No Mercy / No Malice: Killing the Cat - The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway

Summary

The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway: "No Mercy / No Malice: Killing the Cat" Summary

Episode Title: No Mercy / No Malice: Killing the Cat
Release Date: December 14, 2024
Host: Scott Galloway
Narrator: George Hahn

Introduction

In the December 14, 2024 episode of No Mercy / No Malice, Scott Galloway delves into the troubling trajectory of the iconic British car manufacturer, Jaguar. Narrated by George Hahn, the episode titled "Killing the Cat" critically examines Jaguar's rebranding efforts and what they signify about the current state of branding in the digital age.

Jaguar's Struggles and Rebranding Efforts

George Hahn begins by outlining Jaguar's recent attempts to revive its brand identity. The company has launched a "pink concept EV" at Art Basel Miami, an event that has been met with widespread ridicule and is likened to Elon Musk's "All Chip no Salsa" product launch for 2024. Hahn points out that while the event may have succeeded in garnering attention—a key metric in marketing—it failed to resonate meaningfully with the brand's legacy and consumer expectations.

Quote [02:02]: "Jaguar, a brand that's been in a coma for years, is trying to wake up. And it's gasping the car Free Copy Nothing Kickoff video and the rollout of a pink concept EV at Art Basel Miami have inspired well-earned mockery."

The episode highlights Tata Motors' ownership of Jaguar and Land Rover, emphasizing that while efforts to modernize are evident, they have further diluted Jaguar's brand equity. The company's abandonment of its traditional promises—speed, power, and elegance—in favor of a generic and confusing brand message exemplifies the broader decline of established brands.

Quote [04:45]: "Jaguar trashed its iconic logo, all its current models, and its traditional promise of speed, power and elegance."

The Death of Traditional Branding

Hahn argues that Jaguar's predicament epitomizes the end of the "brand era." He contrasts the past, where consistent branding could compensate for mediocre products, with today’s environment where consumers are empowered by technology and information. The rise of digital tools like Google and social media has democratized product evaluation, making traditional branding less effective.

Quote [08:30]: "The Internet has diminished the power of even strong brands. And it's penetrated the shield of good branding from mediocre products like Nike, Intel, Target, et cetera."

He criticizes current Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) for engaging in superficial brand overhauls without substantive product improvements. The obsession with appearances over functionality leads to costly but ineffective marketing campaigns that fail to address the core issues consumers care about.

Quote [10:15]: "Jaguar's move is further proof that the brand age is over... spending lots of money on a new agency stocked with sharply dressed young people who will host events giving awards to whoever spent the most money across the advertising industrial complex."

The Importance of Product Over Marketing

A significant portion of the discussion focuses on the necessity for companies to prioritize product quality and customer experience over aggressive marketing. Hahn cites successful companies like Netflix and Amazon, which achieved massive growth by investing in product development and operational excellence rather than traditional advertising.

Quote [14:50]: "Those companies and others took dollars out of advertising and put them into making better products and getting them to customers faster and cheaper than their competitors."

Jaguar's ongoing reputation issues, particularly regarding the reliability of their vehicles, are highlighted as critical obstacles that marketing alone cannot overcome. Without tangible improvements in their products, rebranding efforts remain superficial and ineffective.

Quote [12:40]: "Jaguar's problem for a long time has been products that didn't live up to the brand promise."

AI and the Future of Branding

Hahn also touches on the role of artificial intelligence in modern branding strategies. He criticizes Jaguar's new logo, suggesting that it appears as though it was designed by AI without genuine human testing or input. This move, he argues, further alienates the brand from its core identity and customer base.

Quote [14:10]: "The new logo says, we hired some MIT grads who, for $800,000, told us to lay off everyone in our customer service department and replace them with Salesforce's agent Force."

He underscores the importance of meaningful visual symbols in branding, noting that effective logos are instantly recognizable and deeply ingrained in consumer consciousness—qualities Jaguar's new emblem lacks.

Quote [13:35]: "An effective logo needs to be meaningful, resonant, distinctive, and scalable. Jaguar's pouncing cat, which it called the Leaper, was all that."

