I need to talk about Jaguar. Not because the rebrand is the worst thing I've ever seen (it's not), but because it's the most instructive brand strategy failure I've seen this year, and it perfectly illustrates a mistake I watch companies make over and over.
For those catching up: Jaguar unveiled a new brand identity as part of their pivot to all-electric vehicles. New logo. New typeface. New visual language. And most controversially, a launch video featuring androgynous models in avant-garde fashion with the tagline "Copy Nothing," a video that contained zero cars, zero driving, and zero reference to anything that existing Jaguar customers care about.
The internet reaction was... volcanic. And while some of that reaction was bad-faith culture war nonsense that I'm not going to dignify, the legitimate strategic criticism is worth examining.
Here's what Jaguar actually did: they confused their aspiration for their audience.
Here's what Jaguar actually did: they confused their aspiration for their audience.
Jaguar wants to be a luxury fashion brand. They want to compete with Porsche and Bentley for the creative-class ultra-wealthy buyer. That's a valid ambition. The problem is that ambition is not execution, and you don't get to skip the part where you bring your existing audience along on the journey.
The people who currently buy Jaguars (and more importantly, the people who will need to buy the first generation of electric Jaguars) are not looking at this rebrand and seeing themselves. They're seeing a brand that actively doesn't want them. And when your customer feels rejected by your marketing, they don't fight for your attention. They leave.
"Copy Nothing" is a great philosophy. Genuinely. But philosophies need to be grounded in customer truth, not just creative ambition. The question isn't "what do we want to be?" It's "what do we want to be that our customer will believe and pay for?"
The comparison I keep making is to Burberry's transformation under Riccardo Tisci and then Daniel Lee. Burberry successfully moved upmarket. They shed their chav association. They became a genuine luxury player. But they did it incrementally, product-first, while maintaining enough brand continuity that existing customers could stay on the journey. They didn't release a video that said "everything you liked about us is over."
The other mistake: Jaguar showed us who they want to attract before showing us what they're selling. If that launch video had come after an incredible electric vehicle reveal, the narrative would be different. "Oh, the car is stunning, and the brand is evolving to match." Instead, the sequence was: "We're a completely different brand now, and no, we can't show you why yet." That's asking for faith without offering evidence.
Listen. I work with brands that are trying to evolve. I get how hard it is. You're stuck between who you are and who you want to be, and the temptation to just rip the band-aid off and declare your new identity is enormous. But consumers don't work on your timeline. They need bridges, not cliffs.
"Copy Nothing" is a great line. But right now, the main thing Jaguar is copying is every brand that forgot its customer on the way to becoming something new.