Jaguar’s Rebrand: Misstep or Masterstroke?
In the ever-volatile world of luxury branding, Jaguar has just played a daring hand. Their recent rebrand is either a catastrophic misstep or a genius disruption—an audacious move that could echo through the halls of Harvard Business School for years to come.
The British automaker, renowned for elegance and performance, has stripped down its classic identity, replacing it with a minimalist logo and a philosophy of “Exuberant Modernism.” Gone are the days of simply selling cars; Jaguar is now marketing a lifestyle, using vivid promotional materials that don’t even show the vehicles themselves. Instead, the focus is on vibrantly dressed models and high-fashion aesthetics—a bold pivot that aims to redefine their audience.
But has it worked?
The Thin Line Between Genius and Gimmick
Critics have been swift and merciless. Some have labeled the campaign “woke on wheels,” lamenting the departure from Jaguar’s heritage of roaring engines and sleek designs. Others see a spark of brilliance—a provocative strategy that has everyone talking. And in today’s world, attention is currency.
Here’s the crux: Jaguar’s rebrand will live or die by its product. The company plans to unveil an electric GT model priced north of £100,000. If this car is a success, Jaguar will prove its doubters wrong. The rebrand, then, won’t just be an aesthetic exercise; it will become a case study in harnessing the power of cultural conversations to sell a premium product.
If the product flops, however, the rebrand will be remembered as a cautionary tale—a reminder that even luxury brands can fall victim to the allure of superficial change.
Why This Matters to You
Whether you’re a jeweler, a fashion designer, or an entrepreneur in any high-end industry, Jaguar’s story is a lesson in risk, reward, and the power of strategic branding. In today’s market, it’s not enough to have a great product. You need a narrative that captures attention, creates desire, and delivers on promises.
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Because in the world of luxury, bold moves win markets. Will you make yours?
Did Jaguar drop the ball on their big rebrand? We're going to get into this today.
My name is Jesse Korby. I'm a consultant in the luxury and jewelry space, so it's very important to me to pay attention to the new way that brands of various types in the luxury space are finding ways of going to market and getting attention.
So, to come back to that first question: Has Jaguar ruined their brand? You can see all the comments on the content, all of the different posts, the way that the brand has become a meme of some kind on platforms like Instagram. To some people, they might be thinking, "Well, Jaguar destroyed their brand," but to me, I'm taking a step back and looking at it as this could go one of two ways. They have either destroyed their brand, or this is a masterstroke of genius in brand positioning and revitalizing a brand.
The verdict is still out on that. We're going to have to wait and see. But the reason that I say that it could be a good thing for Jaguar is, number one, it's gotten them a ton of attention. We have to be thinking of this from the perspective of why would Jaguar do this all of a sudden? There's fans of Jaguar saying that it was a perfect, perfect logo and a perfect brand before being touched. But did these people ever even buy a car? Probably not. People that would buy a luxury car probably don't have time to be arguing about the new branding of a luxury brand in the comments on Instagram.
So, you can't pay attention to a ton of noise there. There would have to be a good reason for Jaguar to do this. We know that lots and lots of things are changing in the automotive space, and a big part of that is because of Tesla creating the electric car market and now all of the other car companies competing.
At this time, and up to this time, Jaguar has been a struggling brand. They get sold at the same dealerships as Land Rover or Range Rover. But why would somebody want a Jaguar instead of one of those vehicles that are really, really popular? The Jaguar brand has kind of been fledgling. So if they know that their product isn't selling, then they know that maybe the market has moved. Maybe they are making the decision to sell to their customer of tomorrow.
When you see the ad and it looks very young, very colorful, and very abstract, it almost looks like it was conceptualized by using AI image generators to lookbook the designs of what the ads would be. It's pretty clear that that probably happened, and it's probable that they're using AI to design the concepts of what the new product is going to be.
This is where it gets into things that really matter to me in my product segment, which is primarily jewelry and other consumer products for luxury. They're clearly jumping on a trend of how the industry is going to operate in the future, and that's a good thing. To me, the writing is on the wall that they're already adopting a new approach to how content is going to be created at every stage of how the content is created. They're trying to tap into the heart and mind of who their customer of tomorrow is going to be.
If you think of the timing and think of how old Gen Z is and how old Millennials are, it makes sense for them to be setting flags in the ground for that future customer that could eventually want to buy the awesome car from Jaguar.
So that's how it could go if they are thinking that way of using AI to create their content and reposition what this brand is going to be for a new type of consumer when the old type of consumer has already left the market and isn't going to be trying to buy the new Jaguar anymore. That's how it could be a stroke of genius, in my opinion.
So what do you think? Let me know in the comments. Let me know if you think this is a terrible idea on the part of Jaguar. If you are a Jaguar owner and you drive a Jaguar, has this turned you off the brand? If you are a young person, does this make you more interested in Jaguar? Keep in mind they've gotten a ton of attention, and we haven't seen a car yet.
That is why this could be genius. So let me know what you think in the comments. My name is Jesse Korby, here at Jewelers Advantage, and we will see you in the next one.