As news breaks of Jaguar’s rebrand and new logo, Jon Crane, Client and Commercial Director at brand design firm FreshBritain, shares his insights on the broader implications for Britain’s place in the world.
Crane, available for interview, states:
“Change is never easy, and Jaguar’s rebrand, which is said to serve as a ‘fire break’ between the old and the new, has certainly sparked considerable debate. But could this rebrand point to something far more significant about Britain’s evolving role on the global stage? Is this a sign that traditional British design and ‘Brand Britain’ no longer hold the same resonance, or are they losing their relevance in today’s world?”
Has Jaguar been rebranded because it has started to represent something antiquated and passe in the eyes of its foreign owners? Has “Brand Britain” lost its power and cachet in markets like the Middle East and Asia that Jaguar will have set its sights on? Does “Brand Britain” no longer serve as a shorthand for luxury, aspiration and class?
We might not like it, but Britain no longer leads a sector that has been turned on its head by the likes of Tesla who now set the benchmark for how car brands present themselves. If we’re honest, that lead was lost a long time ago, but the profile of once British-owned brands kept the illusion alive.
Because of industry changes, it’s no surprise that Jaguar, like many other heritage brands, have had to change their game plan. Jaguar has always been a brand built around evolution, not revolution. That’s meant a careful twinning of heritage plus modernity. The heritage bit saw their design aesthetics stay the same and evolution show itself via new technology – the F Pace, for example
But today, careful, considered evolution is no longer enough. And that is probably why we’re seeing Jaguar launching its own revolution so that it can endeavour to stay relevant in a category that is changing fast.