In recent weeks, it is not politics or American Thanksgiving gatherings that have dominated debates on social networks.
Rather, it was a car manufacturer.
That’s correct. Jaguar’s bold rebranding, including a new logo, visual style and everything in between, caused the internet to lose its collective mind.
There’s a saying: “If you put four marketers in a room, you’ll get five opinions on the best way to do something.” » This cliché took center stage because everyone seemed to have a position on Jaguar – the genius, the beauty, the strategy, the horrible, the ridiculous of it all.
But was it one of those things?
Or was Jaguar trolling to get everyone talking about it?
After all, at least a dozen global automakers have changed their logos in the past five years, and that list included Jaguar. But Jaguar’s 2024 iteration appears to be the only one getting any worthwhile attention.
Is this the only way to get people to notice and talk about your bold new look? Or is something else brewing?
We asked these questions to CMI’s Chief Strategic Advisor, Robert Rose. Keep reading or watch this video to get his take:
Jaguar shakes up the brand like no other
Fun fact: Jaguar was founded over 100 years ago as the Swallow Sidecar Co. It manufactured sidecars for motorcycles.
Jaguar vehicles existed just after World War II and have always been associated with British luxury, detail and an emphasis on performance.
But Jaguar – the company – did something bold, and yet it’s the least mentioned thing in this whole branding debate. Jaguar paused and restarted. The iconic brand stopped making gasoline-powered cars and shifted to fully electric luxury models. It even takes a one-year production break for the reinvention.
Jaguar will focus its sales on exclusivity and not volume. By 2026, it will sell three electric models, each costing more than £100,000 (about $126,000) and backed by a more selective dealer network.
Jaguar CEO Rawdon Glover are “This is a complete reset. Jaguar is transforming itself to recapture its originality and inspire a new generation.
Given this roadmap for the company, how would you have created the new creative, logo, and brand tone?
Well, Jaguar’s in-house creative team took all of that to heart and turned the traditional car brand on its head. In a subtle change, he flipped the jaguar in the logo so that it was jumping forward rather than backward.
But that’s not what created the collective toxic panic. THE Copy Nothing Campaign provoked a strong reaction. The ad didn’t show a car. I’ll remind you why: the all-electric luxury lineup won’t debut until the 2026 model year. (This week, two weeks after the video was released, Jaguar shared a design vision concept This certainly fits the new branding.)
The new brand identity has a modern and colorful look. It illustrates what Jaguar intends to go beyond: the well-known conservative colors of classic British luxury, such as Carmen Red, Fuji White, Ultra Blue and, of course, British Racing Green.
This change seemed to upset so many people. Social media posts came fast and furious. People called this a big mistake. Others wondered who would be fired for the rebranding. Still others posted, calling it woke and ridiculous.
Why did people seem so deeply disturbed by Jaguar’s rebranding? After all, the Jaguar team had nothing to go on other than 100 years of history and the context of its current business strategy.
The Real Lesson From This Controversial Creative Rebranding
As you can see, I don’t hate the rebranding. I don’t like him either. I recognize that I am not the target market for this new Jaguar.
What I love is that Jaguar did the one thing that modern marketers always claim every brand should do. He did what speaker after speaker at conferences talks about. This is what was mentioned years later as motivation when the brand won awards.
Jaguar did something bold, creative, outside the box – and did it knowing that people would either love it or hate it. This brings me back to the famous Apple ad from 1984, which was tested as the the worst advertising they have ever seen to convince.
Now, I’m not saying that Jaguar’s rebranding is another Apple ad from 1984.
But Jaguar, as a company, is swing hard. The complete reboot of the company stems from a complete realization that in order to remain relevant for the next 100 years, it must change. Its goal is to stop production for a year, rethink its product portfolio and redevelop its reseller network.
With the creative rebranding, I suspect the only thing even remotely permanent is the jumping jaguar as the badge and the logo itself. THE cool, oddly strange and diverse, circus-like video that’s simply what’s happening this month.
In this rebrand, the Jaguar team has plenty of room to move around and express themselves in a new way. This is modern branding.
Don’t get stuck in inheritance. Don’t limit where you can take creative ideas.
Jaguar even says that’s what it will do. He even calls this chapter “Copy Nothing,” and his website’s meta description simply says: “Inspire like no other: Conquer convention.” »
The brilliance of this brand campaign – and the lesson from it – isn’t how much it resembles the past. This is the room for maneuver that Jaguar has given itself to bring the brand into tomorrow. This can continue to create weird moments that get people talking and attract new people. Or it may just settle down.
And it reminds us of the genius of Apple. It is Think Differently Campaign 1997 featured iconoclasts of history all thinking differently and offered no product photos. Apple didn’t call itself an iconoclast, nor did it say it thought differently. The campaign tells viewers that they are iconoclasts. Apple said: “To you, those who think differently. We are made for you.
What Jaguar does is everything, whether it succeeds or not. Jaguar doesn’t say it’s the inspiration. This means that Jaguar is the brand of those who want to challenge convention.
And that leaves plenty of room to fly in the brand-building sky.
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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
