Much will be written about the late John Prescott’s political career but, for many, he will be remembered as “Two Jags”: a man who not only owned a Jaguar but also had the use of another in his capacity as a cabinet minister. That such an arrangement seemed so unusually extravagant in the late 1990s is indicative of the esteem that the marque was once held in. Today, few people would stop for a Jaguar parked in the street, let alone care how many a senior politician might own. And in seeming recognition of this popular indifference, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has decided it is time to reboot the brand.
A rebrand is always a risky strategy, especially for a company whose products are entwined within a national identity (at least, that is, for anyone over the age of 40). Jaguar’s self-styled “reimagining” launched this week has been met with much derision. The new identity largely drops the familiar leaping big cat and is replaced with a simple monogram and a minimalist san-serif logotype. Accompanying the new visuals is a 30-second advert without any cars, featuring instead a colourfully dressed diverse cast and looking much like a BBC2 ident fused with a Vogue fashion feature. Both the identity and ad are conventionally modern and neither is particularly remarkable.
Yet the reaction has been almost universally negative and the rebranding has inevitably become a new front in the “culture wars”. Even the misogynistic influencer Andrew Tate popped up to call the rebrand “gay bullshit”. Many critics, including Nigel Farage, have predictably resorted to the lazy aphorism “go woke, go broke”, warning that the Jaguar rebrand is “commercial suicide”. But this is to completely misunderstand the motivation behind the new strategy: abandoning an insular marketing style that no longer appeals, and reclothing Jaguar in the aesthetic of a newer, international elite.
Tata-owned JLR might have had record sales in the most recent financial year and sold over 400,000 cars. But almost all the profit came from the Land Rover side of the business. The Jaguar CEO Adrian Mardell reportedly told investors that the Jaguar models were generating “close to zero profitability”. Rather than wait to see the inevitable losses as Jaguar’s tired brand declines further, JLR has decided to shake things up and take the business firmly upmarket. The new identity and visual language is therefore only a part of a much more substantial reset of the business which involves an end to seeling Jaguar cars in the UK until they are replaced by an entirely new range of electric-only models at the significantly more profitable luxury end of the car market. Jaguar reportedly expects 85 per cent of future sales to be from customers completely new to the brand.
The new strategy risks abandoning everything that once made Jaguars popular. I remember, as a young boy in the late-1970s, being taken by a friend to see an E-Type stored in his grandmother’s dusty garage. I was not interested in cars but, when the protective sheets were removed, I could understand the hushed reverence for this otherworldly looking vehicle. Unfortunately, Jaguar has since not been able to produce a sports car with anything like the same public recognition. Its best effort was perhaps the 1970s-era XJ-S which featured strongly in the TV reboots Return of the Saint and The New Avengers. But the car, like both of these series, was a second-rate imitation of a 1960s classic. Jaguar has since had to rely on sales of its mid-level luxury saloons and these, at best, have been only intermittently cool. JLR clearly feels it is now worth severing ties with its ageing, “golf club” loyalists.
The JLR board are unsentimental and hardheaded business people who have understood that the Jaguar brand, for all its charm, has only really made headway in the Anglosphere. In ditching the heritage (at least for now) in favour of a more “disruptive”, futuristic aesthetic, Jaguar hope to connect with a younger, more global audience (including in China, where Land Rovers are already very popular). And this modernisation goes beyond style. Unlike the car giant Volkswagen – which, like much of German industry, is caught between the death of the combustion engine and the new world of electric motors waiting to be born – Jaguar is going all-in on electric. The company recognises that, irrespective of government meddling and environmental hectoring from the progressive media, the motor industry is undergoing a paradigm change and the electric powertrain is the inevitable future. None of this (including the brand reboot) ought to be a surprise: Jaguar originally announced its “reimagine” strategy in 2021.
As for going “woke”, the JLR board will be delighted by the fuss. Anheuser-Busch, the US brewing giant, probably came to regret using the transgender social media personality, Dylan Mulvaney, to promote Bud Light beer in 2023. The ensuing row and a conservative-led boycott of the company’s products led to a substantial drop in sales and a consequent share price reduction. But studies have suggested several “woke” rebrands actually worked – simply by getting eyeballs on a product if not exactly shifting any social mores. JLR are deliberately seeking to be provocative and address an entirely new audience. By not having any Jaguar cars available to buy until 2026, JLR doesn’t need to concern itself with a short-term fall in sales – a near 100 per cent drop during the next 12-18 months is already baked-in. It seems upsetting the regulars on GB News is a small price to pay if the world is talking about the Jaguar brand again.
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