Home » Some Automakers Are Having A Weird Time Branding Themselves: COTD

Some Automakers Are Having A Weird Time Branding Themselves: COTD

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Jaguar has done something truly baffling. The brand of the leaping cat has gone from a dated and complex logo to one that seems like it should belong on an Apple product or maybe a perfume brand. Then came the advertisement, which seemed like it should have belonged to a fashion brand than a car brand.

Jaguar is reinventing itself and we hope that the future is bright. But Jaguar, come on, what’s going on here? Angrycat Meowmeow points out something sad:

Vidframe Min Top
Vidframe Min Bottom

Man, this feels like Cadillac all over again, but even worse.

Mark Tucker hit hard:

Everyone’s a critiq.

For context, Cadillac’s nomenclature has been pretty bad for a while now. First, Cadillac reduced its models to a bunch of letters. Now, as the brand heads into the EV era it has brought back real names, but sticks an -iq suffix at the end, which I’m not sure anyone cares about. Optiq, Lyriq, Vistiq, Escalade IQ, and Celestiq all sound like medications, not cars. Cadillac isn’t the only one. Smart went aggressively lame with its new hashtag-based naming scheme and Dodge’s logo has been uninspiring for a while. I’m still not sold on GM’s recent logo, either:

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Outside of the car world, it seems like just about every famous brand is exchanging its previous logo for a boring one that isn’t memorable. The most boring ones are just the brand’s name in text. Yeah, I’m looking at you, Burberry! Well, Jaguar’s is certainly different.

Anyway, there’s a dad who spent $100,000 building a racetrack for his son, Achilles. There are lots of takes out there on this, but Alexk98 got me:

So what I’m hearing is Achilles track is being shut down on the heels of missing permits?

Also, I love how previous articles flow into new articles. We wrote a used and abused Dodge Viper and Uninformed Fucknugget had this topical comment:

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The touch up paint doesn’t match because the owner had to buy some off the shelf stuff at the parts store, they tried to get oem paint at the dealer but ended up getting a new crate engine.

It happened again in the article about the mint Honda CR-V, good job Dottie!

I want to believe that this is Daily Driver Viper’s garage kept weekend ride.

Have a great evening, everyone!

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Chris Hoffpauir
Chris Hoffpauir
15 days ago

I agree on the GM, I guess now gm, logo.

It’s sending the wrong message, especially for a company that has filed Chapter 11 and jettisoned five brands in the last 20 years. The lower-case logo just makes it look small.

Lotsofchops
Lotsofchops
16 days ago

The GM logo just makes me think of Goodwill. Now I do shop there on occasion, nothing against Goodwill per se, but not the association I’d be trying to make with my car company.
Also the Cadillac thing makes it really hard for to distinguish between their vehicles. If the names are too similar they all sound like the same damn thing.

Last edited 16 days ago by Lotsofchops
Stef Schrader
Stef Schrader
16 days ago

Iq.

(That’s pronounced “ick” for a reason and Caddy should’ve gotten the hint before they slapped it on all of their cars.)

Njd
Njd
16 days ago

How many times do you think a logo change to a sans-serif typeface in a borderless oval has been brought up in Ford marketing meetings?

Urban Runabout
Urban Runabout
16 days ago
Reply to  Njd

Ford sans-serif with no oval was frequently used in the late 50s, 60’s and into the late 70’s – look at any Ur-Bronco or almost any F-Series from that timeframe.

Last edited 16 days ago by Urban Runabout
Chris Stevenson
Chris Stevenson
16 days ago
Reply to  Njd
Njd
Njd
16 days ago

I actually think that looks pretty cool

John Beef
John Beef
16 days ago
Reply to  Njd

Hmmm, looks like Foid to me, which is how The Penguin would pronounce it anyway.

Bite Me
Bite Me
16 days ago

That’s actually pretty slick, though it does bear an unfortunate resemblance to the Durex logo.

Geoff Buchholz
Geoff Buchholz
16 days ago
Reply to  Njd

Had things gone differently before and during the Great Recession, that could have happened; Ford put up the blue oval as collateral for a loan in 2006 — and satisfied the terms of that loan six years later. https://business.time.com/2012/05/25/how-ford-earned-its-blue-oval-back/

Space
Space
15 days ago
Reply to  Njd

I’m sure some up and coming marketing major is sweating profusely at the dream of changing a logo that has mostly remained the same for 50 years.

