Iconic luxury car brand Jaguar is taking a break from selling cars to reinvent itself. In recent decades, Jag has been an also-ran mainstream luxury brand competing with the likes of Cadillac, Lincoln, Lexus, and BMW. Now, the British marque is starting over with an upmarket, low-volume shift more in the vein of Bentley, Aston Martin, and Mercedes-Maybach.
“Jaguar has its roots in originality. Sir William Lyons, our founder, believed that ‘A Jaguar should be a copy of nothing.’ Our vision for today is informed by this philosophy,” Chief Creative Officer Gerry McGovern Obe said. “New Jaguar is a brand built around Exuberant Modernism. It is imaginative, bold, and artistic at every touchpoint. It is unique and fearless. This is a reimagining that recaptures the essence of Jaguar, returning it to the values that once made it so loved, but making it relevant for a contemporary audience. We are creating Jaguar for the future, restoring its status as a brand that enriches the lives of our clients and the Jaguar community.”
You may have noticed that Obe didn’t say anything about cars. That part comes later. For now, the brand wants the world to know that a new Jaguar is here, and it’s as close as a brand can get to admitting that it hasn’t lived up to its storied reputation lately.
“To bring back such a globally renowned brand, we had to be fearless. Jaguar was always at its best when challenging convention,” Managing Director Rawdon Glover said. “That ethos is seen in our new brand identity today and will be further revealed over the coming months. This is a complete reset. Jaguar is transformed to reclaim its originality and inspire a new generation. I am excited for the world to finally see Jaguar.”
Jag has previously said that it would become an all-electric brand, but surprisingly, its latest press release does not mention going all-electric as part of its new brand image. The “New Jaguar” is based on four pillars: Device Mark, Strikethrough, Exuberant Colors, and Maker’s Marks.
Device Mark is a reference to the new font of the word logo, which mixes upper-case and lower-case letters flanked by symmetrical “J” and “R” letters. Strikethrough references a “bold linear graphic” which “generates an unmistakable presence and an immediately recognizable visual… striking through imitation and the ordinary.” Exuberant Colors speaks for itself; we can expect bold and daring use of colors in the new line of products. Finally, Maker’s Marks references a “newly reimagined” take on the classic “leaper” logo, plus a new monogram logo with the aforementioned “J” and “R” facing each other.
A new Jag concept will bow at Miami Art Week on December 2nd at a special “Copy Nothing” art installation. New models will start coming out in Summer 2026. A low-roof, high-performance, grand touring sedan – a likely Cadillac Celestiq competitor – has been spotted testing under camouflage, and another upcoming product will be a three-row utility vehicle. There’s also talk of a limousine-sized sedan intended for royalty and diplomats.
Comments
Hmm. All electric and the ads look like they are straight out of 2016? Good luck with this.
Not to mention their shift to go SUV only eliminating their sports car and sedans. Basically making them irrelevant next to Land Rover.
They’re toasted. Lol
Thanks. I hate it.
Jaguar went full Bud Lite. Never go full Bud Lite.
For real, it’s like they forgot they’re a car company. Luckily, like Budlite, the people will straighten them out.
Maybe, Bud Lite never did straighten out.
I haven’t indulged in any Anheuser Busch product since April 2023. I haven’t missed them and they obviously haven’t missed me. I’m still waiting for an apology…
For all those worried about Buicks long term prospects, I’d worry more about Jag-YOU-Are. A real shame. I used to love the 1st gen XK8.
🤮
Jag is the new Subaru
It looks like a high end fashion brand which is…interesting.
I don’t hate it in isolation, undecided on whether it works as an automotive marketing language.
John,
Exactly what I was going to say. That whole anti-attractiveness, last-shall-be-first attempt by advertisers to redefine human beauty just feels very passé now.
As for Jaguar, if this is the best they can do, they might as well go ahead and put the big cat down. This is even worse than the mess GM has made of Cadillac trying similarly to reimagine themselves into a socially conscious, non-binary, green brand.
“Copy Nothing”
Immediately copies Chrysler 300 grille
Logo and graphics look like a woman’s perfume line that Avon offered in the 1990’s.
This is what happens when you let your ad agency creatives run wild and the CMO is too afraid (or too dumb) to rein them in.
It reminds me of when Infiniti launched decades ago and all they showed for ads were rocks, water, grass and parchment paper but no cars as some weird creative statement. They blew the launch and never recovered.
Jaguar is dead…
The logo is so generic, how could they possibly think this is a good representation of the brand? It could literally be for anything.
Based on the images associated, it seems they want to appeal to the LGBTQ+ community.
The tackle box face, alphabet soup, degenerates.
Elon replied on X, “Do they sell cars?”
Not very many. They do about a 1000 vehicles a month on average. If it wasn’t for Land Rover propping up their dealer body they might have been history in the US market.
Those of us who were fortunate in Capturing their Flagship: F-Type R w/575-Ponies will Proudly take on the title of The Last Of Us…
I bought a 2024 F-Type R dynamic this year. EV sales have slowed but big engines are being killed off still. Get that supercharged V8 while you still can!!
IMHO, Jaguar is about to learn a very important (…and costly) lesson on “identity through association”.
Maybe they should have changed the name to RuJag with this direction complete with a large blond wig on top of the vehicle. LOL LOL
DOA
This going to be a classic B-school case study on delusional marketing and the demise of a storied global brand….
The running bet is who goes bankrupt first……..Jag or Nissan?