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JaGUar’s Roundly-Panned Rebrand · Communication Breakdown

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to Communication Breakdown, a new podcast from the Observatory on Corporate
• 0:07
  Reputation.
• 0:08
  Thank you for joining us.
• 0:09
  I'm Steve Dowling in Silicon Valley.
• 0:12
  And I'm Craig Carroll in New York City.
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  Each week Steve and I take a look at the strategies companies are using to shape headlines
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  and sometimes save their skins.
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  It's a post game show for PR Pros.
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  This week, a splashy rebranding effort has the auto industry scratching its head.
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  We're talking about Jaguar, the prestigious British luxury car maker, releasing a promotional
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  video that's a little hard to describe.
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  Imagine a pastel moon scape with expressionless fashion models fresh off some futuristic
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  runway, brandishing, sledgehammers and paintbrushes for some reason.
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  And slogans aplenty, create exuberant, live vivid, delete ordinary, break molds, copy
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  nothing.
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  But as the internet was quick to point out, no cars and no sign of that famous Jaguar
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  logo.
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  Let the hot takes begin.
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  It is just truly bad marketing.
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  They really miss the mark on this.
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  They truly did.
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  And who knows what's going to happen next, honestly.
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  Wow, what a terrible mistake.
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  Jaguette, if anybody is watching, you have to retract this today and fire everybody today.
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  If you all want to be in a job next year, it's finished.
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  You finished your brand.
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  Strikes me as being another Bud Light moment.
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  I predict Jaguette will now go bust.
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  And do you know what?
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  They deserve to.
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  They deserve to.
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  Car industry YouTubers and Nigel Farage MP at the end there.
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  10 hours after the video, Jaguar posted a pink and blue image that appears to depict part
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  of the car.
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  I don't know.
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  It's kind of hard to tell whether it's the front or the back.
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  The company is gearing up to deliver on its promise of an all-electric lineup next year.
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  It's an ambitious goal that the carmaker outlined some time ago.
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  And they reportedly unveil a concept car December 2 in Miami during art week.
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  I guess, Artsy is one word for it.
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  Jaguar's rollout strategy apparently included an embargoed press event November 11th at
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  company headquarters outside Birmingham, England.
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  One attendee, the editor of the British Trade Magazine car dealer, compared it to
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  a hallucinogenic sci-fi movie and not in a good way.
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  Possibly the most bizarre automotive media launch I've ever attended.
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  The promo video followed two weeks later with reactions ranging from amused to confused
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  to downright appalled.
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  Online critics, including Elon Musk mocked the vague slogans and features the costumes,
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  accusing Jaguar of losing the plot and of course going woke.
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  So having drawn the ira of the trade press, Twitter trolls and some loyal fans, Jaguar has
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  so far shown off a new logo.
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  Apparently the G is capitalized now and I guess the U. And the Jaguar cat seems to be severely
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  downplayed.
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  They've got a new color scheme and some other branding elements, but again, no cars yet.
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  Craig Jaguar has been in a sale slump for some time.
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  Clearly they're looking to shake things up and understandably.
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  They've succeeded in getting people's attention at a time when Jaguar isn't making cars.
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  And that's not nothing.
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  So some folks are calling this a PR masterstroke.
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  Are they right?
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  Steve, getting attention is a start, but it's only half the battle and to call this a PR
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  masterstroke, I don't know, the campaign needs to do more in spark conversation.
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  It's also got to create anticipation that connects back to Jaguar's core identity and their
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  values.
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  And right now it just feels like they skipped that foundation, the product and its promise.
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  Not rebranding, that's great, but without some grounding in the car into something tangible,
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  it risks becoming noise more than an error.
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  Yeah, I want to emphasize and I can't emphasize strongly enough.
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  I'm not a branding expert.
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  I'm never going to be a creative director anywhere, but I understand Jaguar's defense here.
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  The thoughtful and engaging brand campaign, the marketing effort about the company rather
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  than a specific product.