David W Alderman
David W Alderman
16 days ago

I was involved in the creation of a product name once. We came up with several good ideas and ranked them providing our reasoning behind each choice. Legal verified that each name was not already in use or trademarked. The head of the company took the list, discarded it, and then chose a name that was very close to a name already in use and had not been vetted by legal. Not a rebrand as such but still frustrating.

Last edited 16 days ago by David W Alderman
Bags
Bags
16 days ago

Maybe it’s because I’m coming from an engineering background, or a car nerd background, but it seems an awful lot like marketing teams either
1) don’t know (or care) about the history/legacy/pedigree/logic behind the name and branding (we should call it this because it’s similar to this product, or we should call it this because it makes sense in our overall catalog and users will understand it)
or
2) They intentionally puck something different from a logical or previous name, because if they didn’t it would quickly become obvious that they weren’t needed.

That said, it’s often probably the other was around. The head of the company says “hey come up with a name for this that’s not x,y, or x” and then they are forced to come up with something and unsurprisingly it doesn’t make sense in the bigger picture.

Data
Data
16 days ago

That gm logo is as low energy as Jeb!

David W Alderman
David W Alderman
16 days ago
Reply to  Data

Do you mean the slogan or the person?

Hangover Grenade
Hangover Grenade
16 days ago
Reply to  Data

Please clap.

Along with Martin, Dutch Gunderson, Lana and Sally Decker
Along with Martin, Dutch Gunderson, Lana and Sally Decker
16 days ago

It’s not just the car brands. Everyone seems to be simplifying – or dumbing down – their logos. Mainly so that it looks correct in a social media profile image, but I have no idea was Jaguar was thinking given their heritage.

Cayde-6
Cayde-6
16 days ago

They could have made their entire marketing campaign a supercut of Clarkson and Co. saying “It’s a Jaaaaag” and their jokes about how much silverware/hotel towels can fit in the trunk, and it would still have been better

2manybikes
2manybikes
16 days ago

Here’s a plausible explanation for the Jag Catastrophe. Everyone on the Branding Team hates each other. They dread every meeting, and they’ll say anything to get away from each other. And there’s one shock jock in the group always confusing wit with just being annoying. Meeting starts, what’s the new vision? Shock jock says “glum pastel androgyny,” immediate vote, all agree, meeting over.

Kevin Rhodes
Kevin Rhodes
16 days ago

Cadillac has SO MANY great names with the strongest of brand images from their history, and they come up with this -iq nonsense. I think it’s even worse than poorly copying the German alphanumerics. And I agree, they sound like made up by marketing weenies drug names.

AlterId
AlterId
16 days ago
Reply to  Kevin Rhodes

I’m actually looking forward to future Cadillacs such as the Fleetwiq, the Eldoradiq, and the diq Ville, Sedan et Coupé.

Last edited 16 days ago by AlterId
Double Wide Harvey Park
Double Wide Harvey Park
16 days ago
Reply to  AlterId

Don’t forget the Cimarriq.

Baltimore Paul
Baltimore Paul
16 days ago

On a related note, I’ve always wondered why people rag on the Cimarron for being a tarted up Cavalier, but never rag on the Escalade for being a tarted up Suburban

Kevin Rhodes
Kevin Rhodes
16 days ago
Reply to  Baltimore Paul

The difference is that the Suburban is itself a good vehicle, the Crapalier was a turdmobile that was not able to be sufficiently polished. And that there really was no competition for a fancy Suburban, but the Cimmaron was trying to compete with cars that were so far above it’s underpinnings that they might as well have been spaceships. A Cimmaron cost as much as a BMW 325i. Ponder that for a minute.

Though I have NEVER understood why anyone with any amount of taste today would buy a bling-bus Escalade over a loaded Suburban or Yukon Denali today. Oh wait, taste and the nouveau riche wealthy in America? Never mind…

Urban Runabout
Urban Runabout
16 days ago
Reply to  Kevin Rhodes

The 1980’s Cavaliers really weren’t all that bad – considering the US competition.
Of course the Japanese competitors were better – They cost more too.

Kevin Rhodes
Kevin Rhodes
15 days ago
Reply to  Urban Runabout

Yeah, they really were that bad. I was there, I drove them. That they ran badly for a while is not a virtue, and I disagree about the competition – I would take an Escort or a Horizon over Cavalier any day, and Ford and Chrysler were smart enough not to try to make a luxury car out of those.

