I would love to see any evidence that "DEI" was used 500 times in an automotive conference.
The corporate teams i work with are all highly educated and extremely diverse.
Jaguar is going upmarket, and probably focused on selling to moneyed, educated, travelled individuals and doesnt care what regressives not in the market think.
They chase dollars and consumers, not obsessed with far right culture wars punching down on vulnerable groups.
They also cannot attract top talent without being able to demonstrate a civilized corporate culture with clear policies and stances on professionalism and unacceptable workplace behavior (intolerance, sexual assault and harassment, no mysogyny, etc.)
Also broadly funds dont deploy into companies without good ESG. So good luck with incremental capital formation or liquidity.
Every year its "DEI", "woke" this or "snowflake" that. Like people can't tell it is 1 degree away from openly using slurs in public
Whatever dog whistle of the moment to cover up resentment politics. Its literally how conservative extremists back in the middle east operate. Religion this, family values that, while demonstrating neither themselves.
I am excited for this.
I hope they got the best and most unique people they could find and empower them to show us what is possible when the boardroom isnt filled with nepotism hires.
My opinion on why this campaign is having a serious hard time everywhere in the media - To respond to your evidence needs It certainly felt like that and its my opinion and many others apparently if you check X, Youtube, and Bluesky this isnt some random occurrence ( my statement stated "what seemed like" so you would be wise to unpack that aspect of the statement). Search your favorite social media platform and search Jaguar. I recommend to start gathering your evidence by watching Jaguar's Strategic Projects Leader speech where he teased about the car company's new vision of embracing DEI during a recent awards speech.
The cars where not mentioned as a new benchmark for the company in terms of a speech focus the HR policies where listed as such. It was quite frankly exhausting because it didnt lead to anything regarding an automotive brand being empowered or emboldened from the perspective of a consumer or an enthusiast on the subject of an automobile manufacturer and the product it produces.
We all understand that Jaguar seems to be
aiming for the Rolls Royce Spectre market but is this campaign the welcome carpet to that demographic of wealth?
Many Questions arise.
I don't work for Jaguar its internal culture operations is of no value to me as a person who admires some of their cars.
If I was an employee the value is there but not to the consumer in terms of ROI. Nobody cares about the corporate culture unless you work for said company that should've been an internal event not a rebrand expo. Consumers are generally not interested on companies' HR policies from an automotive company when it comes to a person "Upmarket" considering a 200k +/- car. For example has anyone become a Mclaren or Mercedes fan because and are familiar with their HR department's culture connector program?
In my view its overselling something that nobody can buy or purchase or that most dont care about in a rebrand and this is why its getting dressed down from all parts of the political spectrum. DEI is not a new concept, it doesnt give the impression that a better car will be developed. Im not an overly emotional person so buzz words have no effect on me however firm sound business logic does. Being in the corporate world myself this type of marketing failed to speak to what people are interested in when looking at Jaguar the last thing you want to do with a failing brand is promote your corporate culture as a rebrand. Jaguar is currently failing is it not in terms of profit expectations correct for a myriad of reasons however advertising a re-branded work culture, onboarding and HR is not how the market has shown you stimulate a brand from the outside looking in the automotive space from failing to success.
Maybe their goal is to become niche and some type of fashion-forward integrated avante-garde smaller auto brand?
This can be a possibility i cannot dismiss.
Quite frankly you dont need to be labeled to dislike poor marketing. There is such things as poor execution no matter how one slices it. In my view labeing folks is a just a way to avoid tough conversations. Example using buzz words right , left , diagonal....the harder conversation is understanding people and being able to rationally have a conversation in this case a person interested in buying a car. That marketing was bizarre and not even the best Canva Pro user can save it or the wonderful icon Law Roach himself sadly in my opinion unless they provide some better context to how this translates to a car.
We still have time to understand their marketing with more context. I give them the benefit of the doubt.
What disappoints me is i fear this lowers the bar for what we expect of a great brand like Jaguar if indeed this is all we expand on with its rebrand and its not some epic troll for exposure.
I hope they return back to its roots as a focused automotive brand
At the end of the day. This isnt the first time Jaguar as done radical changes but never like this.
We want great cars and consumers dont care about internal corporate culture when buying a car of said company. We care about great products.
I never looked at a car and bragged about said company's HR policies as a motivator to spend money and i wonder if that client exists to move the units sold to run an automotive company's profit margins. Even at the 400k level demo, is this type of marketing interesting to that level of buyer as an attractive proposition?
We shall see. This is in my opinion the end of the road for them if this doesn't work as
they have tried essentially everything to revamp the brand portfolio. It doesn't surprise me that this radical departure would be a sort of last attempt at keeping the automaker alive. Thus throw out everything that made you what you are and lets try a new identity but the issue is who their aiming for may not even recognize the brand they are selling and may question the entire value prop.
Only time will truly tell.
Cheers!
