Tuesday, 26 November 2024
Tuesday, 26 November 2024
Jaguar has come out swinging to counter the torrent of online criticism it has faced for its Martian-style landscape rebranding ad that received over 160 million views globally on social media.
Jaguar managing director Rawdon Glover is completely unrepentant about the 30-second video with its focus on diversity and shift away from a masculine brand image. He told The Times, London that he “didn’t expect to be the number one and number three trending topics on X on either side of the Atlantic”. (That’s one in the UK and three in the US).
But Glover adds feistily: “We wanted to start a debate – to get people thinking and talking about Jaguar in a totally different way.”
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is 100 per cent owned by Tata Motors.
Online commenters said they were baffled by Jaguar’s video that featured racially diverse models in a bizarre, alien landscape and showed no cars. “People expected cars, not Mars!” complained one critic who accused Jaguar of going “woke.”
The top comment on Instagram, liked 13,000 times, claimed the company “killed a British icon.”
Jaguar, which has introduced a new, stylised logo – dropping the famed "growler" big cat emblem – is accelerating down an unconventional path and has chosen a very different type of event to launch its new concept model: an art show rather than a motor show.
The event will take place on December 2 at the Miami Design District’s Jungle Plaza, famous for its outdoor, mega-sized events.
Says Glover: “We’re unveiling the brand at an art fair, rather than a motor show. This is Jaguar being bold, doing things differently.” He adds, borrowing a slogan from Jaguar’s advertisement: “We’re at our best when we copy nothing.”
Jaguar aims to launch three new models when it gets back on the road in 2026. Yes, it’s going to be completely off the road in 2025.
First off the starting block will be a four-door GT Tourer designed for high speed and long-distance driving. That will be followed by an all-new saloon car and then an SUV. There may even be a sports car on its way for buyers who prefer staying on the fast track.
Jaguar, which has been facing dwindling sales, isn’t planning on turning out massive numbers of automobiles from its factory in Solihull, UK. For now, they’re looking at producing about 50,000 cars annually.
Last year, 66,000 Jaguars were sold globally, about half the number sold during the fiscal year that included the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
There’ll also be one other big difference from before: each vehicle will be priced at over £100,000 (current models sell at around $89,000). Glover’s confident that the cars will be “modern icons” and will join Jaguar’s most glorious marques like the E-Type and the XJS.
Glover promises that all the new cars “will drive like Jaguars”.
Still, critics in the industry remain sceptical. They argue that Jaguar had a unique tradition and century-old history that’s at risk of being squandered. Says Hormazd Sorabjee, editor of Autocar India: “I think this was a mistake. The complete reinvention of the brand has wiped out a legacy of 90 years. If the new car is great, it may be a great luxury car but not necessarily a great Jag in my opinion.”
The carmaker said it is moving to vehicles for the “design-minded,” with Glover telling a motoring publication in July that “we expect 10 to 15 per cent of our current Jaguar customers will follow us.”
Glover has fired back at Tesla’s and Trump’s right-hand man Elon Musk, who was so mystified that there were no cars in the ad, he tweeted bluntly: “Do you sell cars?” The Jaguar reply was, “Yes. We’d love to show you. Join us for a cuppa in Miami.”
Glover also clapped back at UK Reform Party leader Nigel Farage, who claimed Jaguar “will go bust” with its rebrand. Said Glover: “The average age of the Jaguar client is quite old and getting older. We’ve got to access a completely different audience. That audience isn’t centred around the demographic of Mr. Farage.” Farage is 60.
“To bring back such a globally renowned brand, we had to be fearless,” Glover said.
Jaguar’s taking another risk by ceasing production of its combustion-engine models and going all-electric – and that too at a time when electric vehicle sales are slowing in the UK. But Sorabjee reckons that this is not such a bad move. He says: “I don’t think going electric is such a gamble. That is the future and EV sales are bound to bounce back.”
One auto industry watcher who was initially dismayed by the ad but has now done a total U-turn is auto writer James Morris, who has been amazed by how the advertisement has gone viral almost globally.
Even though the comments were mostly negative, he insists that, at the end of the day, all publicity on this scale must be good publicity.
Commenting in Forbes, Morris said: “Having seen the media reaction, I’ve changed my mind. Even the BBC is covering the backlash as breaking news. At the time of writing, the video has had 1.5 million views and over 24,000 comments. I can’t remember any automaking launch or rebrand getting this much attention in all my years writing about the car industry.”
But if companies strike a wrong marketing chord with customers, the consequences can be dire. Radio Shack rebranded to “The Shack”, alienating its core customer base, and eventually filed for bankruptcy protection in 2015.
Another rebranding failure was fruit juice giant Tropicana, which changed its logo to omit its trademark orange. After a backlash, it soon changed it back.
When advertising industry historians look back at the Jaguar ad, will they see it as a stroke of genius or a colossal blunder that destroyed a storied brand? That depends hugely on the car that rolls out of the Jaguar factory more than a year from now. After all, the car is always the star!
