Jaguar is rebranding, taking no prisoners and everyone’s freaking out—good for them!
Jaguar has recently changed its logo:
As you can imagine, since a few weeks ago every self-proclaimed brand expert, designer, and marketer is freaking out, endlessly explaining how the very conservative UK automotive maker bought by Tata in 2008 has just lost its soul.
Even worse?
They launched a teaser video about their rebranding that seems a crossover between a vintage Benetton clip and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
You probably didn't like it either, right?
Here's the thing, though: "marketing" or "design" don't do jack for business all by themselves. As stand-alone operations, they are like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. And if anything Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has been quite the Titanic.
After years of ongoing decrepitude, in 2019, JLR faced a major downturn with a 50% drop in sales in China, prompting Tata Motors to write down its investment in JLR by $3.9 billion. By 2021, despite a partial sales recovery following the initial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, JLR reported a £860 million loss, largely due to a £1.5 billion write-off tied to a "strategic overhaul."
And even with some bounce-back figures in 2024, the automaker is in dire straits. Not to blame them, as I often discuss (as an amazing proxy for most B2C industries) the whole Western automotive sector is a structural mess.
So what about the rebranding?
Well, if anything we can agree it's BOLD. And what I would argue is that JLR, starting with Jaguar, doesn't have any other option than just that. Being bold. Beyond the negative press, they appear determined to reposition themselves as pioneers in redefining modern automotive luxury. Will they succeed? I don't know. What it seems is that their rebranding reflects a core aggressive strategy.
Don't like the new logo and the new model? Are you the target demography anyway? Probably not. But let me give you a few brands that have models supposedly positioned in this segment that don't rock the boat: the Tesla Model S, the Porsche Taycan, the Mercedes-Benz EQS Sedan, the BMW i7, or the Audi e-tron GT...
And let me point out the problem all these companies share:
I guess you start to see the problem now?
Discuss as much as you want, Jaguar's logo or the rocker panel's design of the new model, Jaguar is in survival mode. They can't afford to be a cookie-cutter car company: what made some level of success in the eighties or early nineties is long gone. What made Tesla a success as a car of the future in... 2012 is also long gone! And worse, the way we define luxury as Westerners has been thrown out the window.
Like it or not, the underlying market has pivoted five or six times away from our collective lagging perception. And maybe Jaguar got the memo. Maybe (just maybe?) they are just doing what it takes to survive the next ten years. Do I know that Jaguar has a clear strategy beyond this provocative rebranding? No. I don't. What I do know is that most other Western brands won’t survive—if only because their designs no longer shock, surprise, or delight.
But more importantly, what about you? Your premium, or luxury brand? Or your high-end offer for your key customers? Are you still applying the best marketing practices from the nineties?
Shouldn't you embrace some level of "Copy Nothing" mindset for your strategy as well?
Edit, May 13:
