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Rivian: A Masterclass in Brand Narrative
Just a few weeks ago, we witnessed a company with almost no revenue become one of the most valuable brands in the world literally over night.
It managed to do so with one word: “Forever.”
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Rivian went public on Nov 10, 2021. Three days after its IPO, Rivian’s valuation was $127.3 billion. A week later, it reached $140 billion, surpassing VW at $137 billion. This has made Rivian the №3 car manufacturer in the world behind Toyota ($306 billion) and Tesla ($1 trillion).
To be fair, this wasn’t an overnight success, nor was it the result of one word. It was over a decade in the making and thousands of people and their hard work. On top of that, there must have been countless efforts we the public don’t see, including what must have been a carefully orchestrated road show to lure investors prior to the IPO.
Rivian as a company was founded in 2009. It took almost 11 years for Rivian to ship the first production of R1T, an electric truck and its first consumer product to roll off the assembly line on Sept 14, 2021.
Recently, my business partner at I&CO made an observation on Rivian’s website: It doesn’t show any…