On 19 November 2024, Jaguar showed the world its new brand. There was a new wordmark. The old growler logo was gone. And there was a 30-second film called "Copy Nothing". (Design Week)

There were no cars in it.

What happened

The rebrand was created with the agency Accenture Song, as part of Jaguar's move to an all-electric line-up aimed at a younger audience. DesignRush described the campaign as launching "without showcasing actual vehicles".

The reaction online was huge, and the first question was a simple one: where are the cars? People argued about the colours, the type and the film, because that was all there was to argue about.

Then came the numbers. In April 2025, Jaguar registered 49 cars in Europe, down from 1,961 in April 2024, according to ACEA data reported by DesignRush. That's a fall of about 97.5%.

It would be easy to post that number and say "see, the rebrand killed sales". That isn't what happened, and we don't want to pretend it is.

By late 2024, Jaguar had already halted most of its old line-up and suspended UK sales before the new electric models arrived. (DesignRush) There were barely any cars to sell. The rebrand didn't cause that drop on its own.

So the honest story is stranger. Jaguar launched a new identity at a moment when it had close to no product in showrooms and nothing new to show yet.

This next part is our opinion, not a finding. They showed people a feeling with no product to hold it up. With no car in the frame, people had nothing to judge except the paint, and judge the paint they did.

If they had launched the identity with the new car in the same film, we think the whole conversation would have been about the car. People might still have argued about the logo, but they'd have had something real to look at, something to want or not want.

Picture printing wedding invitations before you've booked a venue. Pretty cards. Your guests just ask where.

The counterpoint

To be fair to Jaguar and its agency, the story isn't one-sided. Accenture Song later won Agency of the Year at the Red Dot awards, as Design Week reported, and JLR's leadership has defended the strategy. The argument for it goes something like this: a brand moving into a very different market has to break with its past loudly, and getting talked about is part of the job.

The real verdict will come from the cars themselves. A rebrand that looks wrong at launch can look right once the product arrives. We'll be watching.

What it means for your brand

A rebrand can't do the product's job. A new logo, palette or website can make a good offer easier to see and easier to trust. It can't stand in for an offer that isn't ready yet.

For a small business, the version of this is launching a beautiful new website for a service you haven't finished shaping, or announcing a new look while your old products are sold out and the new ones are months away. People arrive, like the look, and find nothing to buy.

One thing to do this week

If you're planning any kind of refresh, write down the answer to one question: "What will people be able to buy, book or try on the day this goes live?"

If the answer is clear, build the launch around that thing. Show the product, the service or the real work in the very first thing people see, not just the new colours.

If the answer is vague, think about moving the date. A few extra weeks so the launch has something real in it is cheaper than explaining an empty one.

A rebrand can't do the product's job. That's all.

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