By now, not only will you have seen Jaguar’s controversial ‘Copy Nothing’ rebranding campaign, you’ll also have seen the immense public reaction to it worldwide, along the lines of ‘woke’, that it doesn’t feature any cars and that its rich heritage is not leveraged on one bit.
You’ll even have seen Elon Musk ask on X: “Do you sell cars?” and UK politician Nigel Farage predicting Jaguar will go bust, “and you know what? They deserve to”, while making reference to Inspector Morse’s iconic Mark 2 and the E-Type, which Enzo Ferrari reputedly once called the most beautiful car ever made.
Well, Jaguar MD Rawdon Glover has hit back at critics’ ‘vile hatred and intolerance’ while denying the rebrand was meant to be a ‘woke’ statement. “If we play in the same way that everybody else does, we’ll just get drowned out. So we shouldn’t turn up like an auto brand,” he told the Financial Times.
“We need to re-establish our brand and at a completely different price point so we need to act differently. We wanted to move away from traditional automotive stereotypes,” Glover added.
He even retaliated against Farage, 60, telling The Sunday Times: “The average age of the Jaguar client is quite old and getting older. We’ve got to access a completely different audience. That audience isn’t centred around people of the demographic of Mr Farage.”
“People love us for our history and our heritage, but that has not led to huge commercial success,” Glover told the British broadsheet.
Even design chief Gerry McGovern has chimed in, telling This is Money: “It will shock, surprise and polarise. It will make you feel uncomfortable. That’s fine. The world is not standing still.”
McGovern was reportedly speaking at a briefing at JLR’s Gaydon design centre, saying he wanted to recreate the “jaw-dropping” effect the E-Type had in the 1960s.
“This has been years in the making. It’s not just about reshaping a car. It’s about redefining, and reimagining a brand. It’s about reimagining Jaguar. This is big,” said the design boss.
Revealing that 800 people had worked on the radical redesign and rebranding, McGovern said jokingly: “We have not been sniffing the white stuff.”
“Our vision for Jaguar today is informed by this philosophy. New Jaguar is a brand built around Exuberant Modernism. It is imaginative, bold and artistic at every touchpoint. It is unique and fearless. This is a reimagining that recaptures the essence of Jaguar, returning it to the values that once made it so loved, but making it relevant for a contemporary audience,” he added.
Well, if they wanted everyone talking about Jaguar, they’ve certainly succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Never mind what the late, great Sir William Lyons would have thought – what do you think?
The post Jaguar boss defends rebranding: ‘If we play the same way as everybody else, we’ll just get drowned out’ appeared first on Paul Tan's Automotive News.
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