Buck Rogers

Welcome to The Beat by Rockstar CMO. I’m Ian Truscott, a CMO, trusted advisor, strategy consultant, and Chief Bottle Washer at Rockstar CMO. In this newsletter, I’d like to share a mix of what’s caught my eye, topics from our podcast, and our street knowledge blog.

Hello there!

This week, I am using all the fuss about the Jaguar rebrand as an excuse for a subject line inspired by the classic Feeder tune, Buck Rogers, and the line “He’s got a brand new car // Looks like a Jaguar”.

Of course, I say “all the fuss”, and while IT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT thing in the world for my LinkedIn marketing and Adland goldfish bowl, when I referred to it in conversation with my wife, she wasn’t particularly aware, even though a Jaguar F Pace is our family car.

Any mention of this story in the mainstream media seems to focus more on issues of DEI than on whether this new brand will help shift motors. We have plenty of time to find out whether it will or not, as Jaguar is taking a break from the messy business of making cars.

My take, and I really didn’t think I would be writing about this, I honestly just wanted to call this email Buck Rogers and enjoy that tune, but I am here now, is two things:

The first is these high-on-the-concept ads like the ads for perfume, and aftershave I don’t think we have to realistically see ourselves in these ads, as the critics seem to suggest with Jaguar. Does anyone buy aftershave thinking they are Johnny Dep talking nonsense while sitting in a desert?

The second is, have you seen a concept car? These things, with square steering wheels, doors that reinvent how things should open, white interiors made of sustainable hand-spun mycelium, and details forged from pure unobtainium that are pushed on stage as they use a form of propulsion that hasn’t been invented yet.

What trickles down to the consumer is like Beyonce's accountant; they’ve been in the same room and have something in common, but it’s not the same experience. They have a year or more to dilute this to whatever the new Jaguar will be when it finally launches a new car.

Plus, the industry has completely changed, partially due to EV disruption and how that changes car design. For example, Korean brands are launching and, more importantly, selling boldly designed cars that, for a previous car generation, would been the concept, the Beyonce, while the forecourt would be stuffed with the motoring equivalent of her accountant. Today, the electric platform has made design more interesting.

Anyway, what the hell does any of this mean for B2B?

We are encouraged to be bold, not b2boring, but like following what happens next for Jaguar, there has to be something behind a bold move.

Being bold is different from being surprising or shocking.

It has to be plausibly authentic, reflected in the product, the culture of the organization and the sales and customer experience.

The coverage of the Jaguar thing focuses on the traditional Jaguar customer not seeing themselves in this new brand, but it’s not just the market that needs to move with your bold move; your people need to see themselves in it.

I’ve been there, well not anything quite as bonkers as Jaguar, but I did try and implement a bold B2B brand idea that seemingly was well received and fully supported by the CEO and some of the senior team, but its execution needed a bigger change, and we should have realized that there was a limited appetite for that and it was slowly stifled and diluted.

As Feeder says in Buck Rogers - We'll start over again // Grow ourselves new skin.

Thanks for reading, hope you’ve had a good week, and please click on some of the links below, even if it is just to let me know you are real :-)

Cheers!

Ian

Ian Truscott | Chief Bottle Washer Rockstar CMO

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