Blue and pink: why a traditional British brand is changing values
Jaguar has managed to surprise several times in less than a month. First, with a provocative commercial and rebranding, during which the brand abandoned the cat's head on the emblem. Then the colors of its new luxury concept Type 00 - pink and blue. For what the brand took offense at its traditional customers and why it needed to revise the usual values - in the material "Izvestia".
Shoot Paddington bear
Preceding the premiere of the car advertising campaign under the slogan Copy Nothing ("Nothing to copy") caused a flurry of "vile hatred and intolerance" on the Internet, complained the managing director of the British company Rawdon Glover. Some condemned the freak images of the artists starring in the clip. Others, such as Ilon Musk, were surprised by the absence of the car itself in the video.
Still others didn't like the new logo, "like a cheap clothing brand." Fourths bemoaned the fact that instead of the traditional logo with a cat's head, there was a new one with "curlicues" symbolizing the first and last letters of the name. The Jaguar brand, like many British car brands, has paid great attention to its historical heritage.
A video on behalf of a Jaguar brand manager posted on Instagram (owned by Meta, an organization recognized as extremist in Russia) made a lot of noise.
- We all hate our rebranding, but I want to assure you that we have a vision. <...> They said replacing the jaguar head with a monogram is like killing a British icon. We might as well shoot Paddington Bear," said the girl, who, as it later turned out, did not work at Jaguar.
Between a Rolls and a Cyber Truck.
- 'If we play like everyone else, we'll just get sunk,' Rawdon Glover told The Financial Times . He said the reaction to the video, which has garnered 160 million views on social media, has been very "positive" but complained of "hate and intolerance".
The day before the premiere, photos of the new Jaguar were apparently intentionally leaked to the Web. In the photos, the car was painted in blue and pink colors and looked atypical for a car of the brand. Despite the principle "Do not copy anything", formulated by the founder of the brand William Lyons, the look of the concept caused associations with the electric coupe Rolls-Royce Spectre, and angular lines - with Tesla CyberTruck.
During the presentation of the Type 00 electric car, JLR creative director Jerry McGovern tried to reduce the degree of hype. London Blue, he said, is inspired by the coloring of 1960s Jaguars. The pink hue is named Miami Pink after the pastel tones of the city's Art Deco architecture and is inspired by the distinctive color that brass takes on as it ages.
Blinds and "totems"
At the same time, some details about the concept and the upcoming car were revealed. The zeros in the name mean zero emissions and the status of the car from which the new countdown begins. The most unusual detail is the louvers in the stern. It is not a window to the psychotherapist's office, which will definitely be needed by the former fan of the brand, but just a design refinement. Horizontal taillights are built into them. There are other unusual solutions, such as a blind, glassless trunk lid. A compartment in the front fender hides "totems" made of brass, travertine and alabaster.
Each "totem", inserted into a recess in the center console, creates its own interior mood - changing light, sound, display graphics and flavor. Brass is used in the interior trim, and the side camera "covers" with engraved jaguar profile are made of it.
The most powerful in history
The serial car, which is promised to be presented at the end of 2025, will be not a two-door, but a four-door. Tentatively, it will be able to travel 770 km on the WLTP cycle, with a 10-minute charge should be enough for 320 km.
The JEA platform, on which the car is built, was developed from scratch. The experience of the factory team's performances in Formula E races was used in its creation, the company claims. At the same time, earlier Chinese Chery reported that "electrified" Jaguar and Land Rover will be created on its modular platform.
The Type 00 will be the most powerful Jaguar in history, McGovern promised, with 1,000 horsepower at its peak. Considering the success of today's cars, the performance isn't the most outstanding. It's odd that no top speed is specified, as Jaguar has twice been recognized as the world's fastest production car.
Small and expensive
Nevertheless, the British brand will try to conquer the luxury segment. In many ways, this is a forced measure: in the premium segment, the brand did not succeed, a large model range and competition with BMW did not work.
Jaguar was lagging far behind its off-road counterpart Land Rover. Thus, in 2023, 356 thousand Land Rover and Range Rover cars were sold, and only 64 thousand "Jaguars" were sold. Moreover, the electric car I-Pace showed the greatest decline.
Guided by the principle "We don't sell - we don't lose money", Jaguar is putting under the knife the existing model range - not only sports cars, sedans, station wagons and crossovers with an internal combustion engine, but also the only electric car I-Pace. Only the popular F-Pace crossover will remain on the assembly line for now. British classified Auto-trader has already noted the interest in the brand's used cars.
- Jaguar was successful when it didn't chase volume," Rawdon Glover told MotorTrend. In fact, the company plans to sell fewer cars and at a higher price. Especially since the expensive Range Rover and Land Rover Defender play an important role in the sales of the sister brand.
The brand is already not looking back at the traditional audience. According to Rowdon Glover's calculations, 10-15% of the client base will remain with the brand after the transformation. The company is betting on a completely new audience, younger and wealthier - because the most affordable car will cost at least $120 thousand.
A car with character
- Jaguar broke away from the mainstream and made a car that is very different from what we see on the roads now," Svyatoslav Sahakyan, head of the industrial design studio, told Izvestia. - Even the most daring Chinese cars can hardly compare with this car in terms of design and perception. There is a coarsening of design, which can be seen in the same Chinese products that have gone from characterless forms to "square jeeps" and "geldvagen". Jaguar has gone in the direction of creating a car with character. This is lacking not only in automobile design, but also in human interaction. Jaguar also has a smoother, more graceful aesthetic. I'm sure they'll play with that after a while too, as a striking design can't be forever relevant.
"Everything was done at the wrong time."
At the turn of 2009, Jaguar models were most in line with the spirit of the brand, Egor Vasiliev, auto expert, racer and former chief instructor of the Jaguar Land Rover Experience school, told Izvestia.
- The Jaguar brand had one curious peculiarity. For some mysterious reason, the British were always either half a step ahead of the current ideas of how a car should look and behave, or, on the contrary, lagged behind. Very often innovations that would become the norm a few years later, in the case of Jaguar, were simply on the market before they were needed, and the company suffered losses because of it. The cars visually remained the same, but the technical stuffing was simplified and the shortcomings of the "hardware" began to be compensated with the help of electronic active safety assistants. From that point on, the brand's decline began and a reorientation towards some newfangled trends began. Here again, with some innate English clumsiness, everything was done at the wrong time. Jaguar started talking about going all-electric just before Brexit. It turned out that all the electric components, which the company was counting on, were produced outside of England and were subject to huge duties, - said the expert.
Most likely, either the company is being prepared for sale, or it will simply go bankrupt, Egor Vasiliev expressed his assumptions.
- This is indicated by the "politically correct" throwing, which has no accurate elaboration or audience assessment, and, most importantly, the lack of understanding of the prospects of modern mobility, which is starting to move from pure "electric cars" to hybrids, - he said.
The challenge is to get attention
Many companies, including Harley-Davidson, have begun to abandon "diversity, equity and inclusion" (DEI) programs. Volvo is appealing to family values in its new ad campaign for the EX90.
Jaguar is not late, as it has been in many cases, but is likely intentionally creating hype. Experts note the contrast between the tone of the advertising campaign and the brutal appearance of the presented car.
Non-traditional topics irritate the main audience, the traditional one, which is much larger, says Maxim Kadakov, editor-in-chief.
- But the task of attracting attention has been accomplished, everyone is talking about Jaguar now. Imagine if they had just shown an electric Jaguar in green," he says.
Jaguar went for broke, but the choice of the least-capacity segment of the four-door coupe is rather strange, Kadakov thinks.
