Jaguar Redefines Their Brand - Moving Upwards

[spwolf]

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!

a. that awards speech was for LGBTQ+ award he got, that was the show. So yes, he talked about LGBTQ+ stuff while accepting LGBTQ+ magazine award he got.

b. commercial was about marketing it as high end european fashion, have you ever seen Prada or Gucci shows?

And yes, there is no car right now. Who knows will there ever be as brand is going downhill forever now.

Thats the problem and not colorful high end fashion show they produced. They missed their targets and scrapped previous car so they are late. Due to various safety/security rules they will have to take cars our of market since it does not pay to update them.

In the end, JLR might not care as they are enjoying their record sales right now.

 

[Randen Montalvo]

a. that awards speech was for LGBTQ+ award he got, that was the show. So yes, he talked about LGBTQ+ stuff while accepting LGBTQ+ magazine award he got.

b. commercial was about marketing it as high end european fashion, have you ever seen Prada or Gucci shows?

And yes, there is no car right now. Who knows will there ever be as brand is going downhill forever now.

Thats the problem and not colorful high end fashion show they produced. They missed their targets and scrapped previous car so they are late. Due to various safety/security rules they will have to take cars our of market since it does not pay to update them.

In the end, JLR might not care as they are enjoying their record sales right now.

a) Yes, from a branding perspective in the US specifically, those two events are being correlated since he spoke on the rebrand, and the theme of that event easily corroborates what he stated the rebrand would be like. That fueled this whole media influx of Jaguar along with that ad campaign imagery being the newest company to be assocaited by the media with the term "Go Woke and Go Broke or that this is Jaguars Bud Light Moment" thats a rough corrolation. We see that now all over the internet, so there's that correlation. Its a media storm that isnt positive and thats where my shock came from aswell. In my content i figured it was a troll or gave grace to see the product but its simply bizzare stuff.

Lulu Cheng Meservey, co-founder of Rostra PR group, called the rebrand "disastrous," saying any ad from the company should "highlight innovation, and engineering" and "pick a clear lane for branding."

b) I love Fashion however its a bekram yoga stretch to see an auto manufacturer representing a rebrand gut their branding heritage. I think that was where the horror resides. It went from opulence to the unexplained with poor context.

Land Rover units are selling and is the reason for the postiive financial outlook not Jaguar as a brand of course. Jaguar of course have their well-known critical issues removing themselves from markets and are now going full EV. Thus i fear will consolidate the brand even more. I just dont see a scenario where Jaguar the brand as a EV manufacturer thrives. Honestly looking at them as a whole i think if this continues and the product doesnt live up to the hype. Jaguar will end as a brand. Do you want a 400k car with the media baggage that it carries? Thats a tough one but the buzz can die out aswell.

One thing is for certain they are getting hammered in all media and bad publicity is exposure but i have never seen so many outlets clown a brand. They need to provide context or else i do think this doesn't end well for Jaguar.

Mark my words based on everything im seeing now im going to go on a limb to state i dont see Jaguar as a brand making it if this type of direction bleeds into its EV chapter. I think many will write off the brand. I think that CEO gets fired or leaves.

Willing to be wrong . Time will tell. This will be archived so i cant wait to revisit it years later.