Why Trump 2.0 delivered, and Jaguar not so much
The Internet is awash with disbelief at the latest Jaguar-rebranding exercise, which was roundly panned with most branding it an epic fail. I tend to agree.
The advertisement in question is a 30-second seemingly woke fest festooned in bright neon with a background reminiscent of a scene from Mars, and mind you, no car. A man in the know about Mars and all things cars, electric in particular, Elon Musk had a field day on X asking “Do you sell cars?”. He was not the only one asking this by a country mile.
Jeremy Kyle of TalkTV had car journalist Steve Berry on and, perhaps, he inadvertently shed light on Jaguar’s thoughts on the matter having recently spent some time with two of its designers. According to Berry, they were of the firm belief that the automaker had to move ahead with the times.
It reminded me of the failed Bud Light campaign last year, when various news outlets reported that the marketing team had ruefully ignored the very people who consumed its product. These consumers were quickly swept aside for the new frontier of a younger, more inclusive crowd.
And instead of apologising for their mistake, Bud Light doubled down and stuck to their guns, much like Jaguar’s CEO has already done through his comments, see clip, in the immediate aftermath. A Bud light 2.0 if you will.
It did not end well for Bud Light, having to endure a boycott that led to huge financial losses. Let’s see what happens to Jaguar.
In all these campaigns, I venture to say that they had made a cardinal error and had forgotten one important thing … They simply did not read the room. Yet, the Trump campaign managed to amplify the concerns voiced. They listened to the people and platforms like X proved to be wonderful sounding boards of sorts.
X for independent thinkers
And again, pioneering Elon Musk was at the vanguard. Intimately involved with the Trump campaign, Musk reaped the fruits of the $44 billion acquisition of X, for which he had often been ridiculed.
Musk, long a detractor of what he calls the woke-mind virus, envisaged X as a free-speech platform that promoted truth-telling at grass-roots level, sometimes conveying stories at odds with the legacy media. It was why the Trump reincarnation as president of the United States reverberated as it did, and was so keenly felt.
We, the people – the brilliance of Trump 2.0
Donald Trump’s sterling 2024 victory taught me a thing or two about running a successful campaign. And the underlying most successful ingredient: the people. Donald Trump’s (DJT) most memorable campaign advertisement arguably expressed it best: the refrain was “we, the people”. DJT himself reiterated, “The people dreamed this country, and it is the people who are making America great again.”
And the people responded – coming out in droves to vote Trump: yes, even with that abrasive, polarising character. They saw in him a man who could carry out their mandate and “Make America Great Again.”
Dream team
The Trump campaign had managed to tap into America’s heart: an America that felt that its leaders were not listening to them, had lost its direction and had judged Kamala Harris to be ineffective as Vice President. Interviews and posts on social media showed that the American people yearned for a new crop of dreamers to help them rediscover the American Dream, which had become a pipe dream under the Biden administration.
Trump’s choice of a dream team convinced the people that the American dream was possible. A masterstroke if ever there was one. He chose men and women who had stood up for the truth before and had oftentimes been vilified as a result, but stood strong. Elon Musk, case in point. Vice-president hopeful, JD Vance, had been the find of the campaign who always seemed calm and confident facing the media on the campaign trail.
Vivek Ramaswamy had already revealed his nous while attempting to run for president in 2023. Similarly, Tulsi Gabbard had come to prominence in a heated presidential primary debate in which she heavily criticised Kamala Harris. They were believable. Joining them were the likes of Joe Rogan, one the world’s influential podcasters and number one on Spotify, and Tucker Carlson, former Fox News host. They had the credentials. They had influence.
The changing role of the influencer
Juxtapose the influence wielded by these visionaries to the Kamala Harris campaign who had brought on the likes of Oprah, Beyoncé, Cardi B, and Jennifer Lopez. Taylor Swift had endorsed Kamal early on, so too had the Obamas, George Clooney, and other titans of elections past.