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  You time that to fill a void.
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  It keeps you part of the conversation at an in between time.
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  Like it sounds like they're not going to have a car to sell until the 2026 model year.
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  So they want to remind people first that they're still around, get them intrigued as you
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  describe, build anticipation, but it's going to be much more effective if you at least
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  talk about some values hint at what's driving your reboot part in the pond, give them
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  something to look forward to.
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  And I think that's where Jaguar might have fallen down on this.
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  Yeah, I mean, if you think about that idea of them talking about the values, what are the
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  issues here is that all of the values that they're putting forward or all the claims, I don't
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  know if they're values, but you could say that in the commercial that they've released,
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  they're just not the values that we know in Jaguar for, right?
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  It doesn't fit the heritage of the brand.
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  And that's part of the question here is, is that, are they trying to reset the clock
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  in some respect?
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  This is a brand new day, brand new product, but whatever it is that they're doing, it's
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  going to cause them consequences and ramifications.
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  Yeah, I want to focus on the PR here because I think that has played an outsized role for
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  better or worse on how this became a major story.
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  So we learned about the embargoed press event from the car dealer magazine that I mentioned
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  in the introduction.
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  There's some important clues in their coverage.
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  Most important, it sounds like reporters got to see the car.
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  They just can't write about it under the terms of the embargo for a couple more weeks
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  according to car dealer.
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  Jaguar seems to be trying some kind of multi-stage embargo that frees up the reporters to
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  write about the branding and the logo first and we assume sometime around December 2nd
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  the car stories will start to roll out.
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  So I think a big part of the problem here is they have a dedicated news cycle or they wanted
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  a dedicated news cycle focused on the branding, the logo, but there's a really old PR rule of
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  thumb that you don't market the marketing.
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  You don't put too much effort into promoting the ads or the creative and we're seeing here
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  exactly why that is.
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  First, you're emphasizing style over substance.
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  The creative is supposed to be in service of something else and in this case, I don't
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  think it's clear to people clearly, it's not clear to people what that something is.
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  The second, you're drawing attention to the fact that you even need a marketing effort,
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  usually to sell a product but here to reboot the brand rescue the company.
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  Jaguar is now in a window where the reporters have nothing to write about except their marketing
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  and seems like that was part of the plan and it's not going well.
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  And they have to endure it until December 2nd or whenever.
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  Yeah.
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  Look, I didn't spend any time with Steve Jobs, but I am following a lot of the videos of
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  him on TikTok these days.
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  And he had some great quotes from in his early 40s and one of my favorites, and it's part
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  of like his I'm writing about it now is the importance of the product in relation to
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  your advertising and marketing.
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  And the thing that always struck me about this clip that I watched was that when you think
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  about claims of innovation and quality and durability and those are things that you
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  don't see in Japanese advertising, it's one of the points that he made and that they always
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  let the product speak for itself.
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  And so as I think about it here, it's that's so hard to do, right?
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  If you're not seeing the product, the product cannot speak for itself.
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  So that just further amplifies this a little bit that, you know, the the journalists were
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  able to see the car.
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  They're not able to write it.
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  The audience is seeing these campaigns, but they're not able to see the car.
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  I still can't tell if that was the front of the back or if that was even part of the car
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  or not in the commercial.
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  That's just still weighing on me.
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  You know, but you know, getting back to this whole thing about publicity, it's always a
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  double-edged sword, right?
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  And if it if it doesn't resonate with your core values and all it does is amplify noise
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  rather than meaning.
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  And the other thing is because we're not seeing anything about the product, we're not seeing
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  anything that ties into their historical brand.
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  It just seems okay to some degree at this moment at times.
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  It seems it is out of alignment with what we know about a Jaguar.
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  So I would say, attention to me without alignment is like a spotlight on an empty stage.
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  You know, it doesn't drive trust, loyalty or sales.
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  Yeah.
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  And I think one issue here is that they don't seem to have the support of their main fan
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  base.
