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November 21, 2024
Will Jaguar’s Controversial Rebrand Drive Interest From a New Audience, or Is it a Misstep?
With a new 30-second ad dominating headlines across the globe, it appears that British luxury vehicle company Jaguar’s recent rebranding has achieved at least one indisputable milestone — garnering a great deal of attention.
The 30-second spot features a diverse group of models clad in colorful, futuristic-looking garments. A soft techno beat underscores the abstract action of the clip, with one model holding a hammer as text reading “break moulds” is overlaid. Another model wields a paintbrush and paints over a portion of the foreground as text reading “delete ordinary” is displayed.
Other messaging included in the ad reads “create exuberant” and “live vivid,” while the ad closes with an ostensible promise from the automaker to “copy nothing,” as the models then disperse.
Criticism Over Jaguar’s Latest Ad Runs Rampant on Social Media
As Forbes detailed, the ad in question has drawn an immense amount of criticism on social media, with prominent critics such as Elon Musk and Nigel Farage weighing in to offer some harsh words for the automaker’s most recent effort.
Taking to X, company chairman Elon Musk offered a cynical response to the ad, asking: “Do you sell cars?”
While there was no appearance of a Jaguar model in the ad, nor a vehicle at all, the automaker was quick to fire back with a response to Musk. “Yes. We’d love to show you. Join us for a cuppa in Miami on 2nd December? Warmest regards, Jaguar,” the company’s X account replied.
Musk’s reply to the ad has attracted around 303,000 likes, while Jaguar’s reply to Musk has received 13,000 so far.
According to Forbes, the negative reaction to the ad on social media was widespread. “Nearly all the top-liked Instagram comments on Jaguar’s post are critical, with the top comment, liked more than 13,000 times, claiming the company ‘killed a British icon.’”
As of Nov. 21, the top comment on Jaguar’s ad reveal on Instagram appears to now come from Aaron Fleming of Retro Garage. Fleming poked fun at the ad, comparing the models to nostalgic children’s TV characters — Teletubbies — while wanting Jaguar to make “good, reliable cars again.”
Another commenter stated, “You guys should go back to what made Jaguar great. Build classy British cars that are so unique and beautiful that no one cares they are unreliable. That’s the formula!”
Jaguar Responds to Online Negativity Surrounding Its Ad and Rebrand
Jaguar representatives so far appear to be stoic in the face of the online backlash surrounding its most recent ad, perhaps even leaning into the controversy created.
“Our brand relaunch for Jaguar is a bold and imaginative reinvention and as expected it has attracted attention and debate,” Jaguar Land Rover spokesperson Joseph Stauble told Forbes.
In a Nov. 18 press release, Jaguar spoke to the underpinning vision behind its ad and the continuing rebranding as a whole.
“To bring back such a globally renowned brand we had to be fearless. Jaguar was always at its best when challenging convention. That ethos is seen in our new brand identity today and will be further revealed over the coming months. This is a complete reset. Jaguar is transformed to reclaim its originality and inspire a new generation. I am excited for the world to finally see Jaguar,” Jaguar Managing Director Rawdon Glover wrote.
The company also indicated that it was planning to unveil the “physical manifestation” of its creative philosophy on Dec. 2 as part of Miami Art Week. The public installation will be delivered “through a series of meticulously curated gallery spaces over two locations,” per the press release.
Jaguar Moves To Capture a New Demographic
According to a Newsweek report, pleasing its existing customer base wasn’t the focus of the company’s rebranding, focusing instead on a “design-minded” audience that is “cash rich, time poor.” Before now, Jaguar has held a relatively “masculine brand image,” with a reputation for targeting wealthy male drivers.
“We assume that 10 to 15 percent of our current Jaguar customers will follow us, so relatively few,” Glover told Motor1 of the shift in marketing strategy, per Newsweek.
The automaker’s head of brand strategy, and the “mastermind” behind the rebranding, as The Daily Mail detailed, is Santino Pietrosanti, who appeared to embrace a new path for the company during remarks made during an Attitude Awards event held in London last month.