Conclusion: A Call for Authenticity

Scott Galloway wraps up the episode by reinforcing the message that authenticity and product excellence are paramount in today's market. He suggests that Jaguar, and by extension other legacy brands, must realign their strategies to focus on creating superior products and genuine customer experiences rather than chasing fleeting marketing trends.

Quote [15:50]: "It's not too late for Jaguar to ditch its rebrand and start all over again with a strategy where a great product is not an afterthought to a marketing campaign."

Galloway emphasizes that without a strong, authentic foundation, brands risk irrelevance in an era where consumers are more informed and discerning than ever.

Key Takeaways

Brand Dilution: Jaguar's rebranding efforts have diluted its traditional brand values, making it less recognizable and impactful.
Shift from Branding to Product Quality: Modern consumers prioritize product quality and functionality over brand prestige, diminishing the power of traditional branding.
AI in Branding: Reliance on AI for branding without human insight can lead to ineffective and disconnected brand identities.
Prioritizing Authenticity: Brands must focus on authenticity and genuine customer experiences to remain relevant in the digital age.

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

[02:02]: “Jaguar... is trying to wake up. And it's gasping the car Free Copy Nothing Kickoff video and the rollout of a pink concept EV at Art Basel Miami have inspired well-earned mockery.”
[04:45]: “Jaguar trashed its iconic logo, all its current models, and its traditional promise of speed, power and elegance.”
[08:30]: “The Internet has diminished the power of even strong brands...”
[10:15]: “Jaguar's move is further proof that the brand age is over...”
[12:40]: “Jaguar's problem for a long time has been products that didn't live up to the brand promise.”
[13:35]: “An effective logo needs to be meaningful, resonant, distinctive, and scalable...”
[14:10]: “The new logo says, we hired some MIT grads...”
[15:50]: “It's not too late for Jaguar to ditch its rebrand and start all over again...”

This episode serves as a critical examination of how even the most storied brands can falter when they lose sight of product excellence and authentic brand messaging. Scott Galloway and George Hahn provide valuable insights into the evolving landscape of branding, emphasizing the need for companies to adapt by prioritizing substance over superficial marketing tactics.

Transcript

Scott Galloway (0:01)

Support for the show comes from HubSpot. How do you begin to describe your job as a marketer? You have to generate leads, create content and gather data. You're spread way too thin. But HubSpot has a better way. With the help of Breeze, HubSpot's collection of AI tools and features like Content Remix. Turn one piece of content into a suite of assets, pinpoint the best prospects and level up your campaign's KPIs with the new analytics suite. And most importantly, you'll have a way easier time describing your job at parties. Visit HubSpot.com marketers to learn more.

George Hahn (0:37)

Amazon Q Business is the generative AI assistant from AWS because business can be slow, like wading through the mud. But Amazon Q helps streamline work, so tasks like summarizing monthly results can be done in no time. Learn what Amazon Q Business can do for you@aws.com learnmore that's aws.com learnmore.

Unknown (1:06)

Support for the show comes from Crucible Moments, a podcast from Sequoia Capital. We've all had turning points in our lives where the decisions we make end up having lasting consequences. No one knows this better than the founders of some of today's most influential companies, and Crucible Moments lets listeners in on the make or break events that defined major Companies like Dropbox, YouTube, Robinhood and more, told by the founders themselves. Tune in to season two of Crucible Moments today. You can listen at cruciblemoments.com or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Scott Galloway (1:44)

I'm Scott Galloway and this is no mercy, no malice. Jaguar is giving us more proof that the era of brands is over. Killing the Cat as read by George Hahn.

George Hahn (2:02)