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  However, dwindling and aging that might be the loudest critics that I've heard have been
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  people who call themselves loyal fans.
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  And the word I keep seeing and hearing is disrespectful.
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  So it's one thing to reboot.
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  Obviously you can't make everybody happy, but if you're alienating the people who want you
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  to succeed, you're really making it harder on yourself.
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  And I want to get back to the PR here because if you dig past the hot takes about, you know,
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  whatever the models were wearing or the, you know, the weird slogans or whatever, Jaguar
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  at this press event, they seem to have spent a lot of time explaining the thought behind
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  this reboot.
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  And I've worked out people worked, you know, really hard on this.
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  There's references, you know, from this event to the founders ideals about originality and
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  a bunch of executives got up to talk about what they're doing to, to reset customers expectations.
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  But a lot of that talk got lost because of the video.
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  And I think you can put some of the blame there on this embargo idea that, well, we'll,
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  we won't let people talk about the car, which to your point is probably the best embodiment
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  or we'd be better hope is the best embodiment of what they're trying to achieve here.
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  And the, either way, the values and principles that they apparently talked about at the press
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  conference just didn't come, didn't connect to the video.
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  People just came away with, so I think that's weird or I don't know what we're supposed to
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  think after seeing that.
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  Yeah, yeah, that's where I wanted to go.
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  It just seemed to be that, that, that, the, the values got lost, right?
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  So rebranding, uh, isn't a choice between old and new.
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  It's a bridge between who you've been and who you're becoming.
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  And you know, the, the brands that thrive and transition don't discard their legacy.
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  They evolved to resonate with the next generation.
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  It sounds like they dealt with that a little bit there at the car show, but for whatever reason,
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  their connection to the past and the, the role of legacy is not coming out.
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  And so, you know, part of it is that just realizing, you know, rebranding isn't just about reaching
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  new audiences, it's about inviting your loyal customers to join the journey.
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  And right now, as you said, they're, they're not in it.
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  Yeah, you want to bring those folks along because they, you know, they could be and should
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  be your strongest advocates.
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  And listen, I'm sure the Jaguar owner demographics, at least in the US and Europe, skew, relatively
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  old and probably male.
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  And of course, they want to broaden their appeal.
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  And I think you can do a full reset, but this might have been a step to four.
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  And so far, too quick and executed in a way that really put people off.
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  I think that's we, we've identified that there's no connection to the company's existing
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  appeal or in this, in this window here, until they show the prototype, like there's no
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  connection to cars at all.
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  And one of their taglines is delete ordinary, but I think people are reading, delete everything.
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  And like, what does that leave you with?
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  Why should you care?
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  And if you want, and also deleting their core audience, right?
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  Deleting their loyal customer base as well, right?
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  It sounds like it.
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  It sounds like it.
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  So the thing is, when you alienate loyal customers, just to taste new ones, you're not rebranding,
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  you're reintroducing yourself to a crowd that just might not even care.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah, which is a big risk and you better have something that's really appealing.
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  And it sounds like from the initial reception that they didn't hit that this time.
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  Yeah.
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  So I had the chance last night to talk to a professor, Steven Gracer, at Harvard Business
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  School, the Old Mental Remind, and I just had this hunch that he would have something
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  to say here.
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  And one of the things he pointed out was that, you know, Jaguar is always considered to
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  be an historical brand.
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  I just wanted to kind of verify that, but very clearly, they're not playing into that, they're
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  not playing into that now.
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  And so, you know, it's, it just, there's just so much on the table here to see, well,
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  I guess we'll find out how much is left to be said about their history and legacy since
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  so much didn't come out of that show.
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  Yeah.
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  I really wonder.
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  I mean, I think a successful version of this recently in the car industry was Volkswagen's
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  75th anniversary ad from a few years ago, which aired during the Super Bowl.
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  And we're not playing a clip here because the entire thing is set to this Neil Diamond song
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  I am, I said.