Speaking out in support of diversity efforts — he indicated Jaguar had established over 15 diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) groups as part of a “transformative journey” for the brand — Pietrosanti drew connections between the brand and greater “human potential” during his remarks.
“We’re not just talking about new cars. We are talking about all new ways of thinking and embracing the full spectrum of human potential and creativity. Because Jaguar has always stood for fearless originality striving to be a copy of nothing. And we believe that every person has the potential to be something unique, something original, and that’s what makes us strong,” Pietrosanti said.
What Jaguar Was Doing Before Its Rebranding Wasn’t Working
Despite Jaguar’s long association with wealth and luxury, the iconic brand’s actual sales numbers have been stagnant, as InsideEVs writer Kevin Williams underscored.
Throughout the entirety of 2023, Jaguar sold only 8,438 cars, according to InsideEVs, compared to competitor Genesis having moved 68,798 vehicles last year.
Suggesting that Jaguar was in dire need of a change regarding its product lineup and that search interest in Jaguar, regardless of intent, was skyrocketing, Williams offered a balanced but cautious take on the company’s latest marketing efforts. “Whatever you feel, you can’t deny that it certainly got people talking about Jaguar in ways that its old cars never, ever did,” he wrote. “Searches for Jaguar are up dramatically since it pulled this marketing stunt. Maybe Jaguar knows something we don’t, and it’ll pay off in the long run.”
Williams added, “Jaguar’s next vehicle, which is likely a concept car, will be unveiled in early December. Is Jaguar’s new direction misguided? Well, we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Jaguar’s ad had attracted nearly 141 million views on X alone as of 7:41 p.m. ET on Nov. 21. Its latest concept car, seen only via a cryptic post shared to X, appears sleek and bears a sporty aesthetic.
Discussion Questions
Is the social media backlash against Jaguar’s new ad damaging the brand or creating interest in the company’s new models?
Is Jaguar’s response to its critics effective?
Will new Jaguar models turn around the company’s recent sales slump?
Poll
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Jaguar seems to have gotten more attention in the past few days than it has in many years. Maybe that’s what the company wanted, but a lot of the commentary is negative. The problem is that the campaign is way too obscure, borders on weird, and the rebrand ditches a heritage that was both appreciated and understood. Most of all: where are the cars? The cars are what people are ultimately buying, and they are completely absent. This underlines the fact Jaguar has done a very poor job of innovating its vehicles over the past 5 or so years. That’s the heart of the issue.
The ads are creating interest, but not necessarily the good kind. (Yes, there is such thing as ‘bad’ press). I think Jaguar’s leaders there are either 1) genius for spotting a narrow niche that will create growth, or 2), they’re misguided and lost their way. Doesn’t Jaguar supply cars to autonomous car service, Waymo? I rode in them twice, and the vehicles were both Jag SKUs… nice cars. Why don’t they focus on that, and leave consumers to the big guys to battle for. Get back to your heritage…your brand has earned lots of grace.
Two thoughts:
I fear for the employment prospects of whoever came up with this misfire, tho judging from how far off the mark it is, I’m thinkig they’re pondering retirement (my advice: take it…now!)
Jaguar created interest, for sure. For all the mystery around an odd new brand direction and for a new customer base, Jaguar had better be right. If they unveil something which looks or feels like a car in oddly shaped design, it will be mocked for the overhype. They’ll need to execute flawlessly on product innovation for this to work.
Jaguar’s famous E-Type from the 1960’s are regarded by many to be one of, if not the most beautiful car in the world. Hopefully we don’t see collapse of this once beloved car brand.
This is a bust. The Jaguar brand exists in the mind of potential customers already – including the new generation. As have other failed companies in the past, Jaguar misled itself into thinking it could just claim to be something unrelated to the brand people already have in their minds. It will fail. The only hope for Jag is that their new cars are exceptional in unusual ways AND that they back away from the precipice of “re-brand”. Truth is, no one can rebrand. Companies can evolve their brands, engage customers in new ways, engage new customers and more. The idea of a rebrand, though, is false.
It would be an understatement to say that Jaguar’s new campaign is a misstep. It’s a guaranteed catastrophe.
