Columnist

Staying relevant without losing equity

Luxury car maker Jaguar recently rebranded ahead of its relaunch as an electric-only brand.

The aim was to make Jaguar more relevant to a contemporary audience.

But its new logo and 'leaper' cat design, adverts and delete ordinary slogan instead caused a sensation around the globe.

The controversy highlighted the challenges faced by heritage brands.

In a world where everything changes at lightning speed, a brand needs to keep pace to attract new audiences and stay relevant, without losing the equity built over years of business.

As much as the rebrand caused a stir among brand and marketing audiences on LinkedIn, we don’t know the commercial strategy and brand development behind this new direction. 

Only time will tell if Jaguar's bold move pays off.

We’ve worked with many heritage brands at Gardiner Richardson through the years, including tea and coffee supplier Ringtons, pastries and meats firm Dicksons and Grainger Market.

It’s been a fine line to balance maintaining the value of the brand while making it work for a business and its future direction. 

A brand’s heritage can play a major role in evoking nostalgia, forging emotional connections and gaining brand loyalty. 

Strong emotional connections to brands can be a real commercial asset for businesses – from the scent of a product to the colours and feel of packaging.  

A rebrand works when it strikes the correct balance between the existing and new, making it relevant but also retaining equity. 

We recently worked with the well-known and well-loved North East heritage brand Dicksons, which has been serving up fine quality products for more than seven decades.

Dicksons’ strong family values, alongside the care and generosity it puts into creating tasty, hearty food for people of the North East, influenced our recent brand development. 

It includes a bold new logo that re-imagines this heritage for today's customers. 

The script style word mark, crafted by Peter Horridge, takes cues from past versions of the logo, remaining true to the brand’s history while carrying an energetic personality distinctive among competitors. 

We revisited the brand palette and refreshed the original core colours of red, white and brown, making them brighter and fresher to stand out on the high street.

The Jaguar situation resonates with our recent rebrand work with Ringtons too.

The heritage business was expanding into coffee, and we had to consider a very different proposition to reach new audiences without alienating its traditional tea drinkers.

Heritage brands have a distinctive personality and promise of reliability, which would be foolish to ignore. 

We've loved the opportunity to work with heritage brands such as Dicksons and Ringtons, to explore the character and visual assets they've developed over decades in business. 

By using the equity in these two heritage brands, we were able to craft something distinctive that appeals to new audiences without alienating loyal customers.

Darren Richardson is co-founder and creative director at Newcastle-based Gardiner Richardson. He has decades of experience working on major branding and design projects. 

Looking to promote your product/service to SME businesses in your region? Find out how Bdaily can help →