Overhauls of ‘heritage brands’ raise the question: How significant are our products to our identities?

LONDON — When Katja Vogt considers a Jaguar, she pictures a British-made car purring confidently along the Italian coastline — a imagination of familiarity that conveys “that dreaming, longing feeling we all adore.”

She’s not sure what to ponder about Jaguar now after the 89-year-ancient corporation announced a radical rebranding this week that featured noisy colors and androgynous people — but no cars. Jaguar, the corporation says, will now be JaGUar. It will produce only electric vehicles beginning in 2026.

And declare goodbye to British racing green, Cotswold Blue and black. Its colors are henceforth electric pink, red and yellow, according to a video that has received backlash online. Its mission statement: “make exuberance. Live vivid. Delete ordinary. shatter moulds.”

“Intrigued?” @Jaguar posted on social media. “Weird and unsettled” is more like it, Vogt wrote on Instagram.

“Especially now, with the globe feeling so dystopian,” the Cyprus-based brand designer wrote, “a heritage brand like Jaguar should be conveying feelings of safety, stability, and maybe a hint of rebellion — the benevolent that shakes things up in a excellent way, not in a way that unsettles.”

Jaguar, a sturdy symbol of British custom and refinement, was one of several iconic companies that announced significant rebrandings in recent weeks, upending a series of commercial — and, yes, cultural — landmarks by which many modern human beings sort each other, carve out identities and recognize the globe around them.

Campbell’s, the soupy, 155-year-ancient American icon immortalized in pop population decades ago by Andy Warhol, is ready for a recent, soupless name. Comcast’s corporate reorganization means that there will soon be two television networks with “NBC” in their name — CNBC and MSNBC — that will no longer have any corporate connection to NBC information, a U.S. legacy information outlet.

One could even debate that the United States itself is rebranding a bit with the election this month of former President Donald Trump and Republican majorities in the House and Senate in a divided country. Unlike Trump’s first election in 2016, he won the popular vote in what many called a national referendum on American identity.

Are we, then, the sum total of our buyer decisions — what we buy, where we trip and whom we elect?

Certainly, it’s a question for those privileged enough to be able to afford such choices. But volumes of research in the art and science of branding — from “brandr,” an ancient Norse word for burning symbols into the hides of livestock — declare those factors do contribute to the modern sense of identity. So rebranding, especially of heritage names, can be a deeply felt affront to consumers.

“It can feel like the brand is turning its back on everything that it stood for — and therefore it feels like its turning its back on us, the people who subscribe to that concept or ideology,” said Ali Marmaduke, way director with the Amsterdam-based Brand Potential.

He said cultural tension — polarization — in 2024 is surging over politics, wars in Russia and the Mideast, the surroundings, community health and more, creating what Marmaduke said is known as a “polycrisis:” the concept that there are several massive crises converging and that feel scary and complicated.

“People are understandably freaked out by that,” he said. “So we are looking for something that will assist us navigate this changing, threatening globe that we face.”

Trump’s “Make America Great Again” qualifies. So did President Joe Biden’s “construct Back Better” slogan atop his legislative schedule. And Campbell’s soup itself — “Mmm Mmm excellent” — isn’t going anywhere, its CEO, Mark Clouse, said in a statement. The corporation’s recent name, Campbell’s Co., will reflect “the packed breadth of our holdings,” which for some period has included brands like Prego pasta sauce and Goldfish crackers.

None of the recent activity around heritage brands has sparked a backlash as ferocious as Jaguar’s. It’s a corporation that has stood as a pillar of custom-loving British identity since globe War II.

The rebrand, which includes a recent logo, is slated to launch Dec. 2 during Miami Art Week, when the corporation will unveil a recent electric GT model. Jaguar said in its press release that its way was rooted in the philosophy of its founder, Sir William Lyons, to “copy nothing.”

What it’s calling “the recent Jaguar” will overhaul everything from the font of its name to the positioning of it’s famous “leaper” cat. “Exuberant modernism” will “define all aspects of the recent Jaguar globe,” according to the press release. The way is thought to be aimed at selling fewer cars at a six-figure worth point to a more diverse customer base.

The reaction, though, ranged from bewilderment to hostility. Memes sprouted up likening the video to the Teletubbies, a Benetton ad and — perhaps predictably — a bow to “woke” population as the blowback intersected with politics.

“Grace. Space. Pace. That’s what you are supposed to be about,” tweeted @JonnyHorsepower. “I don’t recognize what the hell this ad (?) is about.” Replied @Jaguar, cryptically: “These are our Strikethroughs. Deliberate, graphical and linear.”

A Spectator headline declared that the Jaguar rebrand is “doomed” and that it had “killed a British icon.” But wait: “What if the rebrand turns out to be just a huge mockery of ‘woke’ rebrands?” wondered Bennie1289 on Reddit.

Marketing and branding designers pointed out that any rebrand should, at least, be straightforward for consumers to recall and comprehend. JaGUar stumbled over that test on Day 1.

“Correction, November 19th,” read a blurb under an piece in The Verge. “A previous version of this piece said only the ‘G’ and ‘U’ letters in Jaguar are upper case. The ‘J’ is also upper case.”

___

Laurie Kellman has written about politics and global population for 27 years. pursue her on X at http://x.com/APLaurieKellman