Jaguar’s controversial new rebranding campaign has stirred a ton of discussion across social media, late-night TV, and in the news.
Some conservative social media users have railed against the company as going “woke.” Others have questioned why Jag’s new promotional video didn’t contain any cars.
But what do marketing and rebranding experts think of Jaguar’s transition? Their reviews are mixed, ranging from one who called it a it a “bonkers” strategy to another who said it was a relatively “successful” rollout.
One thing they agree on: It’s a radical change for a legacy brand like Jaguar.
The high-end British carmaker — Jaguar has been an icon of elegance and luxury for nearly a century — first unveiled its rebranding campaign in late November. It included a new typeface for its logo, a redesigned leaping jaguar mark, and a colorful promotional video that featured high-fashion models — and no cars.
The rebrand comes as Jaguar prepares to entirely abandon its internal combustion engines in favor of a new all-electric future.
Copy nothing. #Jaguar pic.twitter.com/BfVhc3l09B
— Jaguar (@Jaguar) November 19, 2024
Will Sears, the founder and CEO of Cincinnati-based marketing agency W.Bradford, said the intent behind Jaguar’s new branding rollout is unclear. And he said he was confused by the decision not to include any cars in the video.
Sears, who has worked on campaigns for Eli Lilly, L’Oréal, and Vegas.com, told Business Insider that Jaguar changed too many things at once in its rebrand launch. Updating the logo is a “huge change” on its own, he said, but then combined with the conceptual ad that didn’t have any cars — it could all be too much for the consumer to take in.
“So now consumers who follow this are completely unfamiliar with what they’re looking at,” Sears said. “What has made them a solid brand is the beautiful design and performance of their cars: That is not on display at all — in any even cryptic way. So it’s very confusing to the market.”
Sears added: “I think we are all hoping, or people who follow this are all hoping, that their next steps in this campaign are remedying what is kind of a bonkers rollout.”
Getting attention is success on its own
Another marketing expert said the eyeballs the rebranding has attracted could be considered a win for Jag.
Jim Heininger, the founder and principal of Chicago rebranding firm The Rebranding Experts, told Business Insider that Jaguar has clearly received a lot of attention over its rebrand — and that’s a kind of success in itself. (The YouTube video of the Jag rollout has more than 160 million views so far.)
“I think what they’re doing is just kind of stirring up some emotions and stirring up some creative kind of look and feel of what the new brand is going to look like,” said Heininger, whose 30-year career includes work for P&G, McDonald’s, and Anheuser-Busch. “It wasn’t necessary that they show cars. They’re just trying to get our attention at this point in time, and they’re doing that successfully.”
It’s not just the shift in Jaguar’s brand identity that has gotten marketers talking — it’s also the apparent pivot in what audience base Jaguar is now trying to target.
As part of the brand’s positioning, the newly announced Jags are expected to be significantly more upmarket than the ones that are being phased out. Car and Driver previously reported that the brand, which is owned by India’s Tata Motors, was looking toward its corporate cousin Range Rover as inspiration for where it wants to be. The magazine cited a Range Rover that costs around $400,000; most Jaguar models for 2024 had list prices of around $50,000 to $80,000.)
Chris Bowers, the founder and CEO of branding agency CMB Automotive Marketing, which has offices outside Detroit and in the UK, said he’s “not 100% convinced” Jaguar’s rebranding is making the right statement but said the company is clearly trying to define a new audience.
“The only thing I can guess is that they’re intentionally alienating their existing customer base,” Bowers said, who has decades of experience building brands for major suppliers, manufacturers, and technology companies from the auto industry.
“They want to make a break from their existing customers to attract a younger, wealthier demographic who are more interested in style and individuality,” Bowers said. “They’re taking a massive gamble on the existence of a market who will be interested in them — and Jaguar know they can’t attract them with the old brand.”
Reorienting a brand to an entirely new audience is a “massively difficult” endeavor, Heininger said.
Jaguar is signaling a significant disruption
It can also be very risky, one advertising expert said.
“It’s a risk to so radically divorce a brand from its inherent equities,” Greg Andersen, the CEO of Omaha-based creative agency Bailey Lauerman, told Business Insider. Before joining Bailey Lauerman, Andersen worked for brands, including Google, Levi’s, Burberry, and Axe — and also on several automotive campaigns, including Cadillac and Toyota.
“But at the same time,” he said, “I think this work could eventually make sense if their vehicles are going to take the brand and the category in a completely different direction from the norms and dogma of the past. It’s obviously a signal of significant disruption.”
While the relevance and relatability of Jaguar’s rebranding campaign have been much debated, each expert concluded that it represents a massive change for the brand — and change can be hard to accept.
But change is exactly what Jaguar said it wants as it heads into its EV-only future.
“Our brand relaunch for Jaguar is a bold and imaginative reinvention and, as expected, it has attracted attention and debate,” the company said in a statement to Business Insider. “The brand reveal is only the first step in this exciting new era, and we look forward to sharing more on Jaguar’s transformation in the coming days and weeks.”
Jaguar said it would announce more details about its new branding strategy in December, though it’s not clear whether that will include specifics about any of its forthcoming electric vehicles.
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