Apple-Store DNA Without Apple-Store Obsession

“As Blankenship began working closely with Musk, he found some similarities to Steve Jobs, but also key differences. Jobs had likewise been super focused on many aspects of the business. With Jobs, he had spent their hours-long meetings delving into such details as the wood grains to be used for the legs of the tables that the stores would need to showcase their products, or else weighing the position of the holes that would be cut into those tables to accommodate cords—even discussing the size and shape of those holes. While Musk could be super focused on engineering issues or car design, he had less interest in other parts of the business, such as how the stores should look. He wanted it to be like Apple—he wasn’t up to picking wood grains. With Jobs, Blankenship had gone through several iterations of the store design in a physical warehouse; for Musk, all that was needed were some renderings. “Is that what it should look like?” Musk would ask Blankenship, sincerely. Blankenship explained there would be graphics on the walls and places for storage for apparel and brochures. It would be reasonably inexpensive to build—an open layout with the car at the center of attention. “OK,” Musk said, and left it at that.”

“Blankenship glanced online at the handful of stores Tesla had already established—many were either former car showrooms or designed like them. A customer had to drive to get to one. He thought that would be fatal for Tesla. Car customers tend to be loyal; a majority of new vehicle buyers in 2010 returned to the brand that they bought the last time. Some brands had even better return rates, such as Ford Motor Co., which saw a 63 percent loyalty rate. Tesla needed not just to convince people of their brand, but to persuade them to leave their old one. It didn’t help their cause that Tesla was asking buyers to take a chance on a new, unfamiliar technology.”