One of the most disappointing aspects of this rebrand is its disregard for its rich history. History provided Jaguar with an alluring brand image.
According to the marketing team, the company wants to be more bold, progressive, and inclusive. It’s strike one, strike two, strike three.
While the ad has bold colors, the message about the car is not bold. There is no message about the car at all. Despite their desire to be “progressive,” a freak show is anything but progressive. Although Jaguar wants to appear inclusive, it fails to include any normal person who looks like a Jaguar customer.
In retrospect, it’s just a shame that the company walked away from some of its most iconic, treasured, and beautiful icons. A century of established brand equity has been lost by Jaguar.
I even wonder why they are keeping the same brand name after going so far off the deep end. Do you remember any car commercial that never shows the car or mentions even one benefit?
Bud Light’s marketing team finally got some sleep after Target’s woke disaster. The Target team can rest easier now that Jaguar has created an even bigger disaster.
Not only will this campaign not help to add more sales, but worse-so, it’s going to kill sales, and lower the value of pre-owned cars, in which there will be many.
Hello friend, my name is Marc. I think he would be interested in taking a look at the introduction of the iconic E type in the 60s I think you will become very curious at that point and by the way, I would refer you to Infiniti’s very first commercial check that out as well. I think I would be with you if it wasn’t for these two points that I discovered I just purchased a jaguar F Type r and the iconic defender trust last year, so I’m all in. I was greatly disappointed by the commercial as well until I did a lot of research. I’m a believer. I love the product and their history can’t be denied. By the way you should take a look at the Queen‘s collection of Jaguars and Land Rovers
This is great advertising. It tickles the viewers interest without exposing any of the cars…it is memorable, impactful, and gets people talking about the ad. Since we don’t know what the new cars are, how they look, or any of their specifications, this is an ideal ad. Anyone who know anything about advertising and marketing knows that this has been very successful, especially since Jaguar has not been impactful or successful for many years. We will know what the next step looks like after December when they reveal their new cars. Until then, we cannot call this advertising anything but successful, since we are still talking about it!
One of the first rules of advertising is if you have to explain the ad it doesn’t work. And that Jaguar ad needs a lot of explanation. One of the people quoted in the article said, “To bring back such a globally renowned brand we had to be fearless.” To bring the brand back? Was it missing?
But let’s talk about the new logo. Did we learn nothing from The Gap logo fiasco in 2010? The new $1.7 million dollar logo lasted a week before the company went back to the original. Seriously, any one of us could’ve phoned the new Jaguar logo in from the couch.
Is it bold? Yes. Is everyone talking about it? Yes. But, as many have pointe out, most comments are not positive. Normally, this would cause the “rebrand” to be a failure. But I’m not there yet. The most significant thing about this ad (well, oil, there are two, and the second is that new logo – I’ll come back to that later) is what a few have pointed out – no cars! Isn’t Jaguar a car company?
Yes. But I can think of another car company that introduced its new brand over a period of at least 6 months or more, and never once showed a car. Infiniti.
While we can argue how successful Infiniti is today, when they launched the brand and didn’t show a car – many people laughed them out of the room. Then the cars launched. And surprise – people wanted them! It was a bold move that paid off. Of course it helped that the cars actually brought something fresh to the luxury market at the time.
We don’t know if Jaguar will do something truly unique and special when they launch their next new car. But we do know one thing as a result of this ad – we’ll all be watching to see what the car is like. Under that lens, this ad is a huge success. And that is something that none of their cars have been able to do for many, many year now. The sales numbers speak for themselves. Now if they decide to bring on a voice to narrate their next ad, like Jonathan Price, well then…. we’ll have to wait and see!
I’m glad someone else remembered the Infinity, Ricardo. That was 35 years ago!
I have been intrigued by this move from Jaguar. Right now, they have no new cars for sale and won’t for a year. The new cars will be at a much higher price point, and electric. If they want to reposition the brand, this is the right time to do it.
