Don't Fuck with Mr. Zero
Branding, Bling, Legacy and other such Bullshit
Since writing this article, Jaguar has launched its EV 00. Oh dear! One review described it as more Pink Panther than Green Jaguar. Did they read my article? It also described the launch in Miami as being surrounded and promoted by Influencers (keep reading). The exterior design is pretty much as I expected, but other than the rear-wheel arches which retains the haunches of a Jaguar, the rest is bland and boxy. Most disappointing is the interior. While I described the interior of a Tesla as a mobile IKEA office, I would describe the Jaguar EV 00’s as the interior of a rigid, plastic handbag and indeed the seats are polyurethane - not exactly EV green! Here is the original article:
Jaguar, it seems, has solicited quite the reaction to their rebranding, and teaser campaign prior to launching a new EV model this December.
The last marketing and management consulting project I did was back in 2010 and I have to admit I didn’t enjoy it. It was for a branch of the US Federal Government, which made navigating the proverbial red-tape that much more challenging, and something I decided thereafter never to repeat. But, never say never as they say, because there is one aspect of marketing (and I really mean only one) that still fascinates me and that is the repositioning/management of luxury market, classic brands.
In 2023, Bud Light got caught up in a catastrophic shit-storm with its influencer-based promotion using Dylan Mulvaney as the brand’s new spokesperson. It was an interesting exercise in trying to introduce a large, established mass-market brand to a new audience as a means of stimulating sales amongst a younger, more diverse group. The reaction from a small group of core users was visceral, but that’s the politically divisive climate in which we now live.
All brand-owners are after that Holy Grail, the 18-24 year old audience, seeking eternal brand life through attracting a younger consumer in each new generation. Not all markets are as sensitive as the beer market. Gillette is as old as the hills, but with shaving comes the advantage of technical innovation (and everyone over a certain age has to shave occasionally), whereas consumers tend to drink with their eyes. It was a brave and perhaps ill-advised move to take a very masculine brand and market it to the LGBTQ+ community. However, if Coca-Cola could survive and even thrive from the launch and rapid demise of New Coke, then who knows what is possible, and from my experience the LGBTQ+ community doesn’t need to be marketed to as directly as one might imagine. In the drinks industry the community, being as tight-knit as it often is, adopts its own brands by choice rather than needing to be aggressively marketed to.
Bud Light will no doubt recover, and having been involved in the revamping of one of the UK’s largest beer brands in my first job in brand management, the one piece of advice I would give any young brand manager is to allow their brand to grow old gracefully. Established brands often can’t recapture their youth. In some market sectors, there is no such thing as brand Botox or brand Ozempic, and too much plastic surgery can have some pretty freakish results. Instead, manage the decline and develop new brands/products to target new audiences. Maxwell House tried to do the same thing with new ad campaigns targeting a newer, younger audience. While they didn’t create a shit-storm, it collapsed like a flan in a cupboard, without so much as a blip to their sales graph.
Against conventional wisdom, I have always been an advocate of developing primary, secondary and tertiary audiences, which is especially important in the US with such ethnic diversity, which do indeed perceive brands differently and shop differently from one another. I was also always pushing clients into developing a greater number of creative ad executions, even if that meant plundering their media budgets, which never went down well. On that score I was largely if not wholly ignored. However, I’ve noticed a lot of ad campaigns recently, particular since the proliferation of streaming services where brands are using a lot of different creative ad executions. This I applaud, and it is particularly prevalent in the auto insurance market right now. But they are not all good. Like story, there has to be a consistent through-line or in painting terms a color harmony, which ties them together strategically and creatively and this just isn’t happening in a lot of cases i.e. you can’t successfully go off in different tangents and be cohesive at the same time.
Okay, back to Jaguar. If you haven’t seen it, here’s their teaser ad:
In my opinion, the teaser looks like a teaser for a haute couture fashion brand or a Vogue cover shoot, not a car brand and their “Copy Nothing,” statement? Hmm…the “JR” logo looks a bit “CC,” Coco Chanel to me with some added notes of brushed-golden bling, thrown into the mix.
With the pink colors of the Martian-esque landscape in the teaser, it’s also more Pink Panther than it is Jaguar. Anyone remember the Pink Panther cartoons and merchandize? I hope Inspector Clouseau is not in charge of quality control, although I’m pretty sure he’s currently gainfully employed at Tesla.
In the brand marketing world there is a term used to describe the anatomy of a brand called ‘brand values.’ These generally cover both tangible and intangible values in much the same way as accountants tally up tangible and intangible assets on a balance sheet.
In Jaguar’s case I would hazard to guess that they look something like this:
Jaguar (the animal): Beauty, Mystical, Mesmerizing, Elusive, Primordial, High-Performance, Speed, Acceleration.
Jaguar (the automobile): Beauty, Mystique, Head-Turning, Exclusive, Classic, High-Performance, Speed, Acceleration.
