It's no secret that the Jaguar rebrand that was announced in late November 2024 is a massive scandal. Very few out there are praising it and to say that the new logo and downright bizarre commercial spot have been critically panned is putting it nicely. To be honest, I strongly dislike the aesthetic and creative choices made.
Obviously, I don't know that I'm the target audience for it. Actually, I'm not really sure who the hell the target audience is supposed to be. Putting personal preferences or likes and dislikes aside, as I take a step back to analyze, I think this begs some much larger strategy questions–and ones that all brands and companies should consider before investing in a rebrand.
What is the intention behind your rebrand?
From my perspective, there should be very intentional reasoning behind rebranding any company, but especially a company that has been around for over 100 years, such as Jaguar. There's so much brand equity there, that to traverse a rebrand can be tricky. After all, we've seen so many examples of companies who have attempted to update their logo for giggles (see Gap who infamously overhauled their logo and it lasted for less than a week) and failed.
In order to understand what Jaguar execs are thinking–and what ALL business executives should be weighing when considering taking on a process like this, let's start digging into the business itself to understand why they would ever contemplate taking on such a crazy thing.
Lagging Sales
Jaguar has been lagging behind in sales in the US for years. Actually, the word 'lagging' is a kind one. I'd say when you go from a 0.18% US marketshare in 2018 to a dismal 0.05% US marketshare in 2023, you've hit rock bottom (see this for more specific stats). As a business person, if your sales are in the toilet, you have to do something about it. And it starts with asking yourself why that is and what you can do to change it. Which leads me to my next question...
Product Quality and Market Dynamics
Why aren't customers purchasing it? Do you have the wrong people selling the product? Are there issues with your pricing strategy? Did your audience change? Or is it straight up a problem with your product?
I may not be a car industry expert, but putting my consumer hat on, I'd be willing to bet that in this situation most consumers think there is an issue with the product itself. They are not overly interested in dropping $50K - $100K on a car that is regarded as "old", unreliable and uncomfortable. That price tag isn't the equivalent of a fast fashion impulse purchase. It requires research and taking on a years-long car payment, so when you're now competing with more modern cars with better quality, including EVs, in the same price range, your subpar product will suffer. This means you have more than a brand problem, you have a product problem.
Does a Jaguar Rebrand Make Sense?
Knowing all of this, let's now revisit the question of intention. Does a rebrand for Jaguar make sense? Maybe. To me, it only makes sense in this situation if you have something new or a vastly improved product or set of products to peddle. If you don't and you're just trying to put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig. It would just now be a pig that looks ridiculous because it's wearing a neon yellow Star Trek suit and freaking lipstick.
However, if Jaguar is in fact getting ready to launch something new that is actually a good product, then rebranding is likely a calculated risk, but a good one. And if this is more of a market-priming buzz generator before a brand new product drops, then it may actually be genius.
Now I won't go so far as to say that the creative choices make sense. After all, I don't think a logo that is futuristic yet similar to Tesla's is going to stand out or be believable for Jaguar given the brand's current perception. Nor do I really get why a car company created a post-modern, creepy Willy Wonka themed campaign considering all the directions they could have gone in. But it is getting attention so I guess did what it was supposed to do?
Conclusions
It remains to be seen as to whether the Jaguar brand team and their agencies made a good strategic decision with their risky behavior here. But I don't think these folks took any of these decisions lightly. They have a series of real business problems to address so at least at face value, it appears they are trying to attach this rebrand to the shifts they are making to address those issues. To me, you should only consider a rebrand if it helps you to solve issues in your business strategy, so for that I applaud them.
At the end of the day, this with either go down as a masterclass case study in how to prime the market before dropping a new product that overhauled a dying brand, or it will go down as one of the weirdest fails a brand team and their agency partner has concocted in quite a while. Either way, I think the decisions were deliberate and intentional as they should have been. Now I'm just going to kick back with my popcorn and watch the show.
Comments