Urban Runabout
Urban Runabout
15 days ago
Reply to  Kevin Rhodes

We’ll have to agree to disagree.

I drove a buddy’s J2000 and another buddy’s Skyhawk T-Type for a while, and they both seemed relatively adequate. The cars had decent performance for what they were and the time – and the driving position was relatively comfortable.

I also co-drove an Omni GLH across the continent – and while the performance was good, the seats were utter crap and the driving position was never comfortable to me – was the deep-dish steering wheel too high? I cannot imagine driving a base version of those for any length of time.

Never drove an Escort – so I have no opinion on that – but I drove a 2nd gen Topaz sedan as a rental – and it also was adequate.

That’s why I wound up w/ a Mercury Tracer – nee Mazda 323.

Double Wide Harvey Park
Double Wide Harvey Park
15 days ago
Reply to  Urban Runabout

I had a Horizon (Omni) and to this day it remains the shittiest pile of fecal crap dungs I’ve ever had the displeasure of owning.

AlterId
AlterId
16 days ago

Not to mention the Cateriq, and of course the classic Siqsty Special.

Freelivin2713
Freelivin2713
15 days ago
Reply to  AlterId

I read that as cataracts and that fits since for a long time most of the people who drove Caddy’s had cataracts
Also: “You think I’ve never ridden in a Cadillac? I’ve ridden in a Cadillac hundreds of times,
THOUSANDS!”

Kevin Rhodes
Kevin Rhodes
16 days ago
Reply to  AlterId

You obviously have a strong future in marketing, my friend!

Urban Runabout
Urban Runabout
16 days ago
Reply to  Kevin Rhodes

So many great names:
Suburban
Series 60
Series 62
Series 70
Series 75
Series 90
LaSalle
Calais
Concours
Cimarron
Catera
Evoq
Allante
Brougham

Oh dear….

Kevin Rhodes
Kevin Rhodes
16 days ago
Reply to  Urban Runabout

All better than random letters or drug names that end in -iq.

Urban Runabout
Urban Runabout
15 days ago
Reply to  Kevin Rhodes

Totally agree about the random letters.
And the last thing we need is more -iq.

But Sedan/Coupe de Ville is just French for “Town Car/Town Coupe”
Fleetwood is an RV manufacturer – and also a maker of custom sliding patio doors.

So really the only two good names left are Eldorado and Seville.

Double Wide Harvey Park
Double Wide Harvey Park
15 days ago
Reply to  Urban Runabout

Sedan isn’t actually a French word (at least not current). The French word for sedan is “berline.”

Urban Runabout
Urban Runabout
15 days ago

https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Sedan-Chair/

Named after the town of Sedan in France where it was first used…”

Scoutdude
Scoutdude
16 days ago

I was going to say jaGUar logo is even worse than the elephant on a box, in a box.

Ranwhenparked
Ranwhenparked
16 days ago

Every established automaker wants to make themselves look like a new Chinese startup that went into production last week

Cayde-6
Cayde-6
16 days ago
Reply to  Ranwhenparked

Still better than the Chinese one that decided to take that “Chevy Nova didn’t sell well in Mexico” urban legend and turn it into reality by naming themselves after an object that is incredibly famous for being stationary

Last edited 16 days ago by Cayde-6
Mechjaz
Mechjaz
16 days ago

Here I’ve been worried I was the only one not digging GM’s gentle stool-softener sans serif logo.

gm: for when you need to go.

Vee
Vee
16 days ago
Reply to  Mechjaz

It looks like a UI element in a Flash game from 2006. That gradient is awful.

Jeffrey Antman
Jeffrey Antman
16 days ago
Reply to  Mechjaz

Do not take Vistiq if you are allergic to it or any of its ingredients. Vistiq may have side effects most commonly constipation and diarrhea.

Boulevard_Yachtsman
Boulevard_Yachtsman
16 days ago
Reply to  Mechjaz

bm

Mechjaz
Mechjaz
16 days ago

gm: the gentle movement ™

TAB 227
TAB 227
16 days ago
Reply to  Mechjaz

Dang, that’s a perfect description.

Church
Church
16 days ago

Crate Engine Callback was the name of my industrial band in high school.

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