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  But it was about Volkswagen's connection with its customers through the years and the Volkswagen
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  Beetle turning heads and the VW bus and Herbie the love bug.
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  They had all these pop culture references.
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  And that ad also included a lesbian wedding, but I don't remember anybody accusing Volkswagen
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  of going woke.
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  Regardless, it's one of my favorite ads of all time and it's hard not to make the comparison
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  here.
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  We'll see what comes of this extended campaign, which will in theory include the prototype.
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  But I wonder if that's, well, there's not that they were going for was it because they really
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  did want to make this clean break with their history and that is a really, really, really
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  steep hill to climb, especially without a product to represent it.
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  So it's interesting.
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  I didn't catch anything about the wedding from that commercial.
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  It covered so much material in there and so much history that there was, they certainly created
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  a place for everybody in the history of, of Volkswagen.
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  So I think that is a pretty important thing.
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  It certainly raises questions about the role of companies in, in politics today.
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  There's just so much to be said there.
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  So it's interesting you bring that up with VW and because it's so in your face here with
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  Jaguar in this case, your thoughts on how the politics are playing out here.
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  I looked at it and I didn't see politics here, but I think that issue is everything is political
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  to a certain audience right now and there is this element of social media and I would include
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  YouTube in that, usually from the right that will grab onto anything for a sense of outrage.
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  And I think this idea that Jaguar has gone woke, that criticism, I think is mostly just opportunistic,
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  bullying, it's identity politics, grievance politics, just grabbing ahold of anything
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  it can, but I will say launching on Twitter did not help because well, first off, the platform
• 15:02
  is owned by one of your competitors who is currently cosplaying as co-president elect
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  and has no problem putting his thumb on the scale to make his tweets more visible than
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  anyone.
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  So the first response to Jaguar when you go on Twitter now is Elon Musk asking, do you guys
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  make cars?
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  And that got a lot of headlines, which is his goal and the Jaguar social media team tried
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  to play that off and it's worth talking about how they handled some of this.
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  I just, I don't know that it would have made a difference in the critical reception to
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  the creative, but I'd like to think that the discussion would have been just slightly more
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  civil if they'd launched on blue sky and there's not a lot of commercial activity there.
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  Maybe they just don't have enough traffic to make it compelling yet, but at the very least
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  I think this experience that Jaguar is having is a good argument against launching on Twitter.
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  There's just too many trolls and the platform just amplifies negativity in a way that's
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  really off-putting.
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  So part of is that, you know, the platform you choose can amplify your message or your
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  missteps and today, today's landscape choosing wisely on your platform is just as important
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  as the message itself.
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  Yeah.
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  Rains aren't just competing for tension anymore.
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  They're also battling algorithms that right now are thriving on polarization.
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  That's the real challenge.
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  Yeah.
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  And Jaguar social media team, I think, to their credit hung in there for several hours
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  as people were reacting to the video.
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  The problem was that they were, I think they were probably trying to sound confident and
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  forward-looking, you know, like saying, like, "Well, this is the future, the story is still
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  unfolding."
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  But I think the response that they were getting perhaps because of the amplification
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  that you're talking about.
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  The response they were getting was so overwhelmingly negative.
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  I think what they were trying to do is be friendly and confident, but it might have come off
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  as kind of tone deaf or smug.
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  Right.
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  Yeah.
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  So when everything's getting politicized, finding a way to stay true to your core, your
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  brand's core identities, your best defense against cultural landmines, and they just completely
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  missed that opportunity.
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  They did not engage, and which leaves them only with the values that they're promoting
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  here.
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  You know, I would say bold campaigns, they don't have to alienate, and the best ones show customers
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  that progress and tradition can coexist.
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  I think that that's right.
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  And Jaguar here clearly made a conscious decision not to include the tradition.
