Balancing tradition and transformation: The case of Jaguar's 2024 rebranding

Omrcen, Iva

4. term

Culture, Communication and Globalization, Master

2025

2025-06-02

This thesis is a case study of Jaguar, a brand known historically for producing cars known for their luxurious design, interior comfort and top-notch performance, especially with the brand’s line of racing cars. The brand has throughout the decades taken pride in its British heritage, positioning themselves as first-class and gaining recognition for their exclusivity. The case investigates how Jaguar’s 2024 rebranding campaign, titled ‘’Copy nothing’’, navigates the complex intersection between brand authenticity and diversity representation. The rebrand represent a bold move by Jaguar, as the brand attempts to reposition itself as to align with modern cultural expectations and appeal to a broader, young and more progressive audience. The research explores the public reception of this transition and whether the campaign succeeds in presenting an authentic evolution or risks being exposed as performative. A qualitative case study approach was applied through semiotic analysis of the preliminary rebrand video alongside a thematic analysis of 50 comments on the rebrand video post on Jaguar’s official Instagram and YouTube accounts. Furthermore, Jaguar’s brand identity was analysed through the lens of organizational identity theory, on the foundation of Jaguar’s advertising approaches throughout the decades. The analysis of public comments revealed recurring themes with a dominant narrative of confusion and disappointment, rooted in nostalgia for Jaguar’s past and scepticism towards the brand’s new identity and marketing strategy. The study is nearly completely qualitative in nature, with slight contributions of quantitative nature. The findings suggest that Jaguar’s rebrand has largely backfired, as the transformation is perceived as a departure from the brand’s core values. Diversity representation intended to modernize Jaguar’s image to fit contemporary practices in marketing but has instead shown to be a strategic risk and a move that lacks connection to the brand. Jaguar attempted to connect its heritage to the new campaign but in a desire to accomplish exclusivity and inclusivity simultaneously, the brand fails to deliver either. This thesis contributes to literature on luxury branding, brand authenticity and diversity representation. The case of Jaguar suggests the importance of aligning modern values with brand heritage and highlights the importance of luxury brands implementing diversity in their marketing with caution.

brand autheticity ; diversity representation ; tokenism ; brand identity ; luxury industry ; rebranding ; advertising

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