After reading ‘Killing the Cat’ by Scott Galloway, I couldn’t resist diving into the debate myself. Galloway makes a strong point, but Jaguar’s rebrand shows what happens when style takes priority over substance.
“Scott’s Jaguar piece hits the mark—there’s a lesson here for every marketer and every company, B2B included.”
For those unfamiliar, Jaguar—once synonymous with British elegance, speed, and luxury—recently tried to redefine itself with a full-on rebrand. What did they deliver? A pink concept EV showcased at Art Basel Miami (that will never go into production), a forgettable new logo, and a campaign called “Copy Nothing” that, ironically, feels as generic as ever. As Scott puts it, this is the “all chip, no salsa” launch of the year—attention-grabbing, yes, but at the cost of eroding their core brand equity.
Tata Motors, which owns Jaguar, is winding down their existing car lineup to prepare for an all-electric luxury reboot, targeting an ultra-high-end market. Their new models, priced at around $400K, won’t hit the market for a year, so in the meantime, they’ve dismantled Jaguar’s greatest assets: its heritage, its promise of power and beauty, and its iconic “leaping cat” logo.
Scott calls this out brilliantly: “To take the greatest visual metaphor in automotive history and kill it is to destroy shareholder value.” He goes further to argue that Jaguar’s problem has always been products that couldn’t live up to the brand’s promise—an issue no flashy rebrand can fix.
Here’s where this resonates for me, and where the story feels so familiar.
Back in my days at M-Systems, under the leadership of the brilliant entrepreneur Dov Moran, we were changing the game with innovations like the DiskOnKey (the world’s first USB flash drive). Around the same time, we watched Kodak—a market leader in film photography—completely miss the digital revolution. Kodak invented the first digital camera in the 1970s but clung to its legacy product: film. They didn’t recognize the winds of change, and by the time they reacted, it was too late. They had the technology, but not the courage to reimagine themselves for a digital future.
Jaguar is running the risk of becoming the next Kodak—a brand so focused on superficial reinvention that it loses sight of the core: creating a product people actually want and need. Instead of leaning into its strengths—British design, engineering heritage, and timeless luxury—it has abandoned them for short-term attention and marketing gimmicks.
Scott’s point about the shift in marketing holds true across industries, including B2B:
For decades, brands could “win” by building emotional stories around mediocre products. Today, that era is gone. Audiences—whether car buyers or B2B decision-makers—are savvier, armed with tools to evaluate products instantly. Trust comes not from your logo or your tagline but from what you deliver.
In B2B marketing, I see the same missteps. Companies invest heavily in new websites, flashy campaigns, or rebrands while ignoring product gaps, customer experience issues, or the real value they need to deliver. It’s like Jaguar spending millions on a “Copy Nothing” campaign while showing up with… nothing.
The lesson here is simple:
- Lean into your differentiators.
- Double down on what makes your brand authentic.
- Fix the product and experience first.
As Scott said, “No one ever saved a company with a new logo.” Whether you’re marketing a $400K luxury car or an enterprise SaaS product, branding isn’t a band-aid. It’s a magnifier—and it works best when the foundation is solid.
Don’t be Jaguar. And don’t be Kodak. Be the brand that reinvents itself from the inside out.
