POV
When Brands Forget Who They’re Talking To
By: Chris Carter
When Brands Forget Who They’re Talking To
We all know the golden rule of marketing and fundraising: know your audience. It’s Marketing 101. But as recent high-profile meltdowns show, forgetting this basic principle can have devastating consequences, even for the biggest brands in the world.
As a fundraising and marketing strategist, I’ve seen firsthand what happens when organizations build campaigns around internal assumptions rather than actual audience insight. But it’s something else entirely to watch billion-dollar companies, armed with armies of analysts and seemingly limitless budgets, make the same rookie mistake.
Two recent examples stand out: Tesla and Target. Each company failed to read the room, drifting away from its core customer base. And the numbers don’t lie.
Tesla: The Brand That Lost Its Buyer
Tesla didn’t stumble because electric vehicles suddenly lost relevance. In fact, global EV interest is growing. What changed was the relationship between the brand and the people who had once championed it.
Tesla’s early buyers were largely environmentally conscious, tech-forward urban progressives. But in recent years, CEO Elon Musk’s increasingly political and polarizing public presence — from platform takeovers to online commentary — began to clash with the values of this audience.
The result? A massive decline in performance:
- Q1 2025 net income fell 71% year-over-year, down to $409 million. [1]
- Revenue dropped to $19.3 billion, a 9% YoY decrease. [2]
- Automotive sales revenue sank by 20%. [3]
- Vehicle deliveries declined 13% globally compared to Q1 2024. [1]
- Stock value dropped by more than 30% since January. [4]
- In Germany, Tesla’s April 2025 sales plummeted by 46%. [5]
Target: Misreading the Moment on DEI
Target’s brand has long positioned itself as inclusive, accessible, and values-driven. This has resonated with a diverse, urban, and socially conscious customer base. So when the company scaled back its DEI initiatives in early 2025, it didn’t just make a policy change. It triggered a full-on brand contradiction.
Consumer backlash was immediate. Organized boycotts followed. And then came the financial blowback:
- $12.4 billion in lost revenue over the span of a few months. [6]
- A $27.27/share drop in stock price, representing billions in lost value. [6]
- In-store traffic dropped for five straight weeks, falling 5.7% YoY. [7]
What Fundraisers and Marketers Should Learn From This
The nonprofit world isn’t immune to these mistakes. In fact, it might be more vulnerable. Organizations often assume their audience is made up of insiders—staff, board members, or long-time advocates—when in reality, their supporters are far more diverse in identity, values, and motivations.
We all need the reminder:
It’s not about you. It’s about them.
So what can you do?
- Start with research – Don’t assume you know your audience. Ask them. Test. Segment.
- Stay consistent – Your values, actions, and public messaging need to align.
- Be ready to evolve – Audiences change. So must your strategies.
Sources
[1] CNEV Post – Tesla Q1 2025: https://cnevpost.com/2025/04/23/tesla-earnings-q1-2025
[2] WSJ – Tesla Revenue Decline: https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/tesla-tsla-q1-earnings-report-2025-f7120a39
[3] The Verge – Automotive Revenue Drop: https://www.theverge.com/news/653645/tesla-q1-earnings-2025-revenue-profit-elon-musk
[4] Washington Post – Stock Performance: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/04/02/tesla-sales-musk
[5] Reuters – German Sales Collapse: https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/teslas-german-car-sales-nearly-halved-april-2025-05-06
[6] St. Louis American – Target Financial Impact: https://www.stlamerican.com/news/national-news/target-sales-down-after-dropping-dei-initiatives
[7] The Business Mogul – Foot Traffic Decline: https://thebusinessmogul.com/2025/05/01/targets-dei-rollback-continues-to-impact-sales-as-boycott-stretches-into-eleventh-week
