Automotive

The curious case of Jaguar's polarizing rebrand

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Jaguar’s rebrand campaign has been the talk of the town since its launch
Jaguar
Jaguar’s rebrand campaign has been the talk of the town since its launch
Jaguar
Jaguar intends to completely transition away from internal combustion engines
Jaguar
Jaguar's marketing campaign featured catwalk models but no cars
Jaguar
Jaguar decided to drop its iconic cat emblem as part of the rebranding effort
Jaguar
The brand's identity is being completely redefined as part of this makeover
Jaguar
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Bright pink color, a new typeface, and a missing cat in its emblem – Jaguar’s rebrand campaign has been the talk of the town since its launch. It certainly divides opinions for a car maker with a rich history of nearly 100 years.

How do you decide if a marketing campaign is an absolute hit? Of course, if it gets the world talking about you, it must be a hit, right? But what if the world is collectively mocking you? But hey, bad PR is still PR, eh? So it’s safe to say that the metrics which decide if a marketing campaign is a hit or a miss are, after all, subjective.

During Miami Art Week earlier this month, Jaguar debuted its daring rebrand alongside the Type 00 concept car. The focal point of the event was its new "Copy Nothing" revamp, which brought bold fashion and vibrant aesthetics to usher in a new age before going all-electric.

Jaguar intends to completely transition away from internal combustion engines, and adopt a new design and technology philosophy in order to become an all-electric premium brand by 2025. The brand's identity is being completely redefined as part of this makeover, which goes beyond simple electrification.

I have to say, Jaguar's redesign has done more for the company than any other in recent memory. After all, it got people talking about Jaguar, at the very least. Jaguar’s managing director Rawdon Glover said, "If we play the same way that everybody else does, we’ll just get drowned out. So we shouldn’t turn up like an auto brand."

While it did get the world talking about Jaguar, the move was widely criticized, with some claiming it was damaging the brand's legacy and others complaining that Jaguar had not actually displayed a car – which was the whole crux of this campaign.

Jaguar's marketing campaign featured catwalk models but no cars
Jaguar

You have to understand that car badges are more than merely ornamental accessories. They impact people's decisions to buy the vehicles.

According to recent data, daily sales of Jaguar have reportedly decreased by 9% since the British brand's controversial rebranding earlier this month. Marketcheck UK data shows that in the seven days after Jaguar's "Copy Nothing" rebranding on November 19, the average number of used Jaguars sold per day was just 133. By contrast, used Jaguar sales averaged 146 at the beginning of November, representing an 8.9% discrepancy.

Leaving the sales and the car in question aside, let’s put our focus on the rebrand itself. Now it’s not every day you see a historical brand commit to a full-scale rebrand. From the logo to colors, and even the company vision – Jaguar’s rebranding is more than just a madman’s marketing campaign.

Jaguar intends to completely transition away from internal combustion engines
Jaguar

Jaguar was criticized by certain X users for being "woke" and deviating from its typical demographic. Lulu Cheng Meservey, co-founder of Rostra PR group, called the rebrand "disastrous," saying "It's possible a marketing exec read too many think pieces about how millennials shop based on values and forgot that people want cars that are really well built."

For me, personally, the core message has been lost as a result of the campaign’s direction, which has alienated its older core audience. And why the company wishes to undermine its core clientele is beyond me. Alright, if you feel you are losing out on a certain group, strive to win them over, but not at the expense of others.

The brand's identity is being completely redefined as part of this makeover
Jaguar

From a business perspective, it's ludicrous to be so polarizing and ignore your main client base. The whole rebrand campaign appears to be a well-made fashion concept with juvenile taglines that have no real substance for a car manufacturer. I’m not half as offended by the quirky colors as I am with Jaguar for not presenting itself as a carmaker first and as a luxury brand second.

