Speed? Agility? Excellence? Jaguar, a British brand which has echoed through the decades, from the E-Type which tested the limits on Britain’s first motorways. The XJ Saloon is a symbol of status as powerful as its engines.
Then there’s the almost mythical XJ220, the 90s ultimate supercar and hi-powered hybrids and e-vehicles added added the fleet.
Each generation of engineers and manufacturers acts as custodians of a brand which is often seen as defining British aspiration, with many one day hoping “They’ll buy a Jag”.
Yet last week, the leaping big cat, far from growling with the power of a new engine under an iconic bonnet, was being erased from history as a disastrous rebranding exercise got underway.
Not learning lessons from the disaster of Bud Light’s marketing implosion, an “edgy” rebrand was unveiled which featured weird clothes, garish backdrops, odd slogans, poor haircuts and a guy in drag, but no cars.
The big cat logo slain for a weird pair of letters. The ridicule was quick in coming, with Jaguar’s X account rapidly filling up with outrage from Jaguar fans, humour from rivals and despair from those hoping to sell any of their cars.
Rather than listen, a marketing team suffering from a bout of self-delusion worthy of a Monty Python sketch, described how it was part of: “Seismic change” and “a new creative philosophy”.
The nonsense was apparently about positioning the brand at a new price point – a potentially accurate point given Jaguar’s stock with its custom base was plummeting with each tweet.
With anyone driving past a rival luxury car dealership likely to hear raucous laughter as they watched Jaguar’s ad, the Managing Director of Jaguar, Rawdon Glover, responded to the mounting ridicule and criticism. Did he seek to reassure customers? Did he accept the ad could have been better constructed or explained? No.
Like a petulant Student Union Activist failing in their arguments, rather than the boss of an iconic motor company and heir to the industrial legacy of William Lyons, Mr Glover resorted to blaming the backlash on “hatred and intolerance”.
Reminiscent of the naked emperor wearing his fine new clothes, which only the intelligent can see, Glover sought to criticise those who queried his judgement and pointed out the disaster this ad was.
Through his comments, he seemed to suggest it was not his fault for signing off a dire ad and a stupid strategy; it’s the customers for not understanding it – this speaks volumes about why the company is in trouble if this is its guiding mind.
Times do change and iconic brands need to adapt, but this must be rooted in transferring timeless values to new products and still meeting key customer expectations.
Iconic Swiss watchmakers did not survive recent decades by selling cheap digital versions. Some of our longest-surviving retailers have always ensured a core custom base can still get key products at a competitive price, whilst what is sold around them varies according to fashion and technology.
During the credit crunch of 2008, I campaigned for Jaguar Land Rover to be supported to have a future.
In Coventry, Jaguar is intertwined with the city’s sense of civic pride, with thousands of well-paid high-skill jobs reliant on it.
The carmaker’s pomposity and misguided virtue signalling risk the jobs of thousands of people across the industrial heartland of our country and an iconic British brand with them.