Jaguar Rebrand: Mistake or Genius? – Episode 2, The Controversy
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Company
Autotrader
Autotrader is a website where people look for cars to buy. Dealers use it to get more visitors to their listings and reach buyers who are ready to shop.
Concept
buying signals
“Buying signals” are clues from online behavior that suggest whether someone is likely to buy a car. Dealers can use that to focus on the leads that seem most serious.
Brand
Jaguar
Jaguar is a luxury car brand from the UK. This episode is about Jaguar changing its image and why people reacted so strongly.
Concept
rebrand
A rebrand is when a company changes how it presents itself to the public. In car terms, it can change the brand’s image and marketing, which can affect how people feel about buying one.
Concept
complete reset
“Complete reset” means the company is trying to start over with its image, not just tweak it. In car marketing, that usually affects how people think about the brand.
Concept
didn't even show the car
Some viewers were upset because the video didn’t show the actual cars. In car marketing, people usually expect to see the vehicle when a brand is unveiling something new.
Car
Type 00
Type 00 is a Jaguar development project—something built or discussed during planning and testing rather than a typical everyday production car. It’s brought up to explain how Jaguar’s ideas changed over time. The podcast likely mentions it because it connects to the brand’s longer story.
Concept
teaser campaign
A teaser campaign is when a company teases something before fully revealing it. The goal is to get people excited and talking.
Concept
viral globally
“Viral” means the message spreads really fast online. For car brands, that can mean huge attention worldwide.
Concept
concept car
A concept car is a “preview” vehicle that shows what a company might build later. It’s often used to generate excitement and show a new direction.
Car
E type
They’re referencing the Jaguar E-Type, a famous classic sports car. It’s used here as a symbol of what Jaguar is “supposed” to be about—style and character.
Concept
up market
“Upmarket” just means aiming the brand at a more premium, higher-end customer. The company tries to make the cars feel more luxurious and desirable, not budget-focused.
Concept
relaunch
A “relaunch” means the brand is trying to reinvent itself and come back with a new image. It often involves new cars and a new marketing message to win over customers.
Concept
paid media
Paid media is ads the company pays to run. The point here is that the controversy got more attention than normal advertising would have.
Concept
element of surprise
This means the ads or message caught people off guard—in a good way. The host thinks that surprise is what made Jaguar’s campaign stand out and get attention.
Concept
goes viral
“Viral” means the content spreads really fast online. The point is that nobody can fully control what people will share or react to.
Concept
how people reacted
They’re saying the real win is how people respond—whether they argue, comment, or share. The host thinks the reaction to Jaguar’s cars was the key part.
Concept
heritage brand
A heritage brand is a company people associate with tradition and history. If it changes too much, some longtime fans feel like the brand’s “real self” is being lost.
Concept
bling vibe
“Bling vibe” means a flashy, shiny look meant to show off luxury. The speaker is saying the new direction leaned into that style.
Concept
couldn't see what the vehicle was
This is a critique of ad effectiveness: if the viewer can’t clearly identify the product (the car), the message fails. In automotive marketing, clear visuals of the vehicle’s design and proportions are crucial for building desire and trust.
Concept
logo was completely different
Changing a logo is a big deal because it’s how people recognize the brand. The speaker is saying the new logo felt like a break from what Jaguar used to be.
Concept
aspirational
“Aspirational” describes marketing that makes people want to be part of a lifestyle or status. Luxury automakers rely on aspirational cues—design, materials, and brand storytelling—to justify the premium and create emotional pull.
Term
column inches
“Column inches” is basically a way to measure how much space the media gives a story. In this context, they mean the brand wanted lots of press coverage.
Concept
brand heritage
Brand heritage refers to the history, design language, and reputation a manufacturer builds over time. The speaker suggests Jaguar should preserve elements of its heritage while still evolving, because longtime fans associate heritage with authenticity.
Concept
social media
Social media is being used as a marketing channel to grow awareness and engagement. The speaker claims that building a large online audience is “paying huge dividends,” suggesting measurable brand impact even if dealer sales are currently difficult.
Concept
marketing campaign
A marketing campaign is a coordinated set of promotions meant to shape how people perceive a product or brand. Here, the discussion is about reactions to Jaguar’s campaign and whether it harmed or helped sales and customer sentiment.
Concept
JLR
JLR is the company group that runs Jaguar and Land Rover. It’s mentioned to clarify the speaker’s role across the brands.
Brand
Land Rover
Land Rover is another British car brand in the same company family as Jaguar. It’s mentioned to show the speaker works with both brands.
Concept
residuals value
Residual value is what the car is expected to be worth later. If the finance company thinks it will still be worth a lot, the monthly payment can be cheaper.
Concept
residual value
Residual value is the expected value of the car at the end of the deal. If it’s high, the monthly cost tends to be lower.
