By now, not only will you have seen Jaguar’s controversial ‘Copy Nothing’ rebranding campaign, you’ll also have seen the immense public reaction to it worldwide, along the lines of ‘woke’, that it doesn’t feature any cars and that its rich heritage is not leveraged on one bit.
You’ll even have seen Elon Musk ask on X: “Do you sell cars?” and UK politician Nigel Farage predicting Jaguar will go bust, “and you know what? They deserve to”, while making reference to Inspector Morse’s iconic Mark 2 and the E-Type, which Enzo Ferrari reputedly once called the most beautiful car ever made.
Well, Jaguar MD Rawdon Glover has hit back at critics’ ‘vile hatred and intolerance’ while denying the rebrand was meant to be a ‘woke’ statement. “If we play in the same way that everybody else does, we’ll just get drowned out. So we shouldn’t turn up like an auto brand,” he told the Financial Times.
“We need to re-establish our brand and at a completely different price point so we need to act differently. We wanted to move away from traditional automotive stereotypes,” Glover added.
He even retaliated against Farage, 60, telling The Sunday Times: “The average age of the Jaguar client is quite old and getting older. We’ve got to access a completely different audience. That audience isn’t centred around people of the demographic of Mr Farage.”
“People love us for our history and our heritage, but that has not led to huge commercial success,” Glover told the British broadsheet.
Even design chief Gerry McGovern has chimed in, telling This is Money: “It will shock, surprise and polarise. It will make you feel uncomfortable. That’s fine. The world is not standing still.”
McGovern was reportedly speaking at a briefing at JLR’s Gaydon design centre, saying he wanted to recreate the “jaw-dropping” effect the E-Type had in the 1960s.
“This has been years in the making. It’s not just about reshaping a car. It’s about redefining, and reimagining a brand. It’s about reimagining Jaguar. This is big,” said the design boss.
Revealing that 800 people had worked on the radical redesign and rebranding, McGovern said jokingly: “We have not been sniffing the white stuff.”
“Our vision for Jaguar today is informed by this philosophy. New Jaguar is a brand built around Exuberant Modernism. It is imaginative, bold and artistic at every touchpoint. It is unique and fearless. This is a reimagining that recaptures the essence of Jaguar, returning it to the values that once made it so loved, but making it relevant for a contemporary audience,” he added.
Well, if they wanted everyone talking about Jaguar, they’ve certainly succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Never mind what the late, great Sir William Lyons would have thought – what do you think?
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The reasons why you did not succeed NOT because of you being loyal with your heritage but due to your weak and overpriced offerings. For instance, the XE and XF did not receive the inline-6 and the price are astronomically high for what it is. Just like Maserati did. People are now after efficient powertrains but you did not get the memo. Your new inline-6 engine is too little too late in the game. Blame only youself for this fate, Jaguar
They have turn into a woke brand, okay lets see if the wokesters who can afford will even buy their cars, and those who are idealistically poor will just watch this brand gets drowned out by other woke brands.
When you pander to the woke crowd, they won’t be your customers either. Woke people didn’t support Bud Light or The Marvels or the Concord video game although these products pandered to them.
Now Faguar will get a lesson in this too. All they’ll get is a pat on the back from a limp-wristed hand.
J brand has become l-a-m-e…seems like lost its balls! The new logo and branding looks so g-y now.
This is ahguar by jaguar.
Jaguar is bringing a golf club to a tennis game.
More like bringing a tennis racket to a polo game. Jag clientele back then had more class.
access different audience? Bud light & Victoria Secret tried that, how it went down?
Trying to pander to a crowd whose majority can’t even balance their budget let alone afford these cars.
Ada seorang pujangga pernah berkata ‘Langkah mayat aku dulu baru korang bleh dapat SUV dari jenama aku’. Last ble kilang seberang buat SUV pastu laku keras, barulah dtg iri hati maka SUV pn keluar tanpa perlu melangkah mayat pujangga tersebut. Tapi sayang…brapa bnyk customer dh lost.
Ko kalo brand exotic bleh lh cakap besar. Ni ko dh jd brand yg losing market dh brapa lama tp x nak amek action awal.
Tetiba ble akaun dh merah ko spend duit buat ‘rebranding’. Mcam Proton pn ade gak…ble market trust dh ilang, nk dpt balik susah wooo. Xpe2 jgn risau…biasanya ade abg long china akan ‘rescue’ korang.
go woke, go broke – tataguar is doing exactly what everyone else is doing – what tataguar needs is well engineered products, not some outsourced junks …
Yes, Jaguar signed their own death certificate…
they never learnt from Bud Light for using Mulvaney as their brand icon!!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bud_Light_boycott
The woke and transgender are mentally challenged… go seek help instead of demanding for rights!!…
No transgender can answer this question
What right does a male have that trangender men do not?
Jag will die if they let the Woke-ey win