The change of brand of Jaguar: daring move or expensive error?

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Jaguar’s recent brand change has people who speak, but not how most marketing specialists hope.

No more classic clues of British elegance. In their place is minimalism and “modernist exuberance”. Their brand change campaigns involve cryptic videos, haute couture models and a new mantra: “Copy nothing. Delete ordinary.

The reactions have been mixed. Marketing legend Mark Ritson called him “F — ING LUNACY”, while Rory Sutherland I reserve a judgment, saying: “It is too early to call.”

So what is Jaguar playing?

What did Jaguar do?

The historic British car manufacturer has opted for a new look. The cat was jumped was removed from the logo. In its place is a minimalist word that now reads “Jaguar”. Yes… with this random capitalization.

Jaguar launched this brand change by wiping their own social media profiles and replacing their brand image with car -free visuals. It prompted Elon Musk To ask, “Do you sell cars?”.

But change is part of a broader strategy. Jaguar sales have dropped, And there is a real fear that the brand cannot count on its existing customers.

To face, Jaguar reposition himself as a luxury EV brand of £ 100,000 + to compete with Porsche and Bentley. Rather than targeting an older generation that loves its British roots, Jaguar plans to target the millennials “rich in cash and poor” and Gen Z.

But will it work?

The tropicana effect

Most marketing specialists can tell a long list of failed rebrands. Usually, the top of this list is tropicana in 2009. They abandoned their iconic orange logo with a blow for an elegant overhaul.

The result was abysmal. Sales fell 20% in two months. The company lost 30 million pounds sterling before falling back on the original design.

Jaguar’s bet is strangely similar: abandon the familiar in favor of “modern”. But here is the thing: cars are not juice.

The purchase of Tropicana is a quick, emotional and intuitive decision (which Daniel Kahneman Call “System 1”). The purchase of cars is deliberate, logical and linked to identity (“system 2”).

So you might say that Jaguar’s separation of its roots is not problematic. After all, buyers will rationally assess Jaguar’s car according to its quality, not its historic marketing.

But we miss an important part of the puzzle: mental availability.

Jaguar mental availability problem

Byron Sharp, author of How brands grow uphighlights the power of memory structures. Jaguar’s heritage – The Le Mans wins, the electronic type factor and the “Jaaaaag” factor – are its mental assets.

Sharp argues that one of the only objectives of advertising is to refresh mental availability. This maintains high consciousness and stimulates purchases.

Huge brands like McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Apple and Audi incorporate distinctive brand elements in each of their ads. This repeated exhibition strengthens mental availability in the customer’s mind.

In his book, Sharp notes how the announcements that have managed to connect to existing brand assets are 60% more effective to stimulate sales than generic advertisements with weak brand associations.

In other words, Coca-Cola sells more by creating familiar advertisements, although perhaps dull, young friends drinking coke by a hot day than them by creating a distinctive but unknown announcement.

Jaguar abandoning all their recognized assets for abstract visuals risks losing everything that makes the brand memorable.

Australian wine lessons

Bryon Sharp shares an example of Queen Adélaïde, a well -known wine brand in Australia which had lost the relevance of the market and the space of the shelves.

Seppelt, the company behind Queen Adelaide, saw the opportunity to relaunch the brand rather than create a new one. Unlike Jaguar, Queen Adelaide focused on maintaining familiarity. They kept the name and recognizable design elements to trigger existing memory structures in the minds of consumers.

In a short time, Queen Adelaide has become the best -selling Chardonnay in Australia. Sales increased due to the brand’s capacity to reconnect with its established mental availability.

The example underlines that the doubling of mental availability can stimulate sales for a brand in difficulty.

The sensitive option for Jaguar

The safe and sensible option for the emblematic brand would have been to marry the old and the new.

Take the assets that Jaguar fans know and build on them to highlight their new electronic era.

They could have reinvented the logo, but kept clearer’s leading to the heritage of Jaguar. Mental availability prosperous on the familiarity and the change of brand of Jaguar leaves them as weak as a new brand entering an extremely competitive market.

By adding to the strong brand, Jaguar could have kept the strong associations that millions of people in the world had with the brand rather than breaking them.

But that’s the safe option. Although it is undoubtedly less risky and much less likely to lead to a catastrophic decrease in sales, it also has less rising potential.

The big question

Is Jaguar’s brand change a smart movement to secure its place in the electric vehicle market, or will it end up as another tropicana-type disaster?

Mark Ritson maintains that they should have modernized with their inheritance, not having erased it. Rory Sutherland? He keeps his mind open.

What is certain is the following: Jaguar has risked billions of dollars in mental availability. If they cannot build new associations quickly enough, this daring bet could cost more than they can afford it.

This blog is part of Phill Agnew ‘s Marketing cheat sheet series Where it reveals scientifically proven advice to help you improve your marketing. To find out more, listen to your podcast ElbowA proud member of the HubSpot podcast network.