Brave step or costly mistake?

Brave step or costly mistake?

Welcome to Creator crevicesWhere we experts bring Drift Kings Media Creator Voices to the blogs that inspire you and help you get better.

Jaguar’s youngest rebrand entertained people, but not in the way most marketers hope.

Gone are the classic hints of British elegance. In their place is minimalism and “modernist exuberance”. Your rebrand campaigns include cryptic videos, high-fashion models and a new mantra: “Nothing. Usually delete. “

Reactions were mixed. Marketing Mark Ritson called it “f — ing lunacy” while Rory Sutherland Reserves the judgment and says: “It is too early to call.”

So what does Jaguar play on?

Free kit: How to build a brand (download now)

What did Jaguar do?

The historical British automobile manufacturer has won a new look. The jumping cat was removed from the logo. In its place there is a minimalist word mark that now reads “Jaguar”. Yes … with this random capitalization.

Jaguar started this rebrand by cleaning her social media profiles cleanly and replacing its branding with car-free graphics. This demanded Elon Muschus To ask: “Do you sell cars?”.

However, the change is part of a wider strategy. Jaguar’s sales have decreased And there is a real fear that the brand cannot rely on its existing customer base.

To deal with it: Jaguar repositioned as a £ 100,000+ luxury -v brand to be able to compete with Porsche and Bentley. Instead of aiming at an older generation that worships their British roots, Jaguar plans “bar-rich, temporary arguments” millennials and genes Z.

But will it work?

The Tropicana effect

Most marketers can tell a long list of failed rebrands. Usually the top of this list 2009 Tropicana. You have broken off your legendary orange-mit-a-straw logo for an elegant redesign.

The result was miserable. Sales fell by 20% in two months. The company lost £ 30 million before it came back to the original design.

Jaguar’s gambling feels incredibly similar: the familiar in favor of “modern”. But here is the thing: cars are not a juice.

Buying Tropicana is a quick, emotional and intuitive decision (what Daniel Kahneman wanted Name “System 1”). The purchase of the car is intentionally, logical and bound to identity (“System 2”).

Screenshot 2025-01-30 at 9.44.08 a.m.

So you could argue that it is unproblematic to drain Jaguar from its roots. After all, buyers will rationally evaluate the car from Jaguar based on its quality, not on its historical marketing.

However, we are missing an important part of the puzzle: intellectual availability.

Jaguar’s mental availability problem

Byron Sharp, author of How brands growunderlines the performance of memory structures. Jaguar’s ERBE-Le Mans wins, the E-Type and the “Jaaaag” factor-sind its mental assets.

Sharp argues that one of the sole advertising goals is to update mental availability. This keeps consciousness up and strengthens purchasing.

Huge brands such as McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Apple and Audi contain unmistakable brand elements in each of their ads. This repetition of repetition builds mental availability in the customer’s head.

In his book, Sharp notes that advertisements that successfully link with existing branded assets increase 60% more effectively in sales than generic ads with weak brand associations.

In other words, Coca-Cola sells more by creating familiar, albeit boring ads of young friends, who drink cola on a hot day when they make an advertisement that is unmistakable and yet unknown.

Jaguar leaves all of her recognized assets for abstract graphics to lose everything that makes the brand unforgettable.

Lessons from Australian wine

Bryon Sharp shares an example of Queen Adelaide, a well -known wine brand in Australia that had lost the market relevance and shelf area.

Seppelt, the company behind Queen Adelaide, saw the opportunity to restart the brand instead of creating a new one. In contrast to Jaguar, Queen Adelaide focused on maintaining familiarity. They kept the recognizable name and the design elements to trigger existing storage structures in the heads of consumers.

Within a short time, Queen Adelaide became the largest Chardonnay in Australia. Due to the ability of the brand, sales increased to reconnect with established intellectual availability.

The example underlines that doubling intellectual availability can increase sales for a fighting brand.

The reasonable option for Jaguar

The safe and reasonable option for the iconic brand would have been to marry the old and the new.

Take the assets with which Jaguar fans are familiar with and build on them to highlight their new electronic era.

Quote - text (4)

You could have reinvented the logo, but keep the Jaguar herit more clearly. Mental availability lives from familiarity, and Jaguar’s Rebrand leaves it as weak as a new brand that enters an extremely competitive market.

With the strong brand, Jaguar could have retained strong associations around the world instead of separating them.

But that’s the safe option. Although there is undoubtedly less risky and far less likely to lead to a disaster decline in sales, it also has less upward potential.

The big question

Is Jaguar’s renaming a clever step to secure its place on the EV market, or will it end as another Tropicana-like catastrophe?

Mark Ritson argues that they should modernize with their legacy and not extinguish it. Rory Sutherland? He is open.

The following is certain: Jaguar risked billions in spiritual availability. If you cannot build up new associations quickly enough, this brave bet can cost more than you can afford.

This blog is part of Phill Agnew ‘S Marketing -Cheat leaflet series Where he reveals the scientifically proven tips to improve their marketing. To learn more, listen to his podcast ThrustA proud member of the Drift Kings Media Podcast Network.

Want Latest Updates in Your Inbox?

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top