So Jaguar is cutting its dealership from 80 to 20 and only keeping those dealers in locations that serve high end customers who are willing to pay £1m for an EV competing with the likes of Rolls Royce and Bentley appears to be the plan to reduce its corporate footprint.
Well I would have thought that the brands of Rolls Royce and Bentley reflect, history, tradition, craftmanship, exclusivity, excellence, success to name a few, how are those type of qualities displayed in a multi coloured weird advert from Jaguar if they see themselves as a natural contender going forward.
They have thrown away eg their history, their historical brand identifier mascot and so on, where as Rolls and Bentley have built on theirs as their client base has changed over time. I would have enjoyed being at the rebranding executive meetings, to see how the marketing consultants sold this crock of sh*te and who bought into it......I see major board changes ahead in the not too distant future.
I do not disagree however do they have a choice ? The bosses job is to plan to the future and the way things are going the only option will be high value-brand positioning if you don't want to just seed manufacturing to China. Ask VW, MB etc how their planning is going for the German factories right now. Hyundai/Kia played a straight bat and over 20 years became a highly respected competitor. China is reaching that development level in less than 10 years and accelerating it's capabilities (CATL batteries are the leader) at a rate that is going to splatter much of the European market producers.
Worse the EU have walked into the almost traditional Chinese bear trap. Open the Kimono, share technologies, create co-brands that the west can accept and then adjust the rules and compete directly. Some of the stuff they are putting out now is seriously competitive if not class leading. Instead of revising once every four-six years they are updating every year like an iPhone. It's going to be an unholy mess trying to train engineers, get parts, deal with recalls, ensure that they are safe etc but the dynamic is about to change on a vast scale.
On a side note - if the aim of the marketing campaign was to bring JaGuarrr back to the public conscious they have done it in no small terms. I bet when the covers come off the car we will all be clicking on the link to see the result? If they can convert just some of that then they have made a success out of it compared to where the XJ and F were in the sales charts in 2022? Is there history more valuable to them than a future, I say that as someone who loved big Jag's and is not convinced where they go next. I feel we have been sold a pup to light up the sochuol medier.
