Car rebrands are always big news in design circles, particularly when they involve brand new logos. So when Jaguar yesterday debuted not one, but three new designs, comprising a wordmark, monogram and tweaked version of its famous leaping animal, it certainly made a splash. And, as you might expect, the reactions have been strong with this one.
With a minimal wordmark featuring a mixture of upper and lowercase letters, and cyperpunk-esque marketing imagery, this isn't what people expected from the luxury sports car brand. While others are opting for a heritage look, Jaguar is leaning into 'modern'. And it's proving too much for many, with commentators across the whole of social media sharing their thoughts – including Elon Musk.
Taste aside — from a purely strategic perspective, this brand marketing is disastrous for Jaguar.For context, Jaguar sales have been plummeting (down 70% in the US in five years). It’s a crisis. Their #1 strategic imperative for comms and marketing should be to sell cars. So… https://t.co/5E59IleGVlNovember 19, 2024
To get a quick sense of how customers are feeling about a brand, one only needs to take a look at its Reddit page. Currently, the Jaguar subreddit is awash with swipes at the 'glossy' new look.
Oh dear from r/Jaguar
👇This is how you advertise a Jaaag. Not whatever that new stuff is. from r/Jaguar
And even the bastion of taste that is Elon Musk has had something to say about the rebrand – and to be fair, he's reiterating what seems to be the main complaint among the Jaguar community, which is that the new branding doesn't seem to represent a car brand, with people variously suggesting it resembles that of a vegan smoothie company, or trendy underwear brand.
Still, time will tell whether the dust will settle on this one – after all, some of the most hated rebrands of all time, such as Airbnb's controversial 2014 refresh, have proven to have impressive staying power.
