Lessons from the Campaigns: The Successful Branding Process

Abstract

These are two campaigns that were, and are, rooted in the fundamental marketing philosophy that Brand Development can be effectively and efficiently achieved, at least for an automotive brand, through the utilization of motorsport. However, the two campaigns were fundamentally different in their detailed objectives and in the manner in which they were established and managed. The Jaguar programme that we have examined had extensive historical roots that go back to the early days of the company’s history and continued sporadically, through the rather darker years of commercial disaster under the control of British Leyland and into the present Ford ownership, the latter company taking Jaguar into Formula 1 for the first time in its history. Although the Jaguar brand managed to retain some elements of a sporting legend in the 1970s and early 1980s, poor build quality and unreliability, that was the antithesis of the original brand essence, had severely tarnished the company’s products by the 1990s. Alternatively, the campaign undertaken by Fuji Heavy Industries’ car manufacturer Subaru was based upon a very much more restricted and, as far as their main target markets were concerned, almost complete absence of a sporting history, but the product was the essence of the brand.