Jaguar, a brand that's been in a coma for years, is trying to wake up. And it's gasping the car Free Copy Nothing Kickoff video and the rollout of a pink concept EV at Art Basel Miami have inspired well earned mockery. The launch rivaled Elon's Wii robot event for the All Chip no Salsa product launch of 2024. Getting attention is key to any marketing campaign, so mission accomplished. Sort of. Tata Motors, which owns Jaguar and its stablemate Land Rover, has also succeeded in further eroding what's left of Jaguar's brand equity. Jaguar trashed its iconic logo, all its current models, and its traditional promise of speed, power and elegance. In their place is an uninspired and generic brand mark, a concept model that will never be put into production, and an incomprehensible promise, something about good looking people, bright colors and exotic haircuts, a lot has been said about this HBR case study that's righting itself, including some predictable culture war bullshit about Jaguar having gone woke. Most of this misses the larger point, which is that Jaguar's move is further proof that the brand age is over. Just as doctors have a Hippocratic oath, chief marketing officers ought to have a similar pledge. First do no harm I've advised lots of big consumer brands about their marketing, and I've noticed that CMOs recognize their days are numbered and are desperate to show visible motion, whether it makes sense or not. Often that activity, devoid of progress means spending lots of money on a new agency stocked with sharply dressed young people who will host events giving awards to whoever spent the most money across the advertising industrial complex. I'm honored to be part of this brand's history, and I'm shocked how well my predecessors manage the brand. Said no CMO ever the typical incoming speech thank God I'm here. We need to redo everything, which is usually self defeating. For about 50 years following World War II, it was good business to churn out a mediocre product and then surround it with emotion. That is branding. On any given night, about 60% of America was in one of three places ABC, CBS or NBC. Via the miracle of TV advertising, a few cents worth of peanut paste could be transubstantiated into a jar of maternal love, as choosy mothers choose Jif in the age of the Internet, network television is in hospice. Exhibit A the proposed merger of Omnicom and Interpublic. When I started Profit, a brand strategy consultancy, these firms were the alphabets and metas of the economy. Now they're consolidating two emaciated polar bears fighting over fewer seals and sharing a melting piece of ice. The previous sentence is both awful and wonderful. Mostly, the former brands mean a lot less than they used to. Consumers now have a range of weapons of mass diligence to help them find and rate products, starting with Google and social media. I travel constantly, so I used to rely on well known brands when booking hotels in cities I didn't know well. The name Mandarin Oriental or Four Seasons meant I could consistently expect and get a seven or eight level customer experience. Lately, though, I've been using ChatGPT and other AI tools to find nines that better fit the moment and me. The gym at the Soho House Berlin. The rooftop restaurant at the Waldorf in Beverly Hills. The bar at Chiltern Firehouse. If I sound like a privileged douchebag, trust your instincts. The Internet has diminished the power of even strong brands. And it's penetrated the shield of good branding from mediocre products like Nike, Intel, Target, et cetera. A product or service that cannot fulfill its promise to make you smarter or sexier, can't reverse its fortunes by listening to Don Draper and inventing and refining a great product. Fixing its supply chain and improving your customer service is a lot more work than turning to Mid Journey and asking for a new logo. Jaguar's problem for a long time has been products that didn't live up to the brand promise. Well after its swinging London 60s heyday, Ford bought the company in 1989 and it's now owned by India's Tata. It still manufactures the car in Coventry, uk, thus technically preserving the Britishness that's key to its brand identity. Although they've improved, the cars continue to be dogged by a lingering reputation as mechanical nightmares. Anybody who drove one was making the statement I'm a gangster who probably owns two of these status symbols because one is always in the shop. Style wise, Jaguar's current lineup has little of the elan of the legendary E Type or other classic models. In terms of sales in the premium car market, Jaguar is an afterthought behind category leaders BMW and Audi. With a few exceptions, Jaguar hasn't been able to make anything in the $50,000 plus price range that anybody wants to buy. Jaguar's current business response to this makes sense. Management decided to wind the company down and relaunch it. Jaguar is ending production of its three current models and retooling to produce an all new all electric line. It's also decided to abandon the premium market and go further upscale into luxury cars priced at around $400,000. This is a smaller market with fatter margins, so the company is closing some dealerships. All of which points to something that's gone mostly unremarked in the chatter about Jaguar's rebrand. Jaguar doesn't see any growth selling to lawyers and dentists, but it does see a future selling to entrepreneurs and financiers. It's going to be at least a year, however, before