Which brand doesn't belong among these six: Prada, Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, Jaguar, Burberry and Gucci?
If you said Jaguar, you'd be wrong. At least that's the opinion of former finance executive turned chief Jaguar salesperson Bibiana (Bibby) Boerio.
On the eve of the critical launch of two new vehicles, Boerio, the one-time chief financial officer at Ford Credit who is now managing director of Jaguar Cars, has given the green light to a global marketing campaign designed to position Jaguar as not just a mere car line with well-above-average quality, but rather as a fashion statement, and a gorgeous one at that.
So get ready for mostly black-and-white print ads peopled by leggy, sexy supermodels languidly draped across Jaguars, with the accompanying copy line reading: "Gorgeous Gets in Everywhere," and "Gorgeous Trumps Everything," and "Where Did Gorgeous Go?"
Readers of high-end magazines such as W, Condé Nast Traveler and The Robb Report might already have seen this work from Jaguar's new agency, Euro RSCG/Fuel. If the campaign smacks of haute couture, it should.
Alicia Johnson, the agency's worldwide creative director for Jaguar, has no previous experience selling cars, but lots with fashion. And photographer Michel Compt is more famous for his fashion shoots than the pictures he's taken of Grand Prix and Formula One racing.
As for television, the new "Gorgeous" spots broke in the fall, voiced by former Buick pitchman and Platoon movie star Willem Dafoe. Again, the beautiful people are seen enjoying a Paris Hilton lifestyle, narrated by Dafoe's smouldering voice saying, "Gorgeous wants for nothing," and "Everyone wants gorgeous." Dafoe also points out that "Performance is not an option," "Luxury is not an option," and "Gorgeous is not an option." The ads conclude with the obvious: "We need more Gorgeous."
Certainly Jaguar does. As the British luxury brand of Ford Motor Co. prepares to launch two new models in the next year, it finds itself struggling to find a place in a world dominated by well-established German luxury brands and quickly emerging Japanese ones.
Design, once at the heart of Jaguar's appeal, is no longer a core asset. In fact, Jaguar's last three all-new models have been sharply criticized for their looks.
True, critics have rightly praised the mostly aluminum XJ flagship sedan for its nimbleness in a segment dominated by large and heavy German luxury sedans. But as one designer at Ford said recently, "We've been face-lifting the XJ for 35 years and it's time we stopped."
Meanwhile, the X-Type, a so-called BMW 3-Series fighter, has been largely a failure. Try as they might -- and it has been a truly valiant effort -- Jaguar engineers have not been successful at turning a Ford Mondeo into an entry luxury sedan.
Then there is the aging S-Type. It is, well, aging. The current S-Type has been updated over the years, but the basic car was first unveiled at the Birmingham Auto Show way back in 1997. That's two lifetimes in the car business.
But coming in April is a new XK coupe and convertible. Priced at around $100,000 to start, the 2007 XK line just might do the trick for Jaguar. For starters, Jaguar has yet to show a green XK anywhere and the interior of this racy new car has milled aluminum trim where the country club set would normally expect to find shiny wood bits.
On the stand at its September debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show, Jaguar chief designer Ian Callum, in fact, stood beside a blue version of the new XK. The car boasts big tires filling sculpted wheel wells, an exterior with "wing vents" on the car's flanks and topping off the whole package is a prominent "power bulge" on the hood. Despite some critics carping about its similarity to recent Aston Martins, Callum made no apologies whatsoever.
