2011 Jaguar XJ - A Bold Move

An ad at the back of the back of the recent issue of 'The Atlantic', read “The 2011 XJ, The stunning result of taking a very different road”.  There was this rear three quarter photo of the new 2011 XJ. Wow! What a departure from its predecessor! The tag line made absolute sense.

At the launch of 2008 XJ, the Ford Motor Company’s Press Release read, “…The flagship of the Jaguar range benefits from visual changes….An all-new, distinctive design for the XJ’s front gives the 2008 model an unmistakably purposeful appearance, a look complemented by the new side power vents, lower body sills and a subtle rear aero spoiler….and so on”. The 2008 XJ looked not too different from its predecessor. Other than few "purposeful" tweaks to the front fascia, the 2008 XJ had the same stance, same wheelbase, same silhouette etc. as the previous generation XJ. Do not get me wrong, I liked that signature styling. With each model year, the styling progressively evolved. However, the design language at the core remained the same.

 

However, the 2011 XJ took a real leap, a Jag leap. The silhouette is "swoopy". You rarely see a fastback luxury sedan. Aaron Robinson calls it a "cab-rearward design" in the Car and Driver’s review. Yes, the C-pillar looks stretched far into the deck. This is a significant change to XJ’s silhouette – moving away from a long, slender deck line, which btw closely resembled the silhouette of jaguar (metaphor), to, a high belt line, fastback design with a very short deck line. I think this increases the visual mass towards the rear of the car, at least in the side view. May be that was the styling intent. 

I am interested in finding out the impact of such fresh, new styling direction on the brand equity of established brands, in this case, a Jaguar. 

Re-badging Continues...

Back in the spring of 2006, I had made critical comments on the announcement of the Saturn PreVue Concept. At that time Saturn was a struggling brand and GM had decide to make "Saturn" as the "Opel of America" by re-badging Opel as Saturn. Now, 5 years later, unfortunately, we do not have Saturn but we do have the "Opel of America", this time around as a "Buick". Yes, GM continues to resort to its old tactics and this time it has re-badged Opel Insignia as Buick Regal. It will be interesting to watch what will this do to Buick.

On April 15, 2006 at 5:47 pm aasheesh said:

Saturn PreVue Concept

 

  

 

Mr Lutz,

PreVue is indeed a well styled “concept.” Very European, neh! Yes, it is. If you have been keeping track of the auto shows it is not difficult to place this one. The Saturn PreVue is nothing but a re-badge Opel Antara concept displayed at the Frankfurt Auto show. Why? Why?

Why GM does not want give up on old habit of “Badge Engineering”. Unfortunately, GM’s marketing strategies have not evolved over the years. Time and again GM resorts to this old tactics. And I think that is one important reason why your efforts are not appreciated by customer and GM’s market share continues to drop.

Why can’t you get Opel Antara to the US? Or why can’t you wrap a new skin with more American styling cue onto Antara to sell it as PreVue in the US. I should not have to remind you that internet has change the way information flows across the globe. So re-badging will not help in building brands. Instead, it will only liquidate the brand equity of those brands. You don’t see a Mercedes, BMW and likes resorting to re-badging tactics. Isn’t this an important fact why these brands continue to leverage from their brand equity?

GM needs to build strong brands and NOT number of brands.

Use the link include below to view the original blog posting -

http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/archives/2006/04/that_saturn_con.html