The Jaguar F-Type hits 0-60mph in under four seconds, but even that feels slow compared to the speed of the marketing frenzy sparked by the brand’s new teaser campaign.
In the space of a few days, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) went from under the radar to global front-page news.
Every marketer ever asked for an opinion (and many who haven’t been) has weighed in with their visceral responses and a barrage of absolutist verdicts on Jaguar’s company strategy, future, leadership and even principles. All based on, yes – a thirty-second teaser video. Admittedly, a video with a space-age feel, psychedelic colours, diverse-with-a-capital-D models and no cars.
Not to be left out of the crowd, I too have been asked for an opinion, but you’ll find me standing apart from the majority.
A reinvention, not an evolution
What is lacking from much of the commentary is context. JLR wasn’t looking for an evolution of a thriving brand. It was looking to reinvent an ailing one. The reality is that today there are more people celebrating Jaguar’s heritage than those who actually want Jaguar’s cars.
In its heyday, Jaguar was a fiercely innovative and unconventional brand, designing some of the world’s most original cars. So perhaps that heritage is best honoured by living, rather than just looking, the part. By being the rebel itself rather than the rebel’s caretaker.
So many of the commentators have pronounced Jaguar finished, foolish and failed based purely on that video and in the absence of any further information – including, erm, the cars themselves. But important though they are, there is so much more to a brand than visual assets.
Reinvention isn’t about abandoning history; it’s about reinterpreting it for a new era.
Jaguar’s managing director Rawdon Glover is on record as saying: “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.”
I’d be surprised if JLR hadn’t accumulated market intelligence pointing to a sufficiently large and young new audience with specific attitudinal and economic traits and identified an opportunity space matching the brand’s profile.
Which leads me to think that if this new audience finds creative expression more intriguing than vehicles, perhaps it does make sense to show up like a courageous creative brand rather than a traditional carmaker and play the self-expression game rather than the mobility one. That means doing things differently. For example, Jaguar will be launching its new EV cars at the forthcoming Art Basel Miami, rather than at random motor shows or at the Consumer Electronics Show, as many other car brands have done in recent years, including Honda, Volkswagen and Audi.
Learning from other rebrands
This current furore reminds me of another bold rebrand, where I can comment as an actual insider. In 2017, Juventus Football Club launched its rebrand based on a clear objective and strategy: connect to a set of new audience segments and earn permission to go beyond football by showing up like a pop icon rather than a traditional football club.
For instance, launching new kit at Milan Fashion Week and holding events at places where football clubs would not be typically seen, but those target audiences would.
Juventus was skewered over the rebrand and faced a backlash as vehement as that which Jaguar has been experiencing. But fast-forward eight years and that move is regarded by many as one of the most successful rebrands of the past couple of decades and a benchmark in sports marketing.
The proof is in the pudding
In the space of a week Jaguar has gone from no-one talking about them to everyone talking about them.
This isn’t saying that all press is good press, merely that bold brand moves have the power to capture people’s imaginations and shift their expectations, even if it causes an element of discomfort in the process.
If – and it’s a very big ‘if’ – the product and experience can deliver on the expectations set by the promise of ‘copying nothing’ and ‘deleting ordinary’, this will have been a well-calculated risk.
Reshaping a luxury automotive brand is a tall order and will require consistency, conviction and investment. But the signs are good. Gerry McGovern, chief creative officer at JLR, has previously reinterpreted the Range Rover and Defender lineups to critical and commercial success.
On December 2, all eyes will be on Miami as Jaguar unveils its new direction. Time will tell whether its brand gamble paid off.
Manfredi Ricca is global chief strategy officer at brand consultancy Interbrand.
