You’re a declining premium car brand with only 60,000 car sales per annum.
You look at your nearest competitors, Mercedes-Benz and BMW, and see they sell over 2 million cars a year.
You have an iconic brand, but it’s not turning into commercial success. How do you get back on track?
To me, the recent backlash against the Jaguar rebrand is fascinating.
From a designer’s point of view, I don’t particularly think the execution is as good as it could be. But seeing the reactions of the general public talking about how Jaguar has lost its heritage and doesn’t look like a car brand anymore has got my attention.
The rebrand has caught Elon Musk’s attention on X. It’s made it into all the usual newspapers and has been featured on global news channels.
Every person and their dog is talking about how ridiculous the rebrand is. Surely the Jag board is buzzing with the amount of free publicity they’ve created.
Jaguar has realised that their heritage doesn’t translate into commercial success.
People have a love for the brand, but it’s not turning into sales. Liking and buying are two different things.
In fact, out of JLR overall sales in 2023, Jaguar made up circa 15% of sales, and made a loss on each car.
As I say, from a designer’s perspective, I don’t think the execution is right. But behind the aesthetics lies a bold strategy to reinvigorate this tired brand.
The bold new brand identity is supporting the new strategy, and the strategy makes sense.
The strategy is to stop making cars with combustion engines and focus exclusively on electric cars. These electric cars will be the best version of an electric car: 400+ miles of range and the ability to guarantee a 200-mile charge in less than 15 minutes, all with the same driving experience that makes Jaguar special – it could be impressive stuff.
Jaguar has realised that there are only 2.5 million luxury car buyers in the world. If they can sell 50,000 of their future cars at £100,000 each, then they can make money.
They’ve looked at the market, segmented it, and positioned their offer around a small target audience.
They are clearly targeting a niche audience. If they can engage and resonate with that audience, then it’s job done.
But the new audience is by no means the Jaguar customer of years gone by.
Underneath the distinctive new rebrand lies a crystal-clear strategy. A strategy that is bold and takes no prisoners from the past.
If you do this, you need a bold new brand that appeals to a completely new audience compared to what you’ve targeted before.
So the question is, are you and I in the audience of 2.5 million luxury car buyers at £100,000+? If not, then it’s no wonder it doesn’t appeal to us.
The moral of the story is that it’s easy to be critical of a brand strategy without really understanding the underlying business strategy.
Could this bold rebrand be the cat-alyst for Jaguar’s future?