Brand
BMW
BMW is referenced as the benchmark in the premium segment, with Jaguar described as being outsold by BMW. This highlights how competitive the German premium market is and why Jaguar felt pressure to change its strategy.
Concept
highly specified
“Highly specified” means the car is loaded with lots of options. More options usually makes the car cost more and can help the company make more money.
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Welcome back to the Car Dealer Podcast.
I'm James Bagger, the editor-in-chief of Car Dealer magazine.
And in this special series, I'm investigating Jaguar's rebrand,
one of the most controversial relaunches the car industry has ever seen.
Jaguar unveiled a whole new direction in November 2024.
It sent the internet and the industry into a tailspin.
And it faced accusations it had gone woke.
The world waded in on the argument, even Donald Trump had a view.
But was all that noise the plan all along?
In the first episode of this series, I heard from journalists
who had been at that dramatic Jaguar event back in 2024.
In this episode, we'll be exploring that controversial branding with some experts.
I don't think they expected quite the extent of the reaction
from the general public around the world.
And I'll be talking to car dealers who've sold both new and new Jaguars
to hear what they thought of it and their customers.
The thing that delighted me most was that in terms of the value against spend,
it's possibly the best marketing campaign ever.
You actually looked at the demographics of our customers.
And it isn't unusual to see a box of tissues on the back shelf in a trill bit.
This is the story of Jaguar's rebrand, mistake or genius.
Episode two, The Controversy.
When Jaguar unveiled its new look, it told journalists that its press event,
it would be a complete reset.
There were new logos to get used to.
First, the name had changed to a mixture of upper and lower case letters.
A capital J, G and U were combined with lower case A's and an R.
This was like rocket fuel to the pedants out there, most journalists included.
The Growler was gone and in its place, a logo that combined the J and the R of Jaguar,
like two umbrella handles in a round circle.
And then there was that video.
It featured models in bright clothing, breaking moulds and deleting ordinary.
The YouTube version received tens of thousands of comments, mostly negative,
and caused a culture war.
Some people branded it as woke.
Others simply hated the fact it didn't even show the car.
John Evans is the host of the CMO Uncensored podcast.
He's been following Jaguar's story from the start,
and has interviewed members of Jaguar's team and been in the Type 00 himself.
But what I wanted to know was whether he thought this was all part of the plan right from the start.
Was this storm intended?
They intended to tease us, but they didn't expect the extent to which that tease went
viral globally.
I mean, they achieved billions of impressions.
As a topic, it's the single most engaged topic I've ever done.
Every single post I do on Jaguar goes viral.
So I think they wanted to tease us.
I don't think they expected quite the extent of the reaction from the general public around the world
to the extent that you could not, no amount of money could buy
what they've achieved through that initial teaser campaign.
There was a theory that was designed to provoke that reaction and get people talking.
From a marketing perspective, does that stack up?
To some extent it does.
I honestly think, I don't think it was intended to be as provocative as people interpreted it.
So if you think about Jaguar, they've spent many years, the last decade,
they've spent copying the German car manufacturers.
And this marks a massive change for them.
Almost going back to Jaguar's evolved that were, as they would describe it, a copy of nothing.
So they wanted to signal that this change was coming and it was going to be unlike anything you've seen.
So the intention was definitely to capture, grab our attention.
And it was designed intentionally two weeks before the concept car was launched as well.
So it was all part of the kind of comms.
I don't think they realized that the timing of it was very significant
because it was post the election of Trump.
You know, there was a bit, there was, there was pushback on kind of, you know,
woke if you use the kind of term, kind of advertising.
And so therefore the timing probably contributed to it.
You mentioned the word there and the campaign was labeled as woke pretty much almost immediately.
Do you think that helped spread the message or do you think it damaged the brand?
Well, it definitely helped spread the message.
Because I think with social media, it's never, it's never actually the story.
It's the story about the story.
So basically what happens in social media is if you do something very expected, no one talks about it.
If you do something unexpected, whether you like it or don't like it,
the reaction to it is what actually drives the clicks.
So I think we live in a rage-bait society where basically, you know,
we tend to react to things that we feel strongly about, whether that's negative or positive.
And therefore I think it was the reaction to the ad that became the story, not the ad itself.
By the way, you see this time and time again.
So Sidney Sweeney advertising American Eagle Jeans.
It wasn't actually that that many people were offended.
It's just that a handful of people reacted to that offense and the story became,
oh, these jeans are really controversial.
The same thing happened to Jaguar.
I don't think that many people are offended by that ad.
It's there's nothing really offensive about the ad.
But because there was because there was a reaction by some people,
the story became about the reaction rather than the ad itself.
As a marketing expert looking into the automotive industry,
what was your take on the on the relaunch?
I mean, do you think it was was a good thing to do?
And do you think it was a success?
I do, actually.
I mean, I know this is a very contrarian point of view.
And there are very few people, even in marketing, that would agree with me, right?
