Jaguar

“The Jaguar customer is the type of man who would go away with his wife to a romantic hotel, spend the night flirting outrageously with a waitress, and it’s OK because he’s got a Jaaaaaag!”
Jeremy Clarkson, quoted in the Financial Times

However, the reality is that dashing Jaguar buyer conjured by this description, is no longer significant – car buyers are now much younger and have very different tastes and needs. This is the shift that the automaker has been struggling with for more than two decades. Tata Motors bought JLR, Jaguar’s parent company in 2008 and pumped in billions of dollars, but the automaker continued to bleed.

Perhaps that’s why Jaguar’s recent rebrand is unexpected and controversial, moving away sharply from all incumbent brand codes. The rebrand, done in-house under the leadership of Creative Director, Gerry McGovern, accompanied the announcement that the company will only produce electric vehicles from 2026.

The changes are radical. The leaping Jaguar has been removed from the logo. The new logotype is a widely spaced mix of upper and lower case letters. The new slogan is “Copy Nothing.”

The film that accompanied the release showed no cars. Instead a melange of strangely-dressed models with deadpan expressions, moved jerkily behind platitudes like “Create Exuberant.” This prompted Elon Musk to ask, “Do you sell cars?”

The colour palette is an astonishing mix of neon shades. The low-slung concept automobile, Type oo, which accompanied the launch, was also pink!

The THC Take

What do we think about the rebrand, apart from the fact that it got everyone’s attention and moved Jaguar to the centre of social media conversations?

The big shift that Jaguar is making to electric means that it is playing in a field where the rules have been set by by companies like Tesla and Lucid Motors. These companies have won the market on the basis of their innovative technology, design and brand – not on traditional automotive brand pillars like legacy, engineering and safety. Unlike them however, Jaguar is pitching its cars at a price point above GBP 100,000.

To succeed in its quest for growth and profitability, Jaguar needs to appeal to the super-rich around the world who want to acquire a shiny new toy and make a statement.

What will matter greatly, therefore, is finding influential early adopters and building a new customer base, because let’s face it, the rebrand has effectively alienated its old one. This is probably a calculated move.

Jaguar Creative Director, Gerry McGovern, is clear that Jaguar is moving to a luxury lifestyle brand, closer to fashion than a typical automotive brand and “does not seek to be liked by everyone.” He may have been inspired by brands like Tiffany, who boosted sagging fortunes by moving beyond legacy audiences with a campaign called “Not Your Mother’s Tiffany.”

In the end, Jaguar’s polarising rebrand is a gamble. The real test will be whether this calculated alienation of its traditional customer base will also result in the brand becoming the next, luxury must-have for a new set of customers.

If the rebrand succeeds, it could define a “Jaaaaaag” for a new era. But if it falters, it will be a reminder that in the race for relevance, just shock tactics are not enough.