collective potential.
The firm’s capacity to trust staff, partners and other stakeholders is a competitive weapon. Setbacks and mistakes are not be met with fear, anger, or shame. Rather they are treated opportunities to learn about what sustainable mobility really means.
Challenges for Ecoist
The EV market as a whole is crossing the chasm from early adopters into mainstream. One of the biggest challenges in this market is a lack of choice in models. The tardiness of incumbent automakers presents a great opportunity for new players to enter the market.
Entrepreneurs know that creating a EV OEM business has much lower barriers to entry than for internal combustion engine. Therefore it is not surprising that there are many start-ups in this space.
The challenge for Ecoist is to move at speed with focus and intensity to seize the opportunity outlined above. This more a marketing problem than a technical one. It is an area where Thomas needs to learn quickly and seek help from many trusted partners.
The Tilix Solution
“Because its purpose is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two—and only these two—basic functions: marketing and innovation.” - Peter Drucker
Through the marketing solutions outlined below, Tilix will provide the perfect compliment to Thomas Koch’s skills, experience and expertise as an innovator.
It takes a village to raise a child and turning marketing strategy into action will require support from a wide range of stakeholders. These will include investors, advisors, supply chain and Ecoist’s core team.
Here Tilix will use its Collaboration Hub tools and techniques to bring these stakeholders together into a Marketing Advisory Panel. Through taking a systematic approach in process, organisation and technology Tilix will help Ecoist elicit the wisdom of their tribe, develop new ideas better and have success creating customers.
Organisation
To help Ecoist compete effectively, Tilix will apply Geoffrey Moore’s Zone to Win thinking. This will require fighting on multiple fronts.
Sustaining innovation will be concerned with extending and improving the job of resourcing and operating a fledgling business. Whereas disruptive innovation will be concerned with making Ecoist’s first customers and transitioning from prototyping to production.
Cutting across the two fronts of disruptive and sustaining innovation, Ecoist will separate its revenue generating activities from its enabling investments. As the following figure shows, these divisions result in four zones of management activity. Each area demands a different style of leadership to achieve success.
Process
Ecoist’s market strategy framework for Tian will address the following nine questions:
- Who is the target customer?
- What are the compelling reasons to buy?
- What is Ecoist’s whole offer for the Tian?
- Who are Ecoist’s partners and allies?
- What is the sales strategy?
- What is the pricing strategy?
- Who are the competition?
- How should Ecoist and Tian be positioned?
- What is the next target?
In leading the development of Ecoist’s marketing function, Tilix will apply the Manifesto for Slow Thinking in Projects. We will strive to put questions before answers and observations before evaluations.
Technology
The technology used internally and externally to support the formation of the market strategy and put it into action will be digital and cloud based.
Trello, Slack and MindMeister will be used by the Ecoist Marketing Advisory Panel to compliment the round table discussions which will take place at regular intervals.
Online platforms will be key for engaging with Ecoist’s audience and potential first customers. Current activity on Facebook and Mailchimp have been a good start. Adding Twitter, YouTube and Instagram to the social media mix is an obvious next step. Likewise, it is clear that a website which is a hub for all marketing channels needs to be established.
Conclusions
Tilix bring Ecoist a wide range of expertise and experience in the innovation and marketing of disruptive innovation in mobility. Ecoist will benefit greatly from buying this support so that it can borrow valuable experience and build the marketing function that is necessary for optimal growth.