{"id":849,"date":"2025-01-31T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-31T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/2025\/01\/31\/jaguars-rebrand-bold-move-or-costly-mistake\/"},"modified":"2025-01-31T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-01-31T12:00:00","slug":"jaguars-rebrand-bold-move-or-costly-mistake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/2025\/01\/31\/jaguars-rebrand-bold-move-or-costly-mistake\/","title":{"rendered":"Jaguar’s Rebrand: Bold Move or Costly Mistake?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to\u00a0Creator Columns<\/strong>, where we bring expert\u00a0HubSpot Creator<\/a>\u00a0voices to the Blogs that inspire and help you grow better.<\/p>\n

Jaguar\u2019s recent rebrand has people talking, but not in the way most marketers hope for.<\/p>\n

Gone are the classic cues of British elegance. In their place is minimalism and \u201cmodernist exuberance.\u201d Their rebrand campaigns involve cryptic videos, high-fashion models, and a new mantra: \u201cCopy nothing. Delete ordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reactions have been mixed. Marketing legend Mark Ritson<\/a> called it \u201cf—ing lunacy,\u201d while Rory Sutherland<\/a> is reserving judgment, saying, \u201cIt\u2019s too early to call.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, what\u2019s Jaguar playing at?<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

What has Jaguar done?<\/h2>\n

The historic British car manufacturer has gone for a new look. The leaping cat has been removed from the logo. In its place is a minimalist wordmark that now reads \u201cJaGUar.\u201d Yes\u2026 with that random capitalization.<\/p>\n

Jaguar launched this rebrand by wiping their social media profiles clean and replacing their branding with car-free visuals. This prompted Elon Musk<\/a> to ask, \u201cDo you sell cars?\u201d.<\/p>\n

But the change is part of a broader strategy. Jaguar\u2019s sales have been falling,<\/a> and there\u2019s a real fear that the brand can\u2019t rely on its existing customer base.<\/p>\n

To cope, Jaguar is repositioning as a \u00a3100k+ luxury EV brand to rival Porsche and Bentley. Rather than targeting an older generation who adore its British roots, Jaguar plans to target \u201ccash-rich, time-poor\u201d millennials and Gen Z.<\/p>\n

But will it work?<\/p>\n

The Tropicana Effect<\/h3>\n

Most marketers can recount a long list of failed rebrands. Usually, the top of that list is Tropicana in 2009. They ditched their iconic orange-with-a-straw logo for a sleek redesign.<\/p>\n

The result was abysmal. Sales dropped 20% in two months<\/a>. The company lost \u00a330 million before scrambling back to the original design.<\/p>\n

Jaguar\u2019s gamble feels eerily similar: ditching the familiar in favor of \u201cmodern.\u201d But here\u2019s the thing: cars aren\u2019t juice.<\/p>\n

Buying Tropicana is a quick, emotional, and intuitive decision (what Daniel Kahneman would call \u201csystem 1\u201d<\/a>). Car buying is deliberate, logical, and tied to identity (\u201csystem 2\u201d).<\/p>\n\n

So, you could argue that severing Jaguar from its roots is unproblematic. After all, buyers will rationally assess Jaguar\u2019s car based on its quality, not its historical marketing.<\/p>\n

But we\u2019re missing an important part of the puzzle: mental availability.<\/p>\n

Jaguar\u2019s Mental Availability Problem<\/h3>\n

Byron Sharp, author of How Brands Grow<\/a>, highlights the power of memory structures. Jaguar\u2019s heritage\u2014Le Mans wins, the E-Type, and the \u201cJaaaag\u201d factor\u2014are its mental assets.<\/p>\n

Sharp argues that one of the sole aims of advertising is to refresh mental availability. Doing so keeps the awareness high and boosts purchases.<\/p>\n

Huge brands like McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Apple, and Audi incorporate distinctive brand elements into every one of their ads. This repeat exposure builds mental availability in the customer\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n

In his book, Sharp notes how ads that successfully link to existing brand assets are 60% more effective at driving sales than generic ads with weak brand associations.<\/p>\n

In other words, Coca-Cola sells more by creating familiar, albeit perhaps dull, ads of young friends drinking Coke on a hot day than they would by creating an ad that\u2019s distinctive yet unfamiliar.<\/p>\n

Jaguar ditching all their recognized assets for abstract visuals risks losing everything that makes the brand memorable.<\/p>\n

Lessons from Australian Wine<\/h3>\n

Bryon Sharp shares an example of Queen Adelaide, a well-known wine brand in Australia that had lost market relevance and shelf space.<\/p>\n

Seppelt, the company behind Queen Adelaide, saw an opportunity to relaunch the brand rather than create a new one. Unlike Jaguar, Queen Adelaide focused on maintaining familiarity. They retained the recognizable name and design elements to trigger existing memory structures in consumers’ minds.<\/p>\n

Within a short period, Queen Adelaide became the largest-selling chardonnay in Australia. Sales surged due to the brand’s ability to reconnect with its established mental availability.<\/p>\n

The example underscores that doubling down on mental availability can drive sales for a struggling brand.<\/p>\n

The Sensible Option for Jaguar<\/h3>\n

The safe and sensible option for the iconic brand would have been to marry the old and the new.<\/p>\n

Take the assets that Jaguar fans are familiar with and build on them to highlight their new electronic era.<\/p>\n\n

They could have reinvented the logo but kept clearer nods to Jaguar\u2019s heritage. Mental availability thrives on familiarity, and Jaguar\u2019s rebrand leaves them as weak as a new brand entering an extremely competitive market.<\/p>\n

By adding to the strong brand, Jaguar could have retained the strong associations millions around the world had with the brand rather than severing them.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s the safe option. While it\u2019s undoubtedly less risky and far less likely to lead to a catastrophic drop in sales, it also has less potential for upside.<\/p>\n

The Big Question<\/h2>\n

Is Jaguar\u2019s rebrand a clever move to secure its place in the EV market, or will it end up as another Tropicana-like disaster?<\/p>\n

Mark Ritson argues they should\u2019ve modernized with their heritage, not erased it. Rory Sutherland? He\u2019s keeping an open mind.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s certain is this: Jaguar has risked billions in mental availability. If they can\u2019t build new associations fast enough, this bold bet might cost more than they can afford.<\/p>\n

This blog is part of <\/span>Phill Agnew\u2019<\/a>s <\/span>Marketing Cheat Sheet<\/a> <\/span>series<\/a> where he reveals the scientifically proven tips to help you improve your marketing. To learn more, listen to his podcast <\/span>Nudge<\/a>, a proud member of the Hubspot Podcast Network.<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to\u00a0Creator Columns, where we bring expert\u00a0HubSpot Creator\u00a0voices to the Blogs that inspire and help […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}