Jaguar Just Proved Why You NEED to Know Your Target Audience
This is going to be a quick one, because the example makes the point SO WELL that it requires little explanation.
Recently the Jaguar Cars automobile company did a 180 degree rebrand. What that means is that they changed their customer facing identity.
It would be like a friend of yours changing the way they talk, dress, eat, read, etc. They are “becoming a new person”.
Originally branded as luxury vehicles for the British aristocracy, the marketing departments and board of Jaguar decided it needed to rebrand itself for the 21st century.
In case you haven’t seen it, here is the commercial below.
Now I’m not here to comment on the merits and morals of this particular social/political messaging. Nor am I criticizing the marketing merits of “going woke”. It has worked well for many businesses, and many more (particularly small businesses) genuinely hold those values, and therefore should display them in their branding.
Furthermore, one COULD argue that no publicity is bad publicity, and the ubiquity of the ad on every news station and social media channel is a good thing.
That said… I do want to talk about what a terrible, no good, very bad decision it was for THIS brand to go in THIS direction.
Why?
Because the people in that commercial are NOT the people buying Jaguar cars.
The people that buy YOUR product or service are known as your “target audience”. They are the people who should interact with your marketing and immediately know that it is exactly for them.
The problem with the new Jaguar commercial is that they forgot who their target audience is:
Avant-garde artists are not interested in buying Jaguar cars
Even if they were, there are not enough avant-garde artists to sustain the Jaguar company
There are far more other rich customers that would be turned off by this commercial
And if that wasn’t bad enough… not only does it not attract new customers… but it also repels their old, faithful customers!
For better or worse (depending on your position), that new Jaguar commercial is an affront to everything the notoriously conservative British aristocracy stands for. That commercial is basically a big, bright, beaming billboard saying: “We don’t sell to YOU people anymore”.
And given that it is 14x easier to sell to an old customer rather than a new one, that is borderline malpractice!
To give you an idea of how radical a shift the new ad is, watch at this MARVELOUS ad Jaguar put out in 2015:
This ad is not only on brand for its past and present target audience, but it also does something very, very important that the other ad completely neglects…
IT HAS CARS!!!
Jaguar is not a fashion company, it is a CAR COMPANY. They sell cars. Cars is what they sell.
And in case you didn’t notice, while the new commercial makes all sorts of “bold promises” of its brand ( I personally think they are all empty buzz words, but I’ll be charitable)…
It does not show a single car.
No car on the road
No car on the lot
No person happy to drive a car
Which means it violates the number one rule of all marketing: CLARITY.
It does not matter what marketing medium you are using, if it is not clear about what you do and who you do it for, then you are wasting you time and money.
Long story short… THIS IS WHY YOU NEED A BRAND PACKET.
No matter what kind of business you have, you need a brand packet that at least spells out your:
Vision
Mission
Values
Target Audience
Tone
Benefits
Unique Sales Propisition
Without those tools, your marketing will be as aimless as a ship without a rudder.
