Jaguar corporate suicide by “marketing”?

[Nick Jones]

Discuss:

https://www.jaguar.co.uk/copy-nothing/index.html

What did they make? Cars.

What do they make? Nothing (apart from bizarre videos and deranged marketing drivel)

What are they going to make?  

https://www.marketingweek.com/jaguar-rebranded-needed-revitalise/

Need to lay off the hallucinogens maybe….

[Hamish]

Jeeez

the marketing agency certainly saw them coming and laughed all the way to the Bentley dealers

[RedRooster]

Still can't get my head around that, prepared to lose most of their clients.... 

[PaulAA]

I would have been prepared to say that no car brand has caused such an upsurge in emotions and column inches as Jaguar has this week, and in terms of reviving a flagging brand, it has been a great success. Disruption theory, I think it's called.

But then I saw that Jag MD Rawdon Glover has been whingeing today about the "... blaze of intolerance..." that immediately met their campaign. Really? Wasn't publicity the aim, or are the pansexual kaftan wearers highlighted in their campaign rich and plentiful enough to be the future client pool that awaits Jaguar? Dunno...

I suppose the car industry has long struggled with the evolution of brand names (to wit: the ludicrous slapping of an MG badge onto a bland mass-market SUV) and Jaguar is no different. If Glover & Tata wanted to create a striking car brand that "breaks the boundaries" and "doesn't copy", I struggle to understand why they didn't start with a clean canvas. Given their clear statement that they expect 85% of the historic client base to be alienated (and replaced by wealthier people who come with no idea what Jag represents), why look for contention by emasculating a very specific set of brand values and endeavouring to paint stripes on the jaguar?

Oh, and the logo is horrible. But that's just my opinion.

[JohnD]

The Lord Stokes save us.

 

[Nick Jones]

16 hours ago, PaulAA said:

But then I saw that Jag MD Rawdon Glover has been whingeing today about the "... blaze of intolerance..." that immediately met their campaign.

Aw…. Rawdon, petal…… and you signed off the campaign too….. pray what exactly did you think was going to happen? Did you even think?
 

Are you sure you’re in the right job?

[Escadrille Ecosse]

[mattius]

I'm holding verdict till we actually get to see a car

The marketing campaign is shocking though, they seem to have neglected the first thing about being a car brand, the car.

It's really weird to me because in recent years, they had rebuilt the brand well, from being an old man's car to a young excitable car with the iPace.

Interestingly having just been in the market for a new car Jaguar was high up my list, then this decision to stop selling cars actually put me off buying a used one. Wonder how many people would be in the same boat. Could literally be the end of them.

[PaulAA]

5 hours ago, mattius said:

from being an old man's car

[BiTurbo228]

Yeah it doesn't strike me as a car company that's in good health...

To be fair though, Jaguar's been struggling for a while now. Land/Range Rover has been doing alright, but Jaguar less so. You can see them make good jumps forwards with things like the XF (when it first came out), the F Type as a halo car, and the iPace. But they don't have the volume and funding to follow through with a solid sequel it seems. Strong pound for a long time doesn't help.

Same trouble as all the other British car makers since BL started going down the tubes. Not enough product to build a strong dealer network. Not enough dealer network to drive sales. Not enough sales to develop a strong product generation after generation. Hard trap to get yourself out of, especially when your exchange rather is poor for export (and your government is in no hurry to devalue the currency because the economy is a banking one).

The ones that seem to have done ok are all super-high-value stuff like Aston, Bentley, Rolls etc. That gets round the poor currency exchange thing by having much higher profit margins, and reduces the need for extensive dealership networks to get the volume.

[PaulAA]

1 hour ago, BiTurbo228 said:

The ones that seem to have done ok are all super-high-value stuff like Aston, Bentley, Rolls etc. That gets round the poor currency exchange thing by having much higher profit margins, and reduces the need for extensive dealership networks to get the volume.

... and that, they claim, is their current target - much higher sales price than previous Jaguar models, ditching their current client groups, with an SUV (natch) pitched against the Bentaga. A UK-based colleague of mine lives next door to a senior JLR person, who calmly assures that the first car to be revealed will assuage all concerns and will be a stunner. I guess we have to wait until 2nd December to see...

I'm still tempted to say that their horrible advertising campaign has been a roaring success (despite the dribbling nonsense from JLR Board members), if measured by the column inches it has occupied in the press and social media this week. The question is whether it has turned Jaguar from being a forgotten brand to a ridiculed one.

[Escadrille Ecosse]

Time will tell. Obviously not aimed at your's truly either on cost or because I most definitely don't identify with any of those 'things' in the ad.