But I think from a positioning point of view, Jaguar sales have been declining for a decade,
almost to the, you know, they're almost extinct as a car brand.
So they had to do something radical.
And I think the advice to an already successful brand
where you're evolving the brand and keeping, you know,
keeping all your distinctive assets in place is one thing.
But a company in their state, I think has to be bolder.
And what I like about what they did is they didn't take inspiration
from the last 10 years of cars they've made.
They took inspiration from their founder and his belief that you should,
the Jaguar should be a copy of nothing.
And iconic ads like the, you know, iconic cars like the E type.
And I think that's that was the right thing to do.
Because actually there's no point Jaguar being another mid-market premium brand
that's doing the same thing as the German car manufacturers,
or even trying to compete with the Chinese at the low end of the market.
There's no point in doing that.
Their future is going to be higher end, luxury, premium, emotional,
cars that you want to talk about, cars that give you a feeling like no other.
And therefore to do that, they had to do something different.
So look, they say every rule has an exception.
And this is the exception to the rule.
So I personally think they're on to a winner.
And they're also playing the long game here.
By positioning the car up market, they're establishing themselves in a new market.
They're creating something very desirable.
And that will trickle down over many years to the other cars
that they launch off the back of this car.
You must have been watching it, the fallout from that campaign,
like I was, from a slightly different perspective.
Were you surprised at the vitriol that came off the back of that campaign?
Were you surprised at the backlash that Jaguar faced after they did that relaunch?
Well, the first thing to say actually is the backlash was even worse than even I realized.
So when I got to meet Rodin and the team at Jaguar,
almost everyone in that team has had personal death threats.
And I mean, I just think that is, you know, if you look at it objectively,
they've got a very cool concept car and they've got a slightly unusual teaser video.
And it is only a teaser video, right?
It's not like we're saving the planet or solving climate change or anything like that.
So people definitely took it way, way, way too seriously.
And so I think as a commentary on society,
it's pretty damning that people could take it that extreme.
So yes, I was surprised at the extent that people took it,
to the fact that some of the team had death threats I just think is extremely upsetting.
So yeah, I was surprised to that extent.
But I do think actually they've created a conversation about the car
that no amount of money or paid media could have achieved.
So I do think they will be the winners out of this
because they've now got the entire world anticipating what the actual car will look like.
And assuming as I believe the car is having driven in the car myself,
it's an exceptional car.
I do think the product itself is amazing.
And I think when people see the reality compared to the perception they had
of the teaser video and the concept launch,
once they see the real thing,
I think you'll see a lot of public opinion swinging back in their favor.
What I'm struggling to understand is quite why this campaign blew up in the way it did.
With your expertise, do you think it was because it was so different to what they did before?
And they were in some respects alienating their previous customer base completely.
And just saying, we're not going to sell to those 90% of customers anymore.
We're completely changing it.
Do you think that's what it was?
Yeah, it is actually.
I'd agree with your assessment there.
One of the most powerful emotions you can create is surprise.
So in terms of marketing,
marketing works if you feel good about a company or you're surprised or you feel rage.
So the worst thing you can do in any marketing is to leave people feeling nothing.
The biggest risk you take actually is to be ignored.
And most advertising and most campaigns are ignored.
So for every one Jaguar,
there's a thousand campaigns that we're not talking about between you and I today.
So what they did is the element of surprise, I think, was what made this work.
Because people were not expecting Jaguar with all their history,
older demographic of buyers, a recent legacy in terms of the kind of cars they've been producing.
No one expected to see something like this.
So I think the element of surprise was why this worked.
Then in terms of reality, you can't really predict what goes viral.
But as I said before, what happens is the story wasn't the story.
The story was how people reacted.
And so everyone started commenting on, do they like the cars?
They're not like the cars.
They like Teesville, not Teesville video.
And then that became a debate.
And as I don't know if I mentioned this earlier,
but the single best episode I've ever done on my podcast
was Rory Sutherland and Scott Galloway debating,
is Jaguar madness or is Jaguar genius?
And they both had different points of view.
Now, they're very clever marketing experts.
They're probably the two biggest marketing experts on the planet.
And they have different points of view.
So this isn't clear cut.
I mean, things go viral when they touch on a fault line
where people have violently opposing points of view.
So both Scott and Rory have very strongly held
different points of view and they're experts in marketing.
And that just shows you what a kind of powder keg,
the Jaguar team have created with this.
With your marketing hat on, was this marketing genius
or do you think it was a mistake?
I'm 100% marketing genius and I'll tell you for why.
So again, going back to what we talked about earlier,
the Jaguar brand had been on a constant decline
up until this point.
The I-PACE was the last decent car they did.
Their numbers were very small.
They're competing on a global scale.
They had to do something that got them noticed.
They also don't have the resources
of the large American or Chinese or German brands
in terms of advertising spend or reputation.
So they've got to be different.
And so I think that actually it was genius
because the evidence is the fact that we're talking about it.