But it’s important to understand why Jag opted for a rebrand. The company has been experiencing a steep decline in sales – less than 67,000 Jaguar vehicles were sold globally last year, which is almost half of the total sales during the fiscal year that coincided with the onset of COVID. Per Car and Driver, there are currently only 122 Jaguar dealerships in the United States, a sharp decrease from a peak of about 200.

So, it’s easy to see how perfectly Jaguar's rebranding initiative aligns with the company's major product transition. Thus, it should come as no surprise that Jaguar declared it was "not afraid to polarize."

Jaguar decided to drop its iconic cat emblem as part of the rebranding effort
Jaguar

It's not like the company didn't know it would lose a major chunk of itds existing customer base. "We anticipate that 10 to 15 percent of our current Jaguar customers will follow us," Glover stated in an interview earlier this year.

So, I come back to where I started – it's tough to say if Jag's rebrand campaign was a hit or a miss. You can't deny that the campaign can be seen as a huge success if all that the company wanted to do was to get people talking about it – without even releasing any cars yet.

Controversy is a weird thing. It certainly gets you headlines. If you’re Jaguar and that’s all that you wanted, bravo.

Source: Jaguar

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8 comments
DavidB
I'm a 100% EV owner, driver, and supporter, but this is a massive failure in product marketing.
Daishi
Louis Vuitton is worth more than car companies so maybe they are better off selling expensive leather purses instead of cars. The barrier to entry in the fashion industry is probably much lower with better margins than the auto industry. They have a recognizable brand maybe they should just pivot away from making cars and start selling $20 purses for $4,000 instead.
George
I in turn am 100% ICE owner/driver/supporter (ie. EV car-prices new/used / range / charging infrastructure (or lack thereof) / repair costs etc etc - could go on all day, but hey if that's the way Jag wants to go, good luck to them. Advert is oh-so-trendy/inclusive/diverse/whatever and in that barf-inducing pink to boot ☹. However, while trying to ‘connect with a new, younger demographic’ the marketing dorks at Jaguar seem to have missed the very obvious fact that these cars are going to be pushing 6 figure prices. And while there will be plenty of older, established ‘Jag men’ with that kind of dosh, there will be much fewer ‘Yoof’ with that kind of money to blow on a Jag. Even they themselves say that only 10-15% of existing clients would follow them. Major DUH ?!
KaiserPingo
I don't care about the colours or the persons in the commercial.
But the typeface is pathetically childish, without any personality. Just bland and sterile..., and boring.
An attempt to make Jaguar disappear in to nothingness.
And that goes for the missing Jaguar cat as well. It's a hardcore attempt to make Jaguar have absolutely no personality, no excitement, no raison d'etre.
It could as well be any Chinese car maker.
Who want's to be associated with bland androgynous nothingness and marketing BS?
Add to that how Jaguar is not at all a first mover in tech any more (and hasn't been for decades), doesn't offer anything special in ride quality that makes it stand out positively, has a lukewarm quality, actually doesn't bring anything to the potential buyers that makes people mention Jaguar at the same moment as Mercedes or Audi or Lexus.
If you have a Jag, keep it and take care of it.
Looking for a Jaguar, look for the classics, but not the Ford ones, as thats when things got really bad for Jag.
Karmudjun
This is no big stumble for Jaguar, remember the 1980's XJS 12 cylinders which were junked or replaced with Chevy 350 V8? Jaguar has sold their customer down the river time and again. Now they are selling their marketing down the river too. But my favorite example of the 1980 XJS complexity & failures is this youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVH1mrLuneI
I get a kick out of "Car Wizard" methodically tracking down the failure & fix history of an over engineered & under supported vehicle. Oh the latest tech installed before its time.
veryken
Is it really "history of Jaguar" if there's absolutely nothing carried forward from the past? Might as spell it Jaquar or Jatuar or Yaguar. Same thing. Six silly meaningless letters of the alphabet.
Global
Up there with the "Coca-Cola" original & new coke fail....might as well try to sell overpriced fugly fashion.....
ReservoirPup
I'd wait till they start selling what they hid up their sleeves