Recently the new commercial for Jaguar XJ was aired. The ad features the beautiful Kareena Kapoor Khan.While the ad tries to demonstrate the killer looks and astonishing features that the Jaguar sports, the effort fell way short in creating the magic one would expected from a Jaguar ad (Given their pleasant track record in ad intelligence, especially in last couple of years). The reason could be attributed to a series of loopholes that found place in this ad.
The ad starts very much like the Jaguar ads made for foreign markets but very quickly gives away the protagonist baton to the actress. The subsequent screens take their own sweet time while admiring the beauty of the actress while squeezing the frames which had the car and its features as focus.
- Emotion mismatch - Elegance mixed with confidence would have been the right emotion for presenting a product which is an icon in itself. It would also have complimented the global image of the brand, hence keeping consistency for the brand communication across poles and hemisphere. But for some strange reasons, the ad-makers and the script writers chose to unleash the good actress, which she is instead of the product being the center piece of communication.
The gestures and the emotions displayed by the actress are more suitable for a furniture or bathroom fitting advertisement. For example, multiple glides of fingers on the car fixtures. Also an interesting expression spawned over multiple frames, that of an overjoyed kid sitting first time in a 'big' car
- Choice of Brand ambassador - Well, this may be a contentious one, but Kareena Kapoor Khan may not be the best choice as a brand ambassador for the Jaguar. The power and iconic status the brand should look for itself in India, does not resonate with the actress brand image.
More so when the actress is also doing ads for many mass products like cold drink(limca) and cosmetics products (boroplus). To add, she has been doing these ads for quite some time now. Long enough for the audience to have created a perception of brands associated with her. So when she promotes a low cost mobile phone(iball) or a sachet for boroplus that costs 5 rs, the audience bolsters a perception about her association with price sensitive product (barring Sony Vaio).
Not to forget she hasn't had any 'iconic'performance, critically or commercially, for a long time now in movies either. Bad time to form an association!
- Adjectives chosen to define brand traits - Elegance and Sophistication are the right words we would want to associate with the brand Jaguar. But liveliness and inner beauty are misplaced. Somehow there is a lousy attempt to associate the actress' personality traits to the Jaguar. This not only is irrelevant but also puts the idea of wow-ing the audience with the product in the back seat. (Is Kareena Kapoor Khan the benchmark for Jaguar?).
- Brand personification - The conversation in the ad's background by the actress, tries to personify the brand, quite forcefully with someone who understands her. An easy innuendo to her partner in real life. This trick kind of takes away the focus from the car to the actress' personal liking and life. Always remember - Indians lose focus of everything when placed against the Bollywood tit-bits. Bad move.
- Bollywod-yfying - While we love our bollywood, It is no secret that we love international brands to remain "international". It adds a perceived benefit to the product emotionally, socially and financially for us. Hence, though bollywood-yfying a product may look like reaching out to the newer pastures in terms of TG, it might hit back if the brand is too "Indianzied" in the effort. The term "Iconic British Brand" would yield more for Jaguar than the "Indianized" version of it.
While it can be agreed that having Kareena Kapoor Khan in the ad will connect with a bigger audience in the country and will create awareness about this iconic brand, but the real question is -
- Is the TG focused through this advertisement right for Jaguar XJ?
Cheers,