The evidence is the anticipation for the launch.
Assuming that the product and having, as I said,
driven inside it, I believe it lives up to the expectation.
If the product delivers,
they have got an absolute hit on their hands.
So I honestly think there's no amount of money
they could have thrown at this
that would have got the reaction they got.
So sometimes you have to rip the rulebook up
and try something different and they did that.
And I think they'll be proved very right in the end.
Marketing genius then, or was it?
John and his colleagues have long debated the relaunch
and it's worth catching up with those episodes
on the CMO Uncensored podcast where they discuss it.
His was another viewpoint I found surprising
while I researched this story.
From the outside, the negative noise aimed at the brand
was deafening.
Perhaps it drowned out the real story here
that Jaguar was seemingly winning.
Nick Ead is a brand and PR guru
and I'd noticed he'd been quoted extensively
in the national newspapers following Jaguar's relaunch.
His comments at the time were less than positive.
My initial take on it was that it felt like
it was a bit of an April Fool's, to be honest,
because we have grown up, especially in the UK,
with this absolutely inherent heritage brand,
that it doesn't matter if you're a car fan or you're not,
you all knew what the Jaguar was
from whether that was watching a James Bond movie
or through to just seeing them in the street.
You all felt that sort of esteem,
something that was very glamorous,
something that felt very aspirational,
and then suddenly to see this almost AI design,
which felt so different from how you expected Jaguar to be,
including the logo, it just felt,
it almost felt very disingenuous of them as a brand
and so there was no connection on any shape or form.
Listen, I love design.
I love the fact that they were trying to be inclusive,
but this just felt so badly thought out.
It was labelled by a number of people as woke.
Do you think it was woke?
I don't particularly think it was woke.
I think it was trying to be inclusive,
which is a bit different.
I think it was trying to look at how they can appeal
to a different demographic,
look at the people who've got money,
who obviously can buy something like that,
and also appeal to a different generation as well,
because as we know, it's seen as a heritage brand,
it's been associated with the Royal Family,
and I think they're thinking,
well, actually, maybe we can make this a bit more Dubai,
give it sort of that bling vibe,
and there's lots of young millionaires out there
that might not want to have the old style,
but actually the new style might appeal to them.
Why do you think it created such a reaction?
It just didn't feel real.
The advertising, you really couldn't see what the vehicle was.
It felt more like an advert for a McNamarie screen
than it did for a car.
It felt like everything had been changed,
so you didn't feel like there was any part of it
that you could grab onto,
so for instance, the logo was completely different,
it looked like two umbrella handles.
It wasn't particularly glamorous,
it didn't feel very aspirational.
The colors of the cars were pretty ugly,
the interiors looked nice,
but everything looked like it was done by AI,
so nothing felt real, it didn't feel tangible,
and it felt like they concentrated more on the colorways
and the glamorous models supporting the campaign
than they did about the actual vehicle.
Have you ever seen a brand story like this
grow legs quite like this one did?
Not really, you know, this is so interesting
because it's like an anomaly,
but it's kind of like a how not to relaunch a brand,
because in many ways,
it did what everybody wants from a brand,
they want to cause controversy in some ways,
they want to get column inches,
they want everybody talking about it,
and this was on every single news channel,
every magazine, every paper talks about it,
so actually from a PR point of view,
you know, that's a really good thing,
we're all talking about the new Jaguar re-brand,
but the negative backlash it had and the debate it caused,
that's one of the issues,
and also the other fact of the matter is,
we never got to see the car.
We're now 18 months on from that relaunch,
do you think what happened then has damaged Jaguar at all?
Do you think they've had any impact off the back of that?
Well, I think people just don't,
I think they see it as a bit of a joke brand now, to be honest,
and I don't even saw in Paris,
the actor Barry Keown and also Jamie Dornan
were seen with a prototype of the car during fashion week,
and again, that's a way of them positioning it
as more of a fashion or luxury item in that sphere,
but again, it just didn't feel particularly genuine,
again, using celebrities to elevate something
to give it that sort of gravitas.
What would you have done?
Well, I would definitely have kept parts of its heritage,
listen, everything has to progress,
we see this with brands all the time,
you can't stay in the past if you're going to have a great future,
but I do think they should have looked at the logo,
especially I would have kept that,
because it's such a well-known inherent brand
that everybody knows about,
that everybody loves, it's got a lot of history,
so I would have kept that.
I think the design is interesting,
it's not particularly stylish in my view,
but some people might absolutely love it,
it's very boxy.
I think also the actual ad campaign
just didn't feel like it was a car advert,
it just felt like it was, like I said,
a mac and a roll of fashion or a fragrance advert,
and there was no story as well,
it's all about storytelling,
and you need to take consumers on a journey,
and they need to understand what happens,
so they have to be told actually,
this is the evolution of this brand,
this is where we've gone,
this is why we got to where we are today,
and it felt that there was none of that,
so literally we've kind of seen the doors shut
on a heritage brand that we associate
with movies and James Bond and royalty,
and then suddenly we've got this Uber modern,
almost tron-like vehicle that we don't really understand
why this has happened.