This was a truly masterful piece of branding by William Lyons, the company’s founder, matching the values of a beautiful animal with the brand values of a high-performance automobile. Even Enzo Ferrari described the E-Type Jaguar as the most beautiful car ever created. I concur. Even to this day there is nothing quite like the E-Type Jaguar.
Based on the new logo designs (Brand Identity) and teaser ad it would seem the brand values have been repositioned to include: Modern/High-Tech, Inclusive, Diverse, Martian (other worldly), colorful? I’m only glad they didn’t go too Silicon Valley and drop a letter - Jagur. At its price point the brand will undoubtedly retain its exclusive audience, but the rest appears to be thrown to the wolves. Interestingly, there is little difference, other than size, between a male Jaguar and its female counterpart. So to large degree they already had some diversity and inclusion built into their brand, without needing to advertise it.
The brand identity and teaser ad suggests that the company is going to premiere a radical shift in automobile design too, with its soon-to-be -launched EV. But that would mean everything changes, head-to-toe, from brand values, branding, advertising and auto designs. That would then suggest they are probably betting on an entirely new driver. At a guess, I would say they are shifting their positioning to compete directly with Tesla, hoping to capture the diverse and lucrative “Influencer” market both in terms of brand image and driver, e.g. the Kim Kardashian’s of the world. If that’s the case, it’s a brave new world for Jaguar and hat’s off to them if they pull it off. But in my mind they are moving a classic brand with a driver who wants everything, Jaguar the animal stands for, to a very fickle “Influencer” brand image and driver. They will almost certainly alienate their current audience and Tesla doesn't have the heritage that Jaguar has spent over a hundred years building. Tesla is in effect a tech company producing cars.
I was trying to write this article without reading any other articles on the subject, but mid-way through writing I had to look up the name of Jaguar’s managing director and just read that Rawdon Glover (Managing Director) stated that the company expects between 10-15% of their current customers to come along with their new venture. That’s not a lot. Are they really willing to gamble 85-90% of their current customer base? Heritage should never be a millstone around a brand’s neck. It is an asset Tesla won’t have for decades to come, if it’s lucky enough to build one. The new Jaguar branding/advertising is a different beast altogether. Perhaps more Chihuahua than Jaguar. At least with a silent, electric engine, the lost “roar” won’t be replaced by a high-pitched “yap.” Joking aside, Jaguar has the design chops to compete with Tesla and then some. While Tesla’s outer body design is distinctive, the interior is like a mobile IKEA office. Whether Jaguar can compete in the EV market on design alone remains to be seen - I would have advised them to develop a less radical evolution of the brand Identity. One that can comfortably straddle the company’s automobile/racing heritage, the Spirit of the ancient Jaguar, and its move into tech.
You might argue that cars are different. They have to innovate or die. And that’s true, but how they evolve the brand umbrella is different.
Aston Martin maintained its classic branding, when it launched the bellyflop of the then space-age Lagonda, and because of that it was easier for them to pump the brakes and get back to classic vehicle designs.
Porsche has constantly tried and failed to introduce a mid-priced vehicle, under its classic branding.
Even relatively minor changes in vehicle design can have a big impact. When Rolls Royce changed their headlamps from rounds to squares they created a vehicle which will never be considered a classic. Some collectors may want them because they want everything Rolls Royce, but they are not sought after in the classic car market.
The Mini and the VW’s Beetle were brilliant relaunches of classic brands, actually taking them up a notch, to a more premium price point, while the relaunch of MG failed, because it failed to capture any of the essence of its classic design.
Most brands, with the kind of history and heritage that Jaguar has, need to preserve their legacies. Legacies are hard won, but even harder to claw back when they’ve been violated or lost. It is one of the arguments I have with the film and television studios since leaving the marketing world. Over the last decade they have ignored their own legacies in favor of profit, almost exclusively from younger audiences. Although, I am heartened to see the latest Starbuck’s ads are focused back on coffee and all the warm and fuzzy reasons to go out for a coffee at Starbucks. Now the coffee company has to meet that promise back in its stores, and that’s a tall order!
Of course, I may well eat my words with everything I’ve said in this article and if so I will be happy to do so! In the meantime, I wish Jaguar the best of luck. I would love to see them come out with the next level E-Type - the next most beautiful car ever created, and of course I’ll always be in the market for a custom, refurbished E-Type Series 1 Coupe!
So that covers branding, bling and legacy, but what of the other such bullshit? Well, let’s not forget that this world, when push comes to shove, is just one BIG NOTHING.
Gavin J. Chalcraft is an artist and CEO/Executive Producer at Golden Ratio Media Group, a film, television, and theatre production company. Prior to working in the arts, he owned and ran Isosceles Consulting, a global brand development and management consulting firm.
*** Gavin Chalcraft and Golden Ratio Media Group, Inc. strictly prohibits the use of any generative AI software to upload and analyze any material attached to or contained in these Substack posts. ***