The changes they have made are radical, hugely radical. Inevitably, this has created a backlash on social media. I should point out that this backlash has come from people in the creative and marketing sectors – 99% of which do not, and will never, own a Jaguar.
Nostalgia plays a huge part of the reaction to this, endorsed by the outrage from right wing politician Nigel Farage. As humans we always get nostalgic about things from our past, that we never use now.
But….I do wonder if this is a clever ploy from Jaguar to create huge interest, before moving things again. They have a big announcement on December 2nd, and part of me thinks we will then see the final iteration of this rebrand
And it may well be very different to what they showcased this week. Let’s wait and see.
Welcome to RetailWire, Ian!
While from a publicity standpoint, it has created buzz, not likely the kind that was desired. They messed with the heritage and history of the brand (new Coke anyone?). In the end, it’s about the cars, which have also become fairly irrelevant.
Bold, vivid and abstract, Jaguar’s campaign immediately earned global word-of-mouth. While the tone is overwhelmingly negative, it’s also grabbing the attention of younger adults who may stayed tuned for subsequent reveals.
We will see if this new direction helps Jaguar expand its reach and growth or if, like Starbucks, it strays too far from its brand essence to pay off.
This is a prime example of how engagement and buzz doesn’t equal conversion. This caused a big stir and upset, as it stripped the brand image of its heritage. There is definitely such a thing as bad publicity, and this wasn’t the way to get eyes back on Jaguar- it doesn’t translate to the actual product and just changed its brand imagery unnecessarily and negatively.
If this new Jaguar ad reminds you of Apple’s 1984 spot, there’s a good reason. The company is trying to: A, Get some attention; B, be provocative; and C, get away without showing any product…which it really doesn’t have ready yet. It succeeds in all three goals, so good for them. But Jaguar’s business model needs to be better defined and fo that, there’s a clear path to go: Porsche. They need to be the high performance, limited supply, constantly coming up with new variations and defining themselves as pure elitism. Can they do it?
Normally I would encourage evolutionary change. Staying one step ahead of the market or at least in step with current competitive metrics. When a brand falls behind and has to play catch-up, it creates a high risk scenario. There is a license, if not a necessity to do something dramatic and controversial. Jaguar has indeed delivered the drama and controversy. Here I love Melissa Minkow’s comment, “…engagement and buzz doesn’t equal conversion.” Sometimes it means a “run…don’t walk” reaction. We shall see.
Jaguar has given us some of the most beautiful cars ever made. That’s an incredible brand legacy to be built upon. And they say out loud that they expect only 10% to 15% of their current customers to follow them…??? They can say that out loud and still go pedal to the metal…???
Design and marketing can both be self seducing disciplines where the author gets a little carried away. This might be one of the cases.
This is not a new strategy. First, you disrupt and then you replace. First phase done…let’s hope the “replace” part takes our breath away. I went through my Jaguar phase years ago: a silver 12 cylinder VDP. Yes it was in the shop all the time, but when it wasn’t…oh lordy, was that a car! Current Jags look like they were designed by GM, pure vanilla. All we can do now is wait and see.
At the end of the day Jaguar makes cars. If it comes out with the beautiful concept car and translate well to production, all will be forgiven. No amount of photography and art gallery space will convince people to buy cars…. I am concerned that they are saying “85% of current customers will leave us with this change”. Most auto companies rely on core fans to keep the lights on.
It is IMPOSSIBLE to overstate the error of this move. The Social media criticism is more than warranted…obviously Jaguar learned nothing from the recent imbroglio’s at Bud Light, Target, and others. And, I should add, this has nothing to do with the usual tropes of misogyny, racism, transphobia, whatever…this has EVERYTHING to do with not understanding your market, your customers, or your product. It does not help that the video of the head of marketing “discussing” everything BUT the product, the customers, and the market is making the rounds also.
The response by the company just makes it worse. How any leader could sign off on this rebranding is beyond my brainpower. Maybe this could have worked for a brand new car company..unlikely but maybe. To apply this rebrand to a +100 year old company borders on marketing treason.
Check out the campaign in th 60s for the iconic E-type the similarities are clear- also look at Infinity with their very first campaign…