Brand Autopsy : Jaguar

You don't quietly retire a 100-year-old logo.
You either know exactly what you're doing and have your armour ready. Or you have an awful lot of faith.

When the Jaguar rebrand landed, the reaction was instant. there were screams of "Heritage erasure" " Brand suicide" "They have removed the soul"....

Then I heard Rory Sutherland step in - a six-time Jaguar owner and a behavioural science expert, more qualified than most to have a view.
His argument was that the loudest critics have probably never owned a Jaguar and they likely never will. Jaguar isn't competing with Bentley nostalgia. It's competing with Tesla. Two completely different games. The bold change wasn't as reckless as it first appeared — it was necessary.

In my humble opion, both sides are right. If you kill heritage without translation — you lose the meaning behind it. If you cling to it — you trap yourself in a category or a brand that's disappearing.

Most brands don't die because they change. They die because they can't.
But Jaguar still hasn't bridged the gap, they have this new identity but no clear story connecting where they were to where they are going. They are not taking us with them.
Heritage is an asset. Until it becomes an anchor.

But reinterpret it. Don't erase it.