HOW ALIVE ARE YOU?

Last week Jaguar debuted its new global marketing direction, themed “ALIVE”, based on the fundamental idea that a Jaguar car is a unique seductive vehicle that stirs the emotions of its drivers and passengers, writes Andy Goss, President, Jaguar Land Rover North America.

In the coming weeks and months you will see communications from Jaguar that make the point that Jaguar cars are no ordinary machines and then asks the question of luxury car buyers “How Alive Are You?”

But this is much more than a bold marketing campaign. It signals a real change in direction at Jaguar and introduces a repositioning of the brand, along with a fresh way of appealing to the luxury car buyer.

“ALIVE” is the first step in getting buyers to notice Jaguar in a completely different way than before. The message here is that unlike some of our rivals, Jaguars are not cold, clinical machines. Instead, they’re something that touch the senses and fire the emotions; especially through their rich interiors and Design Director Ian Callum’s bold, sensuous designs ‑ not to mention dynamic performance.

While the announcement of the “ALIVE” campaign came last week, here in the U.S. we’ve been building up to this moment for the past six months. Arguably, we hit the reset button last September when we re‑designed and re‑energized our Jaguar U.S. website (http://jaguarusa.com/) to be more intuitive, more involving and more user‑friendly.

It took a couple of months for the effects to be seen, but it got into high‑gear in December and January when each of those months saw, for the first time, our collective digital websites receive over a million “hits.” That’s a three‑fold increase on what we’d been seeing before the re‑design.

Then we gave a taste of our new advertising direction with the hugely‑successful “Jaguar At Play” campaign, which was so successful right out of the gate, that in January, we saw more than half a million views on our recently launched YouTube page.

“Jaguar At Play” was always intended to be a segway into the new “ALIVE” campaign, but it has already proven to be much more as it has helped increase showroom traffic at our retailers and increased lead generation by some 40 percent since we started airing it in December.

Most important, that increase in traffic has translated into a solid increase in sales. December, January, February ‑ each month has seen a boost in sales volumes compared to the same months the previous year. So far in 2012 we’re up an impressive 23 percent.

But for me, the real key to building this momentum is to get luxury car buyers behind the wheel of our 2012 XF, XJ and XK models. That’s why we’re embarking on our most ambitious test‑drive program ever.

Beginning in April, the “Jaguar Drive Experience” will hit 18 cities throughout the U.S. and aim to reach out to 20,000 targeted consumers.

The fact is there are key features of our cars that our retailers just can’t demonstrate to their fullest on the public highway. That’s why part of the Jaguar Drive Experience will include either a track or closed area where customers ‑ with a professional instructor alongside ‑ can experience how technologies like Dynamic or Sport modes really work. That and 510 supercharged horsepower.

Of course, this is merely the start. We’ll be backing up the “ALIVE” campaign with a real product offensive that will see a raft of new powertrains, different drive systems and new models. We’ve already announced that Jaguar Land Rover is investing £1.5 billion annually to deliver 40 product initiatives for the two brands over the next five years.

There is a huge market opportunity, especially in the United States, for the Jaguar brand. The product line is as strong as ever and "ALIVE" gives us a clear brand point of view that we can all rally around. But most of all "ALIVE" is a point of view that gives us a mandate to shake things up, be aggressive and blaze our own unique path. I’m really excited about this new direction we’re taking and about the team we have behind the wheel.