And what about those Jaguar owners from the past?
Do you think it's put them off?
Yeah, I can't imagine them thinking,
oh, I'm going to trade this in,
my old one in for this new one,
you know, it's a completely different vehicle in my eyes,
it's a completely different design,
it doesn't feel like it has the stature
that the older ones had,
so I suspect the old Jaguar drivers will be very happy
that that's the vehicle they've got,
which will be a heritage one for years,
but I don't think it's,
you see, I don't think it's going to make them
want to buy another car,
and that's what the biggest issue is,
and I know that Jaguar was saying that,
you know, they didn't see very many sales,
they had to change something,
you know, the old cars weren't being sold
as much as they used to be,
so this is why they did this huge rebrand,
but I think that it feels like it's a missed opportunity
to have a connect between the buyers,
the purchasers who've already had Jaguars
and the new potential customers
who are kind of confused about what they're actually buying.
People say to me that they think
this will be studied for years, this rebrand,
do you think that's the case?
Completely, I think this is going to be,
we'll see this in universities,
there'll be a task set for people to look at
how they can actually create a rebrand,
how they can actually, you know,
look at what they did right, what they did wrong,
and I definitely think it's going to be talked about
for many, many years to come.
Do you think in summary then,
this was a huge mistake or was it marketing genius?
I think it was a huge mistake,
and I think it has shown that nobody is talking about Jaguar
in a particularly favourable way,
nobody is sort of saying, oh my God,
you know, I love that advert, I love that,
I don't remember it maybe, but it's not about that,
it's actually about the vehicle, it's about the car,
it's about what it does, and at the moment
it feels like this was a huge own goal for them,
and I think they'll be really kicking themselves.
What the owners think about it all is an interesting point
and something that will make or break Jaguar's relaunch.
In the first episode, I heard from Wayne Scott
from the Jaguar Enthusiast Club.
He was incredibly excited about the new brand and the car.
But what about the dealers?
These are the people sitting in front of customers
talking to them day in and day out about Jaguar.
I wanted to know if they'd seen a drop-off in interest
or any negativity following the rebrand,
or had it in fact caused a surge in interest,
especially in the older models.
I spoke to Tim Atkinson.
He's been on the Cardiola podcast before
and runs the used Jaguar showroom Sports & Touring
in Andover, Hampshire.
He's a former airline pilot and turned to selling Jaguars
after an impressive aviation career.
When I looked at his website, it was full of F-types,
a car that's very different to the all-electric model
coming down the line.
What did he make of it all?
I think I found it very striking.
I think everyone did.
Very unexpected.
I actually quite liked it from the outset,
but then I am not a person whom you would find
in the middle of the chart of human traits in various ways.
And I love challenging art, for example.
So I thought the use of colour was very clever.
I thought it was immediately apparent, I should say,
that they had set out to push buttons very hard.
What do your customers think of the Jaguar rebrand?
Yeah, they were in a slightly different place.
A lot of them didn't like it.
A lot of them, I think, have quite a fierce loyalty to the brand,
and that would be going back considerable time.
I'm not going to talk about string back,
no, the driving gloves, maybe I will.
Some of them are that kind of people.
And yes, they were not open-minded.
And I think they also came at this importantly from another perspective,
which is not to do with the marketing campaign around the Type 00,
but is to do with what's obviously a very precipitate
and wrong decision to abandon internal combustion so early
and without a backup plan.
And I think that flavoured a lot of thinking amongst my customer base as well.
They felt let down more, perhaps, by that side of it,
and then that came out, that was expressed as dissatisfaction
in the marketing for the electric GT.
Were you surprised in the backlash that the Jaguar faced after that relaunch?
I wasn't surprised, did it know?
I found it, frankly, a little bit boring to me, but it was very predictable.
And it disappointed me partly from the sense that things have to move on.
I think a lot of people failed to bring any sense of humour to the party,
and it was watching fish being shot in a barrel, really.
The thing that delighted me most was that in terms of the value against spend,
it's possibly the best marketing campaign ever.
Why do you think Jaguar needed to relaunch in the first place?
I'm not sure. I thought they needed to to that degree.
They obviously, technology means that they have to move on into probably the EV space.
I still have a very fundamental feeling that, in fact, we've done another VHS and Betamax,
and hydrogen is a better power source for the long term, for a lot of reasons.
And I think the further and faster we move in the electric direction,
the less likely it is that hydrogen is able to evolve and to become the solution.
In terms of that movement away from internal combustion being reflected in a rebrand,
I guess if you're going to go for it, you're going to go for it perhaps,
and that's certainly what they did.
Yeah, but it was too early and maybe too committed.