any new era Jaguars go on sale. No one outside the company knows how they will look or what will be under the hood. The clunky pink Type 00 sports tank Jaguar introduced in Miami is a concept car. It will never go into production. I've been to a lot of car conventions and seen a lot of concept cars. In my view, they're a waste of effort and money, no matter how sexy they're Shiny one off marketing props Ivanka Trump is seriously more likely to be president than the Tesla Robovan is ever to be produced. So, with a dark year ahead of it and no new product ready to show customers, Jaguar decided to fix the one thing that wasn't broken. The new brand mark makes it seem Jaguar is relaunching as an AI consulting firm. The logo looks as if it was designed by AI and never tested with real people. According to one respondent to an entirely unscientific survey I conducted on Instagram, it quote, would be a great logo for a kitchen knife set, unquote. One of the most precious things a company can possess is a powerful logo, one that imprints itself on the eye and instantly tells the brand story. Humans are visually oriented. Written language is only about 5,000 years old, and the printing press is less than 600 years old. But visual communication via drawn or painted images dates back to our Neanderthal ancestry. That's right. It may even predate our existence as a species. We process visual information about 60,000 times faster than we do words. Researchers at MIT once estimated that the human brain can correctly identify an image in as little as 13 milliseconds. When I talk about logos in my marketing class, I demonstrate their power by asking students if they can identify a mark using just their peripheral vision. Great logos, the Nike swoosh, the McDonald's arches, the Mercedes three pointed star are immediately recognizable, even almost outside our plane of vision. An effective logo needs to be meaningful, resonant, distinctive, and scalable. Jaguar's pouncing cat, which it called the Leaper, was all that. There are few things in nature stronger and more agile than a jaguar, as sleek and beautiful as they are lethal. They're the apex predator of South America's jungles and deserts. Stealthy and fast, they kill by pouncing from behind and piercing their prey skulls with jaws and teeth capable of penetrating artillery shells. Also, they're the only animals that, when hunted, will turn around and hunt their hunters. Not really, but go with it. It's on brand for the cat. Jaguars look arrogant as fuck, and rightfully so. The old logo and mark told that story. The new logo says, we hired some MIT grads who, for $800,000, told us to lay off everyone in our customer service department and replace them with Salesforce's agent Force. Jaguar's leaper now survives only in a faint echo of the original, the negative space in a field of horizontal lines on a small side Panel of the Type 00. To take the greatest visual metaphor in automotive history and kill it is to destroy shareholder value. It's the essence of CMO malpractice. It's just as stupid and wasteful as if Disney responded to a spate of weak releases by taking Mickey, Moana, Darth Vader and Elsa out and shooting them. It's also a rejection of everything that ever made Jaguar Jaguar not just the grace and power of the animal, but also the brand's Britishness. There's nothing feline or Rule Britannia about the type 00. And for all that talk about copying nothing. The car's silhouette is reminiscent of the Rolls Royce Spectre, and its sharp edges and lines recall the cybertruck. The Jaguar people who signed off on all this richly deserve to have their careers pounced on. Branding is about differentiation and creating a sense of scarcity that means leaning into whatever you have that makes you stand out. If you're going bald, shave your head completely. If you're a tall woman, wear heels. If you need glasses, get the biggest pair you can find. Jaguar is abandoning its differentiators while at the same time trying to enter the high end luxury market where being singular is the whole shooting match. The higher you go in price, the more eccentric it gets. In my view, Jaguar should not have spent a dollar on marketing before it had an inspiring ready to ship product to show the public the companies that have added the most value in the past 10 years barely advertise at all. Netflix now has a market cap of about $400 billion. In 2014, it was about $21 billion. Alphabet's market cap 10 years ago was roughly $390 billion. Today it is $2.5 trillion. Those companies and others took dollars out of advertising and put them into making better products and getting them to customers faster and cheaper than their competitors. Amazon didn't win E Commerce with a marketing campaign. It won by doing the hard work of guaranteeing free delivery in 48 hours. Others have won by going asset light. Nvidia uses suppliers for all of its manufacturing. Shein, the fastest growing apparel company in the world, has no stores and no warehouses. It's not too late for Jaguar to ditch its rebrand and start all over again with a strategy where a great product is not an afterthought to a marketing campaign. This is, in a way, an opportunity to announce that after a huge outpouring of goodwill toward the iconic metaphor, they are going old Coke and reverting. However, we shouldn't hold our breath. The current landscape of reality TV stars and misinformation has rid the corporate world of one important and simple phrase we fucked up.