This study aims to practically evaluate the direct-to-consumer (D2C) business model pioneered by Tesla in the Turkish market and to identify its strategic advantages. At the same time, the effects of the D2C model on brand control, customer experience, and digital commercial opportunities are analysed in the context of its relationship with marketplaces. A mixed-method approach was adopted: in the qualitative phase, Tesla’s official Turkish website was analysed through content analysis, while in the quantitative phase, latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic modelling, sentiment analysis, and word cloud techniques were applied to 193 posts collected from the X (formerly Twitter) platform. By eliminating intermediaries, the D2C model offers firms advantages such as direct interaction with customers, reduced costs, and enhanced brand control. In the case of Tesla, personalization, a user-friendly interface, and an integrated digital experience reinforce these benefits. According to the social media analysis, 54.40% of users expressed negative opinions and 36.79% positive ones, indicating significant gaps in the digital customer experience. The study emphasizes that the D2C model should be supported not only by digital infrastructure but also by strategic marketing and customer-centric design elements. Tesla’s D2C implementation demonstrates the potential of the model in terms of commercial independence, brand control, and data-driven decision-making.
Metin Akbulut (Fri,) studied this question.