Yet, it was not enough. This time, it seemed, the celebrity endorsement was simply not cutting it. Was it perhaps because before any of them had been celebrities, Trump had been one? People knew who this man was.
Authenticity is key
There, possibly, was another key: authenticity. Everybody understood who Donald Trump was and what he stood for, but Kamala? Not so much. Kamala came across as a chameleon playing identity politics. She found herself pandering to various audiences, changing her accent as she went along, even her messaging was revealed to be dependent on where she went.
Her infamous cackle and word salads also did her no favours in defining herself. In trying to be all things to all people, she, in effect, appealed to fewer than she hoped and lost the election. For a sitting Vice President, Kamala was seen as weak when it came to articulating policy. And Americans wanted a clear way forward not vague statements.
Addressing people’s pain points
Trump’s focused and hard-working team members had done their homework. They knew America’s pain points. They knew where the country’s people were haemorrhaging – the border, health, the economy, immigration, etc.
Sadly for Kamala, she was seen as instrumental to its downfall as her documented stance on immigration specifically had not won hearts. Voters were not having it.
In addition, a new catchphrase was doing the rounds: Make America healthy again (MAHA). At the helm was respected Robert F Kennedy Jr. He had a track record of taking on juggernauts. Overwhelmingly, it became clear that a number of Americans saw in him a man in whom they could put their trust, who could tackle the food production crisis, obesity and vaccine issues.
Straight talk works
Where Kamala was afraid of really standing out, choosing instead to appeal to the masses, she found herself coming up against a decisive man unafraid to make a stand. He had come within a hair’s breadth of death on the campaign trail, narrowly avoiding assassination, and it had emboldened him.
He felt that he had to fight for the people, and he was hell-bent on winning. With a team that had a reputation for being outspoken and not flip-flopping on the issues depending on the audience addressed, he was well on his way.
Not taking a support base for granted
Hard to imagine, but at the same time, the Obamas also lost their lustre. Even their campaigning could not help Kamala Harris over the line. Arguably, they helped scupper her dream of becoming the first female president of the United States.
Black America, men in particular, a demographic long considered traditionally Democrat, turned its back on Barack when he implored them to vote for Kamala. He seemed to intimate that they did not want to vote for her because she was a woman. Incensed by his seeming lack of respect, black men took to X to voice their displeasure. And, oh dear, they voted for Trump.
Never losing sight of values
The Democrats committed another mis-step. In an advert voiced over by Julia Roberts, the message seemingly called women to vote contrary to their husbands. It caused outrage among men, women and Christians on X as it was seen as disrespectful to the institution of marriage and was perceived as the Democrats meddling in places people did not want them too. And oh, they voted for Trump.
The ultra-conservative Amish, usually not even interested in politics, voiced concern for the direction the country was taking too, as their way of life was being threatened by the liberal, governing party. They turned up en masse and voted for Trump, in so doing becoming kingmakers in the swing state of Pennsylvania , flipping it red, and firmly Republican.
Scarily, the issue of women’s rights and abortion also became a hot-button issue. The Democrats’ stance then alienated the pro-life, conservative group further – a significant demographic already fed up with the woke agenda, children had been subjected to education promoting drag queens or that women’s sports had been infiltrated by males.
Conservative voices
The fact that Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh had to go around the country even asking the question, “What is a woman” and being censured for it spoke volumes. And white women also turned out emphatically for Trump, not the would-be first female president of the United States.
But the nail in the coffin came when Kamala told Christians that they were at the wrong rally. Her overtures by attending a church service the Sunday thereafter did nothing to placate Christians incensed that a country that had been birthed as a nation under God had so abandoned its roots and values. Meanwhile, Trump was walking out to God bless the USA at many of his rallies. It proved detrimental to the Democrat cause.
Furthermore, post-election polls revealed that all of a sudden Christians, incensed by what was happening in their country turned out en masse and voted for a man who believed that God had saved his life that fateful day in July he literally dodged a bullet so that he could save America.
