What Does It Mean For a Brand To Be Radical?

Thoughts on Jaguar's Relaunch, Plus a Juicy Cultural Rattle Bag

The only hint of dignity in the ad is the look of profound sorrow in this man’s eyes

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I didn’t expect to write two consecutive posts about advertising, but as soon as I dropped one on Coca-Cola’s Christmas campaign, Jaguar dropped its big rebrand, and, well, how could I not?

This campaign has been greeted with a thundering chorus of derision from Nigel Farage to Marina Hyde. If you’re Jaguar, you might say, ‘That’s exactly what we expected. It’s what we want. Anything genuinely new is met with scorn. Bring it on!’ I think that would be optimistic. I’d honestly prefer to say the haters are wrong, but I can’t. For those of you who have not had the pleasure, here is the ad:

Copy nothing! Except maybe H&M. The ad was aired along with a whole new design for the brand. Jaguar’s iconic growler (left) is being replaced with a monogram (right):

‘Hey guys, what if we take our rich and distinctive iconography and drain it of history, character, and cultural power? Would that work?’ They have also updated the logo:

This to me is the worst offence. The original typography is dated now but it was stylish, and the leaping jaguar is, well, Jaguar. The new device is a mixed case mish-mash, a stab at generic tech branding with no sense of identity.

This is what survives of the jaguar. Note that it leaps the other way now, which is the only bit of this that makes sense, since we associate left-to-right with forward. But the cat itself has lost definition.

We’ll get back to all this, but first, some context. Jaguar is a sickly brand and has been for some time. American sales are down 80% on 2017. Rather than continuing to manage decline, its management has decided to change everything. The new branding hails a completely new product range. Like Dylan in 1965, Jaguar is going electric and in a big way: it’s stopping production of all existing models and replacing them with an all-EV range¹. But the new models won’t arrive until 2026. For at least a year, then, Jaguar will exist as pure brand, a concept rather than a car company. There will be prototypes, and there will be ads, but no cars.

They’re doing a launch campaign without anything to launch. There must be some reason for this that makes sense internally but from here it seems…odd. Sir Humphrey might call it courageous. Not least because demand for high-end EV cars has so far been weak. Luxury carmakers like Porsche and Audi are extending the lifespan of petrol-powered models or ramping up hybrid production. But Jaguar believes that its EVs, once they emerge, are so good that they will overcome doubts among consumers about this whole category. The new models will have long ranges and short charging times.

Jaguar is also throwing away its consumers. It plans to sell fewer, much more expensive cars to a much smaller niche audience - to be more Rolls Royce and Bentley than BMW and Mercedes. The new models will retail for about double the prices of existing ones. So, unlike its mass-market rivals, Jaguar won’t have to cover all the bases. They’re targeting very rich people who (they think) care more about design and aesthetics than engine power and product specs.² A prototype of the flagship model will be unveiled at Miami Art Fair, no less. Jaguar promise it will be sexier than most EVs.

It must be such a weird and disorienting time to be selling cars. The truth is that nobody really knows how consumers will choose between EVs, especially at the high end, or even if there will be a high end. As Rory Sutherland puts it, provocatively: “When you can produce a Skoda (or BYD) which is as quiet as a Bentley, as fast as a Porsche and as reliable as a VW (!), what is a premium car anymore?”. Car manufacturers can’t wait around to find out what this new category will look like, or make different products every year until one hits. They have to think five, ten years into the future. That’s hard.

All this is to say, we should have some sympathy with Jaguar’s bosses. We might even admire their ambition. They would certainly be right to dismiss some of the hostility. In any industry, insiders tend to be more conservative and narrow-minded than consumers. The car industry is full of people who love nothing better than nerding out about torque curve optimisation; Jaguar’s prospective buyers may well think of cars in the context of interior design and tech and clothes. It would be worrying for Jaguar if the relaunch didn’t befuddle the likes of Car Dealer magazine. But there’s a difference between reinventing a brand and trashing it. Jaguar has done the latter and in a way that conveys not conviction but bug-eyed terror. This feels like someone seized by panic, flushing the old brand down the toilet before the fashion cops burst in. What if they think we’re uncool? Argh.

Another way to put it is that, as per my recent post, it is a rather desperate attempt at charm, rather than charisma. Jaguar is trying to please consumers (‘Oh, you like Apple and Tesla and luxury fashion? We can do that!!!’) rather than impress them. It reeks of low self-esteem, which is rarely attractive, and devastating for an aspirational brand with a storied heritage. To adapt the definition of genius I quoted in that post: the most successful heritage brands are the ones most like themselves, not the ones who try to be like others. At its best the Jaguar brand is poised, imperious, and potent, a store of coiled energy, unmistakably British. The rebrand is…none of those things. There’s something very Liz Truss about it:

We need to take radical action! (OK, good, I’m with you)

<Shoots self in face> (Er…).

There must have been a better way. I think Jaguar should have looked to Rolex for inspiration…