Why Jaguar's right to stick to its controversial rebrand

Ten months have passed since the controversial Jaguar rebrand, and it's still routinely described as "disastrous" (because some people criticised it on social media) and "woke" (because there was an ad that showed some diversity). But unlike some other recent cases (I'm looking at you Cracker Barrel), the carmaker says it won't cave to pressure.

Jaguar thinks people have misunderstood the point of the rebrand and insists that the identity is working. It will be another couple of years before we can say for sure if the latter is true, but I have to agree on the first point.

By launching its rebrand with a Barbie-pink concept car that looked like a Minecraft creation, Jaguar made it clear that it wasn't aiming at your average motorhead or even its own traditional customers, and that it doesn't care much about what they think. In fact, if they hate it, all the better.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Jaguar's managing director Rawdon Glover has now effectively admitted that turning some people off the brand was the intention, saying the company expects only 15% of current customers to buy its new cars.

He also explains the thinking behind the new design language, which he says is intended to speak to a younger, richer audience that has an interest in design and which, he says, might have previously associated the Jaguar brand with men in a midlife crisis.

“We needed to take risks, we needed to be fearless, and in doing so, we recognized that the design might polarize,” he says. “That’s absolutely OK. It doesn’t need to be for everybody.”

Jaguar was never a mass market brand, but it's now positioning itself in an even more exclusive niche. Much has been made about a drop in sales last year, but the company's aim going forward is to sell fewer products at a higher price. It's stopping production of cars that cost less than $80,000, and its new cars will cost over $130,000.

The rebrand is as ambitious as when Old Spice made the shift from targeting older men to younger demographics. Such dramatic strategic changes are always risky, but not doing making them is even more of a risk if the traditional audience isn't covering the bottom line. And Alan Partridge isn't getting any younger.

Jaguar has some stats to suggest that the controversy's working. It says search traffic from higher income earners rose by 24% after the rebrand and that the proportion of younger people who see Jaguar as a brand is worth paying more for rose by 20 per cent.

Other brands could do with the same kind of backbone in the face of social media backlashes. The recent Cracker Barrel logo redesign was retracted and an apology issued. Removing an old man from the logo was hardly going to turn away regular customers, but ditching the rebrand could cost it the chance of appealing to younger diners as it continues to look old and out-dated

We won't see the new Jaguars until next year. In the meantime, brand awareness is higher than ever. The fact that we're still talking about the rebrand 10 months on suggests Jaguar is probably doing something right.