3 hours ago, BiTurbo228 said:

Hard trap to get yourself out of, especially when your exchange rather is poor for export (and your government is in no hurry to devalue the currency because the economy is a banking one).

It is. Although the exchange rate is a consequence of financial reaction to a number of things, almost all of which are outwith the control of government. In this case interest rates are one factor but they are decided on by the BoE (unless you are a conspiracy theorist). Another factor has been the markets concern over the Eurozone/Euro, particularly the mess Germany is, and has been, and looks like continuing to be in for some time still.

I also suspect that in spite of complaints about interest rates, the great unwashed that is the British public would be even more concerned about the effect of a devalued pound on import costs of pretty much everything, but in particular oil/gas, and the consequential higher inflation. The 'cost of living crisis' and all that.

And for Jaguar the increased transactional cost of moving components across the UK/Eurozone border is a drag on profitability.

Or maybe people don't actually want to buy the cars?

But if you believe the marketing bullshit coming out of Jaguar the actual reason is that their cars aren't expensive enough Go figure as they say.

 

 

[BiTurbo228]

@PaulAA The old 'any publicity is good publicity' ploy.

The thing that perplexed me a little was ceasing all new car sales ahead of having the new car ready to sell. That sort of thing would rattle a potential customer. Definitely the sort of thing a company does if it's losing money on each car it sells.

Still, I haven't been interested in actually purchasing any car any manufacturer has made new for the last 20 years, so I couldn't be further from the target market of any car manufacturer. My opinion is worth diddly squat!

@Escadrille Ecosse I expect you're right about the average Brit not tolerating any devaluing of the pound much. In addition to what you mention, they'd probably be right pissed off that the price of a pint in Malaga is twice as much too (or, to balance out the classism, the price of a chianti in Amalfi).

Will be interesting/sad if lack of tariff-free access to the Eurozone helps put the nail in another British manufacturer's coffin (considering that's what did in British Leyland, more than anything else).

[JohnD]

17 hours ago, BiTurbo228 said:

Still, I haven't been interested in actually purchasing any car any manufacturer has made new for the last 20 years, so I couldn't be further from the target market of any car manufacturer. My opinion is worth diddly squat!

Since Fatso Clarkson  called his estate 'Diddly Squat' and it's worth about £12.5 million  ...   we need a new set of words for "worthless"!

John

[BiTurbo228]

Very true! 

I've always been a fan of the phrase '5/8ths of bugger all' 

[PaulAA]

Well, if true, this looks pretty awful:

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/jaguar-concept-leaked-full-ahead-reveal-tonight

I suppose we will have to wait to the wee small hours of tomorrow morning to be truly underwhelmed...

[Escadrille Ecosse]

Side view looks like something 1920s Art Deco, very Metropolis.

Unfortunately the front looks like a bulldog chewing a wasp. And its arse like its been sitting on it too long.

But the piece de resistance has to be the 'quartic' steering wheel from the Allegro.

That ought to do the trick 

[PaulAA]

14 minutes ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

Side view looks like something 1920s Art Deco, very Metropolis.

True. The marketing vision behind the Bugatti Royale springs to mind.

In the pictures, it looks as if it is likely well over 5m long and a good 2m wide. Ideal for... um...

[Nick Jones]

Uggerlee…….

And I’m pretty sure it’s a rip-off of something anyway (Bentley / bastard love-child of Bentley and something else?)

[Hamish]

Very Bentley gt’esque

top view reminds me of the Chrysler Crossfire

whilst there were a couple of Jags on the short list when my wife was looking to upgrade ( ended up with a very good spec used Q3)

I don’t think we’ll be in the queue for this. 
 

but then I didn’t think Bentley would sell many bentayga’s

So what do I know

 

[JohnD]

2 hours ago, PaulAA said:

Well, if true, this looks pretty awful:

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/jaguar-concept-leaked-full-ahead-reveal-tonight

I suppose we will have to wait to the wee small hours of tomorrow morning to be truly underwhelmed...

"Parker!"

"Yus, Yor Lidyship?"

"Remind me never to buy another car from Jaguar!"

"Mi vury forts, Yor Lidyship!"

[DeTRacted]

Fine as a snowplough.......    I thought a Kamm tail had to be at the back. 

[mattius]

Looks very unoriginal, which kinda goes against exactly why they are claiming to be different.

They real thing never looks like these sketches, practicality and cost gets in the way.

Does look like they are aiming for Aston/Bentley market, which is a strange niche to target.

 

[RedRooster]

It's ugly, Bently / Rolls ugly, not that I'd ever be a customer. 

[Escadrille Ecosse]

50 minutes ago, mattius said:

Looks very unoriginal, which kinda goes against exactly why they are claiming to be different.

Yeah...