Let’s not beat around the bush, Jaguar’s rebrand feels like an old guy in skinny jeans trying to get into the cool new bar in town. It is bold, attention-grabbing, and guaranteed to spark debate, but is it the reinvention of an icon or a reckless gamble with decades of brand equity? That is the real question.
When news of the rebrand first broke, I held back from sharing my thoughts. These things take time to process, and frankly, I wanted to separate the noise from the signal. Everyone on LinkedIn is suddenly a branding expert shouting that it is either a stroke of genius or a catastrophic mistake. The thing is, you cannot measure the success of any brand work in advance. Only time will tell if this is a brilliant move or a spectacular fail.
However, we can evaluate the brand strategy principles behind it, and Jaguar seems to have ignored a few key ones....
Before diving in, I will say this: I will not waste time critiquing the design itself. Subjective opinions on aesthetics without context or testing are just that, opinions. What I will say is that the boldness of the move has certainly turned heads, and in marketing, that is not always a bad thing. It has put them in the spotlight ahead of an eagerly anticipated product launch. But at what sacrifice? What happens next is critical.
Brand strategy is generally interested in building salience, embedding memory structures around imagery, words, sounds, and experiences over time. This is why consistency is so vital. It reinforces recognition and builds brand equity, which is essentially the value tied to the brand’s assets. Rebranding inherently risks damaging this equity, especially for a legacy brand like Jaguar that has spent decades creating a distinctive identity.
When working with our own clients, we will more often than not conclude that a total rebrand is not the best course of action. It is a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. We did a series on “bad reasons to rebrand,” and one of the worst offenders was slumping sales. Alex covers this in some detail in an interview he gave for Transform Magazine back in 2021.
A rebrand cannot fix a flawed product or business model. Jaguar Land Rover has faced declining sales, but this rebrand is more than a facelift. It comes with new vehicles targeting a different demographic. That is where things get tricky.
Brands rarely succeed by alienating their current audience to chase a new one. The public do not forget a brand’s long established positioning just because it has a shiny new logo, and younger audiences can sniff out inauthenticity a mile away. This risks being seen as a desperate attempt to stay relevant rather than a confident evolution. It is a strategy that screams, “hello fellow kids,” and the kids are unlikely to buy it.
A more strategic approach might have been to create a sub-brand within the Jaguar family, something fresh and modern without sacrificing the legacy. This would allow them to target a younger audience while keeping the heritage intact.
You do not have to kill your icon to innovate.
In fact, doing so can make it harder to gain traction with either audience.
My biggest question is this: was the brand really the problem? If Jaguar had focused on improving the cars, better design, superior performance, and features that resonate with a younger demographic, would we even be having this conversation? Heritage takes decades to build but can be destroyed in an instant, and a short-sighted rebrand risks irreparable damage.
Here is how I would have handled it.
Just before the launch of the new vehicles, I would announce that this "rebrand" was a simply a marketing stunt designed to get people to look at what the brand is doing, to create a global spotlight for the launch of the new cars and in turn spark passionate conversations on the heritage, prestige and iconic nature of Jaguar.
Then I would unveil the cars under the classic "timeless" Jaguar brand, with modern designs and features that are strong enough to speak for themselves. I would double down on the new line "Copy Nothing" to show how confident Jaguar is in it's own skin. The message would then be:
Jaguar does not need gimmicks to be relevant. What says "copy nothing" more than being yourself?
It is an icon of British design with over 100 years of heritage and a commitment to innovation. That kind of confident positioning is what turns heads and drives interest. Then they get all the awareness and conversation around the controversial rebrand without having to kill the brand they have spent so long cultivating.
Marketing master stroke.
For now, the jury is out. The success of this rebrand will depend on the quality of the product, the response from audiences old and new, and whether the brand can authentically bridge the gap between heritage and modernity. A big task.
Time will tell if this is a masterstroke or a misstep, but one thing is certain, the road ahead is going to be long and uphill for the new Jaguar. Let's hope theres a good battery in those new EVs.
Written by Alex Marshall, Head of Creative Strategy at StartsWithA
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