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  And I understand why, but as a result, I think they disconnected themselves from a whole
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  bunch of messaging that could have helped, or even just one message, choose one that could
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  have helped can make the connection both for the people who already know them and want
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  to be loyal to them, and also maybe to people who are only tangentially aware and would
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  get the message to maybe like, let's give us a try.
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  Now maybe that is coming with the next wave, whatever it is in their PR plan, but this
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  one I think if they wanted to get, if they just wanted to get attention, they succeeded.
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  But I think they have created a bit of an uphill climb here given the reaction to what they
• 18:11
  put out.
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  I do want to just get back to a tactical point about the rollout, because as I said earlier,
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  I do think that that decision to sort of be very particular about what information rolled
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  out when in this effort that I see to try to create a news cycle for the marketing, for
• 18:36
  the branding effort.
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  I wonder if this trade magazine editor who really took them to task, I wonder if he just
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  was put in the wrong group by mistake, or either that or Jaguar PR made a big miscalculation
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  in who they were targeting, because otherwise you're making this assumption that a car journalist
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  who's coming to your event to write about cars, that they are going to be so blown away
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  by the design and marketing genius that they're going to gush over your new Jaguar logo with
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  a capital G in the middle of it, and that is going to fill a story or a news cycle and
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  clearly, clearly it didn't.
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  It's clear that part of the pitch of this event was the creative process, the concepts and
• 19:22
  the considerations that went into the brand design.
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  The stories go on about like, makers, marks, and monograms and strike-throughs and oxidizing
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  brass, and the design press, they hear the stuff all the time, and they're kind of on that
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  wavelength, they appreciate it, and they don't necessarily call it out, they just factor
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  it into the relatively straightforward reporting that you've seen in that segment, in the
• 19:45
  sort of ad trades that have written about the rebrand.
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  The automotive trade press, they do not hear that stuff all the time, I think, or they
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  don't, it doesn't get presented to them in the way the Jaguar did, and so they got mocked.
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  Car dealer to them, they called it in the story, they called it marketing babble, and it just
• 20:04
  wasn't a full news cycle, it's worth a news for them.
• 20:06
  Truth be told, I think it's not news at all to most people, it's an ad.
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  Yeah, well, so that's the thing, marketing is the vessel, and it's the product that is
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  the anchor, without some type of substance to back it up even the best campaigns are going
• 20:19
  to drift off course.
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  I'd also say that here, hype without solar of clarity is a gamble, and in this politicized
• 20:28
  world, it's going to very quickly turn into a referendum on your brand values, and the
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  brand values we're seeing are not the brand values that we have traditionally associated
• 20:38
  with Jaguar.
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  It just be so much easier if I had a Jaguar sitting right outside that I could kind of test
• 20:45
  it, play with it, run with it, and maybe that could possibly put this guy in the car.
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  That's the kind of conversation in a better context, but unfortunately it's not there, Jaguar
• 20:56
  if you're listening.
• 20:57
  You only have to wait for the 2026 model year, Craig.
• 21:00
  Yeah, and I don't know, we'll see, but apparently I don't fit their target audience, I'm not
• 21:06
  going to give a shape of my head over this one.
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  I think you fit their current target audience is the thing, and unfortunately for you, they're
• 21:14
  just trying to move past it.
• 21:18
  I guess I'll just be left on the side of the road then, I guess.
• 21:21
  What better time for me to say that's our show for this week that we want to thank Sean
• 21:26
  P. Neal and the people forward network for making our podcast possible.
• 21:31
  If you'd like to tell us what you think or you have a topic you'd like to suggest for
• 21:34
  our show, we would love to hear from you.
• 21:36
  Our email address is podcast@ocrnetwork.com or hit us up on LinkedIn.
• 21:43
  Our next question breakdown is a production of the Observatory on corporate reputation.
• 21:48
  Have a happy Thanksgiving everyone.
• 21:49
  I'm Steve Dowling.
• 21:50
  And I'm Craig Kierro.
• 21:52
  Thanks for listening.
• 21:53
  We'll be back after the Thanksgiving holiday.
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