Jaguar has unveiled its new all-electric Type 01 two years after a controversial rebrand was slammed for being too “woke”, while images of a concept car showed a radical departure from The Leaping Cat’s classic styling of years gone by.
Jaguar’s now infamous launch left brand loyalists, and much of adland, scratching their heads.
At the time, Skingraphica founder and former adland veteran Mat Baxter said Jaguar’s video could alienate the very audience it is targeting.
“They’ve applied the brand philosophy of ‘copy nothing’ to the ad, but what the ad should be doing is showing that the brand and product copy’s nothing, not the ad itself,” he told B&T at the time.
This week, Jaguar Land Rover took the covers off the first Jaguar Type 01, and The Uncensored CMO host Jon Evans took the new Grand Tourer for a spin (see video above).
“Jaguar’s founder William Lyons was famous for saying, ‘a Jaguar should be a copy of nothing’, which I think is a useful lesson for any brand with a heritage.” he said.
“Jaguar’s cars were greatest when they weren’t merely fitting in with the category. Instead, they stood apart.”
Evans explains that Jaguar tested the new design with around 2,000 potential customers and it generated more scores of 1s or 2s out of 10 than any previous model.
That might sound like a disaster, but Jaguar did not want consistent vanilla scores of 6 to 7 out of 10.
The new Type 01 had the highest proportion of 9s or 10s out of 10 in history.
“That is the marketing lesson,” Evans said. “Jaguar does not need everyone to like the Type01. It needs enough people who can afford it to love it enough to actually go and buy one.”
One of the major criticisms of the new Type 01 is that it didn’t retain Jaguar’s distinctive brand assets. Having seen it in real life, Evans disagrees.
He points out the new model retains what Jaguar calls ‘The Luxury Gap’, the distance between the front wheel and the windscreen, creating a long, protruding bonnet.
Although the ‘Leaping Cat’ mascot has disappeared from the front of the bonnet, arguably the most contentious design shift, the symbol is now embossed on the side of the car, a move that is unlikely to placate purists.
Evans said another feature of the new model, which markets should not, is that a lot of constraint (rather than trade offs) has gone into the design to ensure that it delivers what Jaguars are known for. For example, the car is comfortable enough to travel very long distances (with a range of 400 miles per charge, 320 miles at consistent speed), yet its 1,000hp engine can go 0-60 miles in 3.2 seconds and 60-112 miles in 4 seconds.
The remarkable thrust pays homage to a Jaguar philosophy of ‘power in reserve’ philosophy.
Evans ended his review by positing whether he believes Jaguar’s gamble of creating a bold and radically different Jaguar would pay off.
“Can the product cash the cheque the marketing team has written? Having driven the car, I think the odds are pretty good,” he said.
“Jaguar has made a car that some people will undoubtedly hate. However others will undoubtedly want one.
“And perhaps that’s what it needed to do. Because in an increasingly dull category, the greatest danger facing Jaguar isn’t being disliked, it’s being ignored.”