What's demand like for Jaguars right now?
Are they easier to sell or harder to sell?
James, this is going to be viewed by lots and lots of car dealers, isn't it?
And no, it's terribly tough at the moment. I can't get them to shift at all.
Come on, okay, I'll be more open than that.
We're doing very well, but we're doing very well partly because of the blood,
sweat and tears that we've put into getting where we are, into being very well recognised
into having a tremendous brand within particularly the F-type community.
The work that we've done in social media to build a base now of tens of thousands of people
who are interacting with us, that's all paying huge dividends in all kinds of ways.
So now, and there's a marked upturn at the moment,
contrarially, to my expectations, looking at the geopolitical situation
and the economic situation that's falling out of that,
but my customers are pretty robust in that area and they're still buying.
Who is the typical Jaguar customer at the moment,
and do you think they'll be interested in a new one?
So two great questions. The typical Jaguar customer for me is
white middle-class British male 50 to 70 years of age, typically someone who is comfortably
wealthy, I don't mean necessarily multimillions, but certainly can buy a sports car without feeling
a pinch. We do hardly any finance deals, in fact I'm thinking yet again about just pulling out of
doing finance quite shortly. And then will they go for the electric GT? The most interesting thing
for me has been the reviews because we've started to see some really good thorough reviews come out
which reflect what I had been told by people I knew I know who drove that car early on.
We've got a couple of connections within JLR and I spoke to people and they told me they've driven
the car a little bit and it was fantastic. It was going to really surprise people with how brilliant
it was. And a bit of me thought, well you would say that, wouldn't you? And a bit of me thought,
well I really hope that's true. But when we've had reviews saying not only is it a great electric GT
but it's a Jaguar, I think that's a really important acknowledgement that they've got this right.
Do you think Jaguar's biggest problem is not the rebrand but the timing of this electric vehicle?
I don't think there's anything wrong with the timing of the announcement and the development
and bringing it to market. They went far too early on closing the IC production lines.
If someone walked into your showroom today and asked about Jaguar's future, what would you tell them?
I would say that the indications are very strong. The Range Rover brand which is behind the corporate
success is navigating difficult waters quite well. Jaguar have made a big mistake
in terms of moving away from IC too soon but it looks to me like the Type 00 is a phenomenal
modern electric GT car. It's a Jaguar. The price point as I understand it is going to be very,
very cleverly set and I expect it to be a phenomenal success and if they can then
bring the same expertise and the same methodology to bear on a range of cars around that,
I think we might all be very pleasantly surprised to see a British brand not without the old
pick up along the way but reinvent itself and achieve continued long-term success.
As the rebrand worked in your favour as someone selling used Jaguars, have you seen a boost in
popularity? I certainly haven't sensed the reverse of that. I was very fortunate to work for Stelios
Hajianu in the early days of EasyJet and Stelios was a massive believer in there being no such
things about publicity and all through this, all the offended reactions I've seen to the marketing
campaign and so forth, I've just thought if Stelios had done that at EasyJet he'd be laughing all
the way to the bank and I'm laughing alongside Jaguar. They've played a great joke on people.
They've suggested they might offer a kind of wishy-washy, namby-pamby,
super eco-friendly electric Grand Tourer and they've done the opposite. I think they're delivering
a very stylish product which I understand drives fabulously, gives you a real GT experience.
It's unbelievably powerful and fast and I think the whole thing has been,
in that respect, brilliantly done. I have no sense that it's put any of my customers off.
I think people will look back on this and they'll buy the Type 00 and I hope they'll do so with a
smile to their own reactions when the marketing campaign was launched.
Well that was quite surprising wasn't it? Tim is a man embedded in the brand,
selling used Jaguars to the type of customers that Jaguar doesn't seem to be all that
bothered about anymore, but yet even he loved the rebrand and the car. Former Jaguar franchise
E. Peter Smyth used to represent the brand in crew. He's one of the directors of the family-owned
Swansway Group and still represents Land Rover for JLR. I asked him why he thought Jaguar needed
to relaunch. Well we were Jaguar dealers up to two years ago and we're still a Jaguar approved
repairer and so we're still massive Jaguar fans but if you actually looked at the demographics
of our customers it isn't unusual to see a box of tissues on the back shelf and a trail bit.
They were quite old and I think it had become a little bit of an old staid type of brand.
Now that did change a little bit with the SUVs but I think people regarded a Jaguar as an old
person's car and I think it needed to be made sexy so I actually understand the direction of
which they've gone through. Controversial though it is and I know when they did the launch
everybody really, I mean it just went crazy media-wise but actually if you think about the
media coverage they got versus the spend that they made it was really rather impressive.
