Driving a Jaguar is a dream for many, and with the launch of the new Jaguar XE Prestige, its makers are hoping to make that dream a little more affordable. Rohit Suri, President - Jaguar Land Rover, India tells us why the brand decided to take a different approach to advertise this entry level luxury sedan
By Neeta Nair
Q] With the Jaguar XE prestige, you have entered the entry level luxury sedan market. Was it an attempt to give buyers a relatively affordable way to get into the Jaguar family?
The All-New Jaguar XE is a distinctive combination of Jaguar’s cutting-edge innovation, technology and design. With the introduction of the Jaguar XE, we have entered a new market segment and made Jaguar more accessible to our customers while maintaining the premium and aspirational equity of the brand. This luxury sport saloon has been setting benchmarks in the industry since its launch and with the introduction of the Prestige derivative, we are confident of its continued popularity and success.
Q] Jaguar decided to promote the new car through a series on the news channel Times Now called ‘Ready to Rule’. How is the series adding to the appeal of the brand?
Jaguar created the ‘Ready to Rule’ series in association with the Times Network, which in five parts gives a peek into the best forward thinking minds of India. They draw inspiration from the Jaguar XE to craft bespoke creations that truly excite the senses. Each part of the series features two forward thinkers, a creator and a doer, who partner with each other to make XE Signature Creations. These are leading names from the field of Food, Music, Fashion, Design and Photography. Jaguar XE being a premium sports saloon that truly embodies the spirit of forward thinking – bold, unconventional, authentic, innovative, agile and the pursuit of excellence, celebrates their spirit through this show.
Q] Why did you choose not to go with the conventional approach of launching a TVC?
A TVC is perhaps the easiest thing to do, however, if you have a certain amount of money to spend, you will always look to maximize the impact and returns from using it. Conventional advertising on TV has become extremely fragmented and cluttered and many times for a premium brand like Jaguar & Land Rover, it may not make commercial sense to do conventional advertising on television. Hence, we are constantly looking out for opportunities that not only help in breaking this clutter but also deliver the right messages in a consistent manner over a longer period of time to our very exclusive profile of customers. The ‘Ready To Rule’ series and our entire activation around it helps us in achieving this.
Q] How would you describe the profile of a Jaguar Land Rover customer?
Every one of our customers buy a Jaguar or Land Rover because they have fallen in love with what each brand stands for -- Land Rover’s unrivalled capability with composure and Jaguar’s seductive performance that excites the senses. Jaguar customers are young, dynamic and passionate individuals. They share a belief that life has more to offer than functional perfection. The world they inhabit is not one of borrowed lifestyle gloss, but of authentic, quiet and self-confident luxury. Land Rover customers are individuals who are constantly on the lookout to make more of their world, with confidence, capability and composure.
Q] Earlier, you created a short film articulating the similarities between the work of two renowned fashion designers and the stylish attributes of Range Rover Evoque. What kind of response did that get?
We definitely received a very positive response for the campaign.
Q] How important is the digital medium for Jaguar Land Rover and what are your initiatives in the space?
We have been very keen to use clutter breaking new media initiatives to communicate with our audience. For example, use of Periscope for providing live feed from the launch of Discovery Sport. The launch of All-New Jaguar XE at the Auto Expo 2016 was by far our most successful digital campaign. We did digital activation with our Jaguar Design Director, Ian Callum and Land Rover Design Director, Gerry McGovern at Auto Expo 2016. We put our youngest, most passionate fans at the center of all the action at the Auto Expo 2016. We engaged with them through a series of images and videos. @JLRIndia was ranked No.4 during the launch of the new Jaguar XE on Twitter Index.
Q] What is the brand’s current market-share in India and what is your target market-share?
In 2009, we entered the Indian market and our local presence was extremely minimal. However, since then, within a span of six years we have grown 14 times. We announced a strong growth of 45 percent for the January-March 2016 quarter, crossing 1,000 units on the back of extremely high demand for its recently launched new models such as the All-New Jaguar XE and Land Rover Discovery Sport. We are very bullish about continuing our growth momentum in the Indian luxury car market. In 2016-17, we expect both our volume and the luxury auto industry to grow by double digits with our volume out-pacing the growth of the industry
Q] Tell us about Jaguar’s first SUV F-PACE which will be launched this year.
The Jaguar F-PACE will be launched in the Indian market towards the end of this calendar year. It is a performance crossover from Jaguar with unrivalled dynamics, matched with everyday usability.
How different is the Indian market for Jaguar Land Rover as opposed to that in other parts of the world?
India is a market that offers significant opportunities for both the Jaguar and Land Rover brands. We are very bullish about continuing our growth momentum in the Indian luxury car market and are on track to deliver even more sensational products that will underpin the future performance of the business. There is a huge potential for growth in India as the luxury car market is at a very nascent stage and therefore, there are immense opportunities to grow and increase market share.
Q] Who is your nearest competitor and what is that one advantage you have over them?
The German Trio - Mercedes Benz, BMW and Audi - are our competitors. However, Jaguar Land Rover is positioned at a premium to the German brands and is highly aspirational, a positioning we would like to maintain.
Q] What are the fundamental principles of your marketing strategy? What does your marketing mix look like for the launch of the Jaguar XE?
As you are aware, India is a highly connected country with an extremely high mobile and smart phone penetration and many of our customers are extremely active on digital. Given that, our marketing strategy strongly focuses on building Jaguar & Land Rover as brands that continue to be highly aspirational by focusing on connecting with the customers and prospects through CRM, Experiential and digital, including social media.
Q] Can you give a rough estimate of your marketing spends? How has it changed over the last year?
As a policy, we will not be able to share our marketing spends. However, it is roughly 8-10% on digital media, 7-10% on Experiential events and rest is spent on CRM and retailer marketing initiatives
Q] Your ad for the earlier variant of XJ had Kareena Kapoor endorsing it. But as a whole Jaguar doesn’t have a brand ambassador in India, why?
Jaguar and Land Rover brands are extremely popular with most of the top celebrities. We are fortunate that Jaguar & Land Rover are their brands of choice. In fact, we can consider all who drive our cars as proud brand ambassadors of the brand.
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neeta.nair@exchange4media.com
