Jaguar dug its grave by switching to an all-electric product line; now its brand manager is tamping the earth around it by dancing on the headstone
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Jaguar Motor Cars, RIP
Steven Hayward, PowerLine:
John noted here that Jaguar decided to “Bud Light” itself in spectacular fashion. It turns out it’s even worse than he thought. Here’s Jaguar’s new brand manager, Santino Pietrosanti, speaking at something called the “Attitude Awards.” … (It’s just four minutes long, but it seems much longer.)
Skimming through the four minutes, Mr. Gay Brand Manager Dancing Fool excitedly announces that change is coming to Jaguar, and not “just” to its cars — in fact, like its latest ad, it’s not about cars at all, of any brand. Jaguar has created, I kid you not, 15 different DIE groups for its employees, ranging from the autistic (at another car company, Elon Musk somehow succeeded without such a support group) to cross-dressers, to pedophile Parcheesi players. “It’s not just about cars”, Santino enthuses, it’s total change!”.
Uh huh. Enjoy your jobs while you can, boys; we’ll see you on the unemployment line.
It seems to me that product advertising is about attracting both new customers and maintaining brand loyalty among existing ones; driving away your current customers in the hope that new ones will make up the loss isn’t a winning strategy: the Democrats tried it, and we’ve just seen how that worked out.
The WSJ once published an article about Subaru’s discovery that a niche, but still significant number of its customers were lesbian outdoor enthusiasts. The company set up a separate marketing division (a friend of mine who worked in it confirmed this) that placed ads in gay magazines, sponsored female outdoor sporting events like cross-country (cross-dressing?) mountain bike races, and so forth, all while continuing other marketing programs directed at more conventional buyers. It worked out well; sales to lesbians increased, and Subaru’s straight customers are still with it, and growing.
That makes great market sense: appeal all your potential buyers, don’t alienate one group at the expense of others.
The new wave of brand managers running many companies has eschewed this rather common sense approach. They want to make a statement, not sell their employer’s product, so they’ve adopted an in-your-face, if you don’t like it, go away, strategy. That’s stupid, especially in Jaguar’s case, because the number of Bud Light swilling, dress wearing party boys looking to pop a can of suds in the backseat of a battery car is … limited.
In contrast, Volvo’s out with an equally long ad intended to appeal to young families (I guess), stressing sentiment and safety. Whatever — the online community seems to like it — but unlike Jaguar’s effort, it’s not intended to drive away transgender groomers, it’s simply not directed at them. There’s a difference.
