Jaguar Land Rover set to reorganise itself into four subbrands

Jaguar Land Rover has announced that it will now be called JLR, in a rebrand that aims to shift the focus onto the four subbrands in its stables: Range Rover, Discovery, Defender and Jaguar.

This change of strategy aims to see JLR repositioned as a house of brands, in a strategy that will help "amplify the uniqueness of our characterful British marques," stated Gerry McGovern, JLR's chief creative officer.

The motivation for this rebranding appears to be caused by JLR struggling in recent years to separate its large model lineup of luxury SUVs, and an attempt to create more discrete personalities between its products.

The Jaguar, Land Rover, and Range Rover circle of branding confusion was sent into a further spiral when in 2021, a master plan to separate Land Rover SUVs into three further legs, with its Range Rover cars for luxury, Discovery lineup for families, and Defender series for real off-road durability came into being.

This does sound a lot like that time when Kentucky Fried Chicken rebranded itself as KFC in 1991, but what's really happening? 

With the updated strategy, each Land Rover category is being turned into a fully fledged brand, joined by Jaguar which thankfully has not yet been split up.

So what's going to happen to the Land Rover badge then?

The absence of the Land Rover name in the rebrand has already started a storm on social media in the UK, but JLR has come out to officially confirm that the name would continue as a badge on its SUVs. 

All right, so the SUVs will be branded as Range Rovers, Discoveries, and Defenders in marketing material, but still wear the Land Rover oval badge. Colour us confused.  

JLR's statement was quoted to an unnamed spokesperson who said, "Land Rover will remain. It is strong, well known, and we will use that collective strength to give our brands authenticity and purpose."

JLR has put forth plans to repurpose its UK showrooms to incorporate the new changes, and the major shopfronts will continue to sell all of JLR's products while smaller ones may feature a reduced number of subbrands on sale.

This news comes in the wake of dealership upheaval in the United States of America, where some JLR dealerships have been asked to give up their Jaguar franchises as the company transitions to a heavily electrified future.

It's very early days, and there's no word yet on how this will affect the JLR showroom in Singapore. It's likely business as usual for the time being as Wearnes Automotive still holds the dealership status for Jaguar and Land Rover brands here. The possibility of a showroom being split into four quadrants is a novel, but unlikely possibility.

Meanwhile, remember now it's JLR = Jaguar, Discovery, Defender, Range Rover. Jaguar Land Rover as a full brand name is being phased out, the same way Kentucky Fried Chicken was phased out and replaced with KFC all those years ago.

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This article was first published in CarBuyer.