Conservatives like the team at the Daily Wire did their bit to shape a society as they saw it, while I noticed the efforts of Charlie Kirk in particular, spending hours on the ground campaigning to ensure that there was a new, more conservative dispensation. It worked.
The rise of the podcast and new audience
The matter of age had been raised on the campaign trail. Donald Trump may be pushing 80 but he had more than one ace up his sleeve. In JD Vance, he had one of the youngest-ever vice-president picks. Tulsi, Elon, Vivek and other major team members were also all relatively young.
In addition, few would have predicted the rise of the young Trumps. Kai was a model granddaughter, but Barron was the trump card. A human skyscraper of Trump towering over others with an IQ to match, and having grown up in the White House, he urged his father to do podcasts instead of the traditional media channels.
And did it pay off? The younger generation sat up and listened. Joe Rogan’s endorsement of Trump should have set off alarm bells for the Harris campaign. After Trump’s victory, freed from the shackles formerly imposed on Trump supporters, students were all doing the Trump dance in the streets so, too, were athletes. Yes, the young ones, too, had embraced Trump.
Usually regarded as Democrat supporters, they had turned the tables on them. They favoured a man willing to listen and act.
Value existing and potential customers
And who can forget how Hillary Clinton botched her own presidential campaign in 2016 when she called the opposition supporters deplorable. This time it was Biden who similarly smirked that Trump supporters were garbage while commenting on an incident involving Puerto Rico. As a consequence, the American people felt abandoned by a sitting president, a Democrat. And then to add insult to injury, Latinos – who had a recent history of voting for the Democratic Party – came out and voted for Trump. CBS Evening News reported on it too.
With Trump, Americans at large felt heard again. Trump also managed to pull out the stops on the campaign with an ingenious advert showing himself as a garbage collector. He was cast as fighting for the American people. His refrain, “Fight, fight, fight,” as recorded after the assassination attempt had turned to “Win, win, win.” His star was truly in orbit.
Stick to the budget
Trump, a savvy businessman to say the least, also managed to keep his campaign costs down – important if one was contesting an election where the economy was a major issue, while warmongering and spending was at an all-time high.
Like never before, Americans were feeling the pinch. The crux of the American Dream was the belief that one could be anything you set your mind to if you worked hard enough. Yet, the people were starting to realise that working hard enough was not cutting it. Inflation was too high and spending was off the charts, not to mention wars raging all over the place.
Kamala did not seem to get the memo: it later emerged that she had overspent the campaign budget by millions of dollars. Where had it gone? Rumours were swirling that celebrity endorsements were to blame. Trump, once again, proved his credentials – a clear winner in that too.
Not only did he excel in almost every conceivable way – his messaging was on point. The team’s use of emotive imagery, poignant or inspirational music where it mattered, along with an unswerving focus on the American people inspired Americans to dream again.
The evidence: the euphoric scenes witnessed when he got to the requisite 270 electoral college votes. The people had bought into change, and, finally, the American Dream was back within their grasp again.
Hit or miss
I think it is where Jaguar missed the mark: they simply do not seem to have listened to their client base. Their average customer – older consumers who have a penchant for a more sophisticated aesthetic, never-mind quality, racy cars – has been shown not to subscribe to the values they now seem to espouse. Neither are electric vehicles all that lucrative according to market research. Yet, that is what they have set their sights upon.
Perhaps, they plan on making kooky electric cars going forward, who knows. joke, woke and broke all rhyme. Two already apply. Time will reveal Jaguar’s fate and whether America does, indeed, become great again.
Therefore, in conclusion, whether you plan on selling cars or dream, you need to listen to your customer or support base. I believe that the future will show how much rests on the principle of we, the people.
- Why Trump 2.0 delivered, and Jaguar not so much - November 27, 2024
- 9 Websites by women with that extra wow factor! - March 22, 2024
- AI taking over the world? Not so fast … - March 6, 2024
