• by Tanya Gazdik , Yesterday

Jaguar made what was universally agreed to be a radical move when it unveiled a concept electric vehicle and announced the “Copy Nothing” themed rebranding in late 2024. 

So has it paid off? 

Short answer: It’s hard to say. 

The automaker has yet to produce the “bold, dramatic and fearless” electric vehicles it first unveiled as the Type 00 concept, and has not shared an update on the timing of when they will be produced.

Will the rebrand work support Jaguar’s ambitious new business strategy?

So far, according to the BERA team at Harris Poll, the data shows a tradeoff: Equity is down in most segments, but parts of the funnel are moving in the right direction.

The seven-page report, shared first with Marketing Daily, is based on proprietary data from BERA.ai, a global brand intelligence platform with always on, census-matching data and brand-to-business analytics across more than 5,000 brands.

The research, which was not commissioned by Jaguar, includes analyzing a year of data following Jaguar's rebrand. 

The aim was to move beyond emotion, opinion, and conjecture to uncover the real impact of Jaguar’s rebrand in the context of its new business strategy, according to Ken Favaro, chief strategy officer at BERA, the predictive brand technology platform acquired by Harris Poll in July 2024.

The overall impact was mixed, with some declines, but there are notable positive signals in funnel metrics among millennials, the brand's new target audience, according to the report.

The rebrand signals a commitment to sustainability and innovation with all-electric, ultra-luxury automobiles priced at $100k-plus. It aims to shed outdated perceptions and attract wealthy young buyers.

Since November 2024, Jaguar’s brand equity has declined among households earning $100K or more, which is the traditional target audience for luxury automotive brands, according to the report.

But the rebrand is doing part of the job: It’s changing what people think Jaguar stands for, and improving key funnel signals among high-income households and millennials. 

“Meaningfulness” — the degree to which a brand is integrated into the personal life of a consumer — did see an increase during this time, according to the report. 

“It's no small thing that meaningfulness has increased a lot,” Favaro tells Marketing Daily. “I will guarantee you that any marketer who says, ‘if we do this, it’s going to have this impact on consideration and usage and preference and advocacy,‘ they would take it. So all of those things have risen dramatically with the millennials.” 

The report also makes the distinction between business strategy and brand strategy, he says.

“A lot of the criticism of the rebrand was really criticism of the business strategy,” Favaro says “It was really criticism of the pivot away from boomers towards millennials, and away from combustion-engine, traditional type cars to all-electric.”

The research puts that criticism aside and asks whether the rebranding has done a good job of bringing that promise of “all EV” to life for the new target customer, millennials. 

“And the jury's a bit out on that,” Favaro says. “There has been a huge improvement in the final metrics with the new target audience. That's a win, but three of the key drivers of brand equity have fallen. Two in particular, familiarity and regard, say there's still questions as to whether or not [Jaguar's] rebranding has really worked to support the business strategy in the way [the company] would like it to.”

The production version of the Type 00 concept won’t be revealed in its final form until this summer, and deliveries are expected to begin in early 2027, according to a story from Motor 1.

In the meantime, the company doesn’t sell any vehicles currently, having sunsetted production of all of its previous gas and electric vehicles.

According to the report, the real validation won’t come until  the product goes on sale. 

If the vehicle “generates sustained demand and commands pricing power at the ultra-luxury end of the category, the reset worked. If not, no amount of early interest or improved funnel metrics will matter,” according to the report.