Electrifying the Market: How Traditional Automakers Are Cultivating Electric Brand Identities

This research project looks at the marketing language and brand integration strategies used with electric vehicles (EVs) by traditionally internal combustion-based (ICE) automobile manufacturers. A comprehensive keyword and thematic analysis of manufacturer webpages was conducted to understand the current market positioning of EVs compared with their ICE counterparts. Identified keywords and themes were then considered alongside an NLP sentiment analysis and keyword analysis of 60,291 Twitter tweets. Results indicate Twitter users express more polarized viewpoints with regard to EVs than ICEs, and that EV advertising language is less market specific then that of ICEs. In public discourse, functional attributes highlighted by manufacturers feature more prominently than sustainability-focused attributes, such as environmental impact and the use of sustainable materials. It is apparent manufacturers are still struggling to differentiate their EV products and are being used as a marketing tool by manufacturers to conceptually justify personal automobile ownership and promote CSR priorities.