Leaping into the future

Jaguar is a luxury brand in transition. But by losing its heritage, is it losing its magic?

Jaguar isn’t selling many cars right now.  It has no current models in Britain and just one in the US as it switches to an all-electric line of 2026 vehicles. While we wait for the new cars, we have a change in branding to ponder.

The brand’s iconic leaping jaguar will be replaced on the grille by a circular badge. It isn’t clear where the leaping cat (called “The Leaper”) will be used, but it has been redesigned to be more angular and to appear as if it is crashing through a set of Venetian blinds. 

And it the new look is supported by a campaign that looks….well…we lack the vocabulary to describe it other than to say “different.”

Marketing Week columnist Mark Ritson, as he does, offers a hilariously vulgar take on the new campaign, lampooning it as, “possibly the most stupid marketing thing I [have] seen.”   He believes, among other things, that the brand is missing an opportunity to anchor itself in its British roots.  

Ritson argues that when making a big transition like the one to EVs, it is important to cling to something in your heritage that people know you for.  Note how Porsche retained key branding cues when it began making SUVs and how Ford Mustang did the same with its Mach-E electric SUV.

Second, people enjoy “Britishness,” especially when it comes to vehicles.  There is a James Bond/Emma Peel/Formula One coolness about British cars – something ownable by Jaguar that this campaign ignores.

As Ritson says, no one knows what the cars are going to be like.  They could be amazing. But the new branding feels risky. What do you think?