I don't believe they plan to sell cars in big volumes. I mean we're not a seller of the cars
anymore because Jaguar took the decision they wanted significantly less dealers. We're a dealer in
crew is not exactly the centre of the universe so you'd understand it once one in Manchester,
Birmingham obviously a few in London etc etc and I think that the car is totally different and
probably needed to be. What did you think when you saw that that relaunch when you saw the
that advert that had had so much reaction what was your thoughts as a former Jag dealer?
Well at first I thought well hang on a minute this is a little bit strange but then when I actually
thought about it I thought they were pushing the boundaries. You know in the 1970s I can remember
when punk rock came about and people were appalled about it but actually if you look back at it now
it was pivotal in moving pop music forward and I don't think that Jaguar have an alternative they
have to I think go significantly upmarket. The style of the car is controversial personally
I really like it but of course that's a personal taste. Would I go for it in the pinky purple
colour if it was me? Probably not but I remember that blue colour that they came out with personally
I thought that was stunning. Was it like when you used to sell Jaguar I mean they were a volume
premium player weren't they for quite some time they had a lot of SUVs they had a lot of saloons
what was it like to sell? Well the cars were great cars the problem was and I think it all
stemmed back to the fact that Jaguar have a white label finance company and when they brought out
you remember the XE that was meant to be a direct competitor with three series BMW and A4
and it never quite hit the mark because they couldn't get the residual value that BMW Finance
or Volkswagen Financial Services were able to put against the car so consequently I had a Jaguar
dealership in crew that was selling an XE I think at the time at £600 a month and then they could
walk into our crew Audi showroom and buy a similar priced car that was £350 a month I think if the
it did have been able to compete on a monthly payment then they might have had a viable proposition
but the volume then was never there because let's face it the screen price doesn't really matter
a hoot it's the residuals value set by the finance company which brings you down to a monthly
payment and just at this moment in time and you see it with the Chinese the sweet spot is £300
Do you think this is a huge gamble for Jaguar?
Not particularly no because if it fails they can always sell the Jaguar brand currently
so no I think it's a considered throw of the dice everything has a risk I hate to sound
uncontroversial which is unusual for me but sitting back in retrospect
I just hope that it is a massive success for them and the reason I say that is we are still
very proud and successful Land Rover dealers and obviously this is going to aid the profitability
of JLR they've had a bit of a tough time you know they've had a battering particularly with
with the hacking which went on which cost them an awful lot of money and they build I think they
build somewhere between five and six hundred thousand units a year so they're not a massive
volume player but if you you know you speak to people in Europe and you talk about the
the the big Range Rover it's still revered you know it still looks brilliant on the road
and even though you could say well I've had a Range Rover and it's had a few problems etc etc
it's amazing how people come keep coming back and buying them the brand is so incredibly strong
and hopefully what they're doing with Jaguar we'll we'll complement that
has been a regular commentator on Jaguar Land Rover for years he closely follows the highs and
lows of the brand and its parent company JLR he's written several pieces on the topic for
car dealer I caught up with him on an intermittent video call about why Jaguar needed to act
I wanted to understand the business case behind the British car makers huge decision
so Jaguar was simply not succeeding against premium competition it wasn't cutting it
against the likes of BMW being outsold four to one and essentially JLR were having to discount
the cars to shift them so they had to do something the brand clearly wasn't succeeding
and also its identity was pretty confused I mean you know the longer history went right back to
the beautiful E-Type the more recent cars was competent hardly inspired that kind of enthusiasm
so something had to be done for our business perspective David did Jaguar actually need
to do something this drastic I think it's an interesting question whether they need to do
something quite this drastic I my thought was that they would probably use Jaguar as a kind of
upmarket brand a kind of elite kind of sports brand on a range of other cars that they produce
bit like AMG for Mercedes what they instead did was come up with a completely different platform
when fully electric and are repositioning the brand completely in the luxury market
well or sub-luxury to try and take on the likes of Rolls Royce and Bentley which
it's never done before so it is very very risky I hope it works but it's not clear to me that it
will you mentioned that Jaguar is moving from this sort of volume brand to this low volume
high margin luxury luxury brand do you think that strategy makes economic sense I certainly think
the shift up market makes sense and indeed we're seeing that in general across the various
different jail or brands you know these days particularly Range Rovers can be very highly
specified and can you know get into well over a hundred thousand so I think in that sense yes
repositioning towards the kind of luxury end of things I think is probably the way to go
taking on Rolls Royce and Bentley I think is going to be difficult they don't seem to
be doing that head on what they seem to have identified is a sub-luxury kind of slot that
is between the top end of premium and the bottom end of luxury which they're going to go into first
and then if it's successful be interested to see where it goes from but certainly going up market
I think makes sense whether there is actually a luxury electric market is another point completely
though because what we're seeing is the likes of Bentley and Rolls Royce actually rowing back
from their electric offerings because of slow take-up how difficult is it for a car brand to
