British appeal works for Jaguar

JAGUAR will leverage its British heritage and dynamic vehicle performance in future marketing campaigns, starting with the just-launched XE mid-sizer, as the company looks to improve its brand awareness in Australia.

The British prestige brand launched its ‘Good to be Bad’ marketing campaign during last year’s NFL Super Bowl, with actors Ben Kingsley, Tom Hiddleston and Mark Strong playing British villains in advertising for the F-Type Coupe.

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) Australia general manager communications and public relations Tim Krieger said the campaign highlighting the ‘Britishness’ of the leaping cat brand would continue to be rolled out, with advertisements for the XE kicking off last week.

“The campaign is the biggest investment we have made from a marketing perspective on Jaguar in many years,” he told GoAuto at the XE media launch in Queensland. “I think it will be well received.”

JLR Australia managing director Matthew Wiesner said his previous experience working for Volkswagen Group brands in Australia – he was general manager of press and PR at VW Group Australia before taking the reins of Skoda from its 2007 launch – showed that building a brand takes time.

“None of these guys (VW, Skoda) got to where they are without going through a similar process and that’s why we’re getting the foundations right, because you get to do this once – you don’t get to do this twice,” he said.

“That’s why it’s important to make sure we’ve got all of those things – network, people development, financial services and aftersales – right to then start this process from.”

Mr Wiesner said Jaguar’s future product portfolio will also help increase awareness, with the company pushing for a more driver-focused image from its cars.

“Knowing what’s here and what’s coming from a product point of view, and what we will be investing over this period and beyond, to stay true to what we are and how we want Jaguar to be seen as a dynamic manufacturer of sports sedans and sportscars, I think by the time we get to the end of the decade, the awareness of what we are and what we stand for will be very strong – as long as we are consistent and do it the right way,” he said.

“There are some … exciting things that are coming down the track, and just the broadening … the understanding of what Jaguar is by just getting into some relevant market segments like XE then F-Pace (SUV), then all of a sudden it just goes whoosh. Then the job becomes easier. The competition is not going to back down.”

In recent years JLR has expanded its manufacturing presence beyond the United Kingdom into other markets, including China (where it builds cars as part of a joint venture with Chery), Kenya, Malaysia, Pakistan, Turkey and India – the home market of its parent company Tata Group.

However, Mr Krieger said the company’s Australian arm is unlikely to source cars from anywhere outside the UK as customers are drawn to the heritage.

“Our position at the moment is that we only take UK-sourced product. That’s as much a statement of where the brand is with its global development. For us it’s very important that our cars are made in the UK, and designed and built in the UK,” he said.

“Our customers do enjoy that it is that British know-how that British technology.”