If you ran Jaguar, what would you do?
Originally written in Chinese. Translated with AI, reviewed by Gary. Read the Chinese original →
Jaguar has rebranded, with new ads and a new logo that lean young and minimalist. The market's response wasn't even split, though. The bad reviews outnumbered the good.
I don't have strong taste in aesthetics, so I won't judge the design. I want to look at this from a business point of view.
Jaguar and Land Rover both belong to Tata Motors, together as Jaguar Land Rover. From 2022 to 2023 the company grew 27% globally.
In a group with annual revenue of £28.99 billion, even adding a roll of toilet paper might need layer after layer of approval, never mind a rebrand. Even if the agency was boldly creative, the board wouldn't accept it lightly. I'm quite sure this rebrand was carefully thought through.
So why make this decision?
Dig deeper and you find that the growth came mainly from Land Rover. Jaguar grew only 4.2%, selling just 64,000 cars in a year.
What does that mean?
Xiaomi, which only started selling cars this year, expects to deliver 130,000 in 2024.
Put simply, the Jaguar brand isn't selling. However good the brand image, with James Bond behind it and cars that review well, people just aren't buying. With no other option, the company made this move to make the brand younger and reach younger audiences.
That leads to a second question:
If you're a brand and your audience is 25, do you grow old with them, keep launching products that suit their taste, so that they still love you at 50? Or do you always target 25-year-olds and keep changing?
McDonald's actually gave a good answer a few months ago.
When you hear McDonald's, what comes to mind? Happy Meals? The place kids celebrate birthdays?
If that's what you think, you're probably not that young any more. Kids today tell me fast food is junk food. Their parents taught them that.
As times change, so does the way parents raise children. They no longer take kids to McDonald's for birthdays. McDonald's once tried to improve its image and please everyone with salad meals.
It ended up pleasing neither side. Now McDonald's has stopped pretending and laid its cards on the table. It took salads off the menu, removed the kids' playgrounds, added more seating, switched to self-order kiosks, and made the point that McDonald's is fast food: cheap and quick. It focuses on adults and has simply given up on children.
Back to the question. Most of the time a brand can only select its users. Educating users is very expensive.
So if I ran Jaguar, what would I do?
From where I stand, there's no right or wrong. I don't think such a big rebrand was needed. I would keep serving the same tier of customers, and create a sub-brand to go after new ones.
After all, people are born, age, fall ill and die. I think companies are the same.