move from a premium to a luxury one in one step like this very difficult and in fact
shifting your brand up market it's a long-term business you know you look at say how are Audi
moved up over many many years that was a decades long commitment so for for Jaguar for kind of do
it in one giant reset I think is very very challenging I think what might be helpful for it
is that particularly amongst buyers in China people are actually less interested in the
brand but the technology so if they can get the product right they may be able to kind of loop
frog across other brands so but that really is ultimately going to depend on the product offering
and executing this really successfully what was wrong with Jaguar as a brand what why do you think
they needed to do this I think it had become very confused I think it was essentially trying to
compete with premium offerings from BMW, Audi, Mercedes but didn't have the quality to do that
ironically I think the luxury market is a bit more forgiving because in the premium market the
car has got to be perfect in the luxury market people are actually buying more of a bespoke
product which are they are co-designing and are willing to pay for and they're a bit more forgiving
about it not being absolutely kind of you know mechanically perfect as it were so in that sense
it might fit better but essentially Jaguar as a brand wasn't really cutting it and you could argue
as well that maybe some of the offerings particularly the kind of SUV offerings were starting to
cannibalize Land Rover and Range Rover markets potentially and that kind of raised the whole
brand identity issue for Jaguar and do you think that the timing of this might be the problem
yes I think I do very much so a time when demand for electric vehicles is growing but not growing
quickly enough other luxury makers are kind of taking their foot off the accelerator on the
transition Bentley for example I think one of the the Volkswagen platforms that it was
going to use has been cancelled and that there's another issue there in that Bentley can actually
access technology from VW and share it with other brands Jaguar is on its own and in fact it's a
bespoke platform for Jaguar so it's very expensive for them to do this and I'm not entirely sure
that the market there isn't really a luxury electric car market yet so they're going to have
to go out and create one so that's going to be very challenging do you think the market that they
can possibly make do you think it'll be big enough to sustain Jaguar so that I think that's
going to be the kind of 64 million dollar question really can they build a market that's big enough
for them and are they able to then expand that with different product offerings remember as well
Jerry McGovern has gone who was overseeing the product project early on and you know we don't
so a big question is whether they can continue without him and grow a market with some amazing
products that I think that ultimately is going to determine whether the brand survives or not
and there's no guarantee it will when Jaguar Landro we ran into all those really big problems with
the cyber attack last year and we were wondering how they're going to go forwards and where they
may save money my concern was whether they would ask the Jaguar brand they remain committed to it
for now but that ultimately depends on whether this breed brand is going to be successful or not
Coming up in the final episode of Jaguar's rebrand Mistake or Genius I'll be hearing
from Jaguar themselves in an exclusive interview Jaguar managing director Rodin Glover sits down
with me to discuss the relaunch in detail he talks about what it was like behind the scenes
when that campaign started to go viral what is that is that you know do you want to call that
woke is that is that this or that the other he reveals what it was like to be on the receiving
end of that media storm it was a tough time for them so I felt a responsibility to look at for
them I spent a responsibility to sort of defend what we're doing and to defend them and I ask him
whether things will change now Jerry McGovern has left JLR Jerry's the chief creative officer it was
the chief creative officer here in this organization and he clearly he was passionate Jaguar was
something he was deeply involved in but what it's important to say is you know as with any
with you know with anything in terms of particularly an automotive there's not one person
that accompanies this series I'll see you next time thanks for listening goodbye
About this episode
Jaguar’s 2024 rebrand sparks a global culture-war debate, and the show digs into whether it was calculated marketing genius or a brand-damaging misfire. CMO Uncensored host John Evans argues the teaser’s “rage-bait” surprise drove billions of impressions and created anticipation, while dealers and PR expert Nick Ead counter that the campaign felt inauthentic, “AI-like,” and disconnected from the car—especially for heritage owners. Dealers report mixed customer sentiment, with some resistance tied to Jaguar’s early move away from internal combustion, but optimism that the Type 00 product could win people back.
Original notes
In episode two of our three part podcast series, Car Dealer again looks in detail at the Jaguar Rebrand – this time talking to branding experts and dealers.
Following our video on the relaunch, available now on the Car Dealer Magazine YouTube channel, we have created a three part series of the interviews we conducted.
In this episode, The Controversy, we talk to experts including Jon Evans, host of the CMO Uncensored Podcast, Nick Ede, a brand and PR guru, as well as car dealers Peter Smyth, a former Jaguar franchise holder, and used Jaguar dealer Tim Atkinson.
We also get a view on the relaunch from Professor David Bailey of the Birmingham Business School about just why Jaguar needed to be so dramatic in the first place.
Coming up in the third and final episode, we’ll hear from Jaguar’s managing director Rawdon Glover himself. In a detailed interview, he speaks about what it was like being inside Jaguar when the controversy broke the internet.
We cover the personal attacks he and his team faced, why Jaguar needed to be so dramatic and find out whether Gerry McGovern leaving the business will change the direction.
Episode three of our Jaguar Relaunch: Mistake or Genius? podcast will be published on Easter Monday.
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