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,
Well what i believe is the right move. The profits Jaguar is making worldwide, inorder to expand there penetration further in indian market they wanted to connect a brand ambassador who can associate with factors like- Luxury, who can give a statement of " Larger than life" . Why kareena- After marraige she has now associated herself with a RAJ GHARANA family of ' Pataudis", who had led there life is luxury and comfort. The decision to get kareena do this TVC would have been a strategy to connect a well known celebrity who is actually living a king size life and is actually associated with a luxurious family. I do believe options of other celebrities would have been there, but what i believe has been brought into picture considering the only "RAJASHI TAATH factor " The FMCG companies like emami etc would have associated the premium level brands with Kareena, which i believe would have be justifiable.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback Ashish. Appreciate your point of view!
ReplyDeleteThe aspect about her association with a royal family in India is correct, but the problem here is multi-fold. The brand must make an endeavour to remain "powerful" and "dominant" especially when Audi, Merc and BMW are in fray for the same TG, which is completely missing in the communication (the ad makes it look more of a "looker" instead of a "killer"). The problem is also, how the actress is portrayed in the ad, which is in contrast with the dominant emotion one would want to see in a Jag owner.
Lets not also forget, more than the real life, Indians see bollywood celebrities as the way they have been presented on silver screen. Hence, I am not sure how much would her real life royal family association will help.
The problem does not stop at this, You would find out with some research, that people are talking more about the actress than the Jaguar for this ad in particular. Just one reason for that, unknowingly, the ad has made the Jaguar a supporting actor to Kareena Kapoor Khan. One of the risk with associating with Bollywood celebrities.
I think they could have used the royal tag way more efficiently, if that was the idea :-)
Again, really appreciate your time and feedback!
There is a saying in marketing " if you can't create a brand and can't compete with them, then buy them and destroy them.
ReplyDeleteI don't think TATA can afford such an adventure, neither they have that much of power in them.
The Jaguar is an iconic brand featured in Hollywood Movies like Skyfall. Jaguar deserves a better Brand Ambassador.
I don’t know how the marketing team of jaguar finalized Kareena Kapoor.
The people who buy Jaguar don't buy by watching such cheap Add. Add in magazines are enough.
Kareena Kapoor, who is a Brand Ambassador of 'iball' I saw those Adds in Govt Buses.
This is an insult to the Jaguar, If you still want to make an Add for Indian customer then Aish would be ideal as she was featured in many Hollywood films. I don't recommend her outside India.
This Add featuring Kareena Kapoor as Brand Ambassador will not increase the sale, but will ruin the brand image of the Jaguar.
May be they realized and dropped that Add, I don’t see it now.