No. 022: Jaguar's rebrand is giving nothing and they know it
plus, Perplexity's shopping AI, eye color surgery, & Barry's supremacy
Hi! Happy week before Thanksgiving. I’m sure life is crazy for everyone right now but here’s to the homeeeee stretchhhhhh. There will be no Brandiose next week as I’m taking some much-needed downtime :)
See you in December!! 🎄
🧲 OBSESSION OF THE WEEK
This week, Perplexity launched their new AI-powered ecommerce tool, and I truly think they’re onto something.
Let me preface this by saying that I know AI is controversial. BUT my take is that if AI is going to be an inevitable reality, it should be taking away things we don’t want to do — menial tasks — to free us up for things we enjoy.
This tool does exactly that: you can search for something you’re looking for in human terms (i.e. “black gown for my sister’s wedding in Mexico”), and it will pull all relevant links, including Shopify sellers. You can also search by image, similar to Google Lens.
Personally, I feel like Google shopping has been pretty abysmal so I’m all for tools that make search better.
What would take this to the next level is a partnership with affiliates like LTK/ShopMy for a more curated list of results. I’m sure they’re working on it.
🍿 BRAND NEWS
So Jaguar rebranded and it was a total disaster. Their new campaign featured slogans like “live vivid” and “go bold” and had no actual cars (Elon’s aggro now-viral tweet to the brand didn’t help). The brand response is basically “wait and see what we have in store,” with the expectation that only 10-15% of their audience will follow them into this new era. An interesting strategy… kind of feels like a Hail Mary given sales are down.
In rare GOOD news…Barnes & Noble is back, baby! Foot traffic is up 7% since 2019 and more than 60 stores are opening this year. Thank you, BookTok & celebrity book clubs.
Airplane food is always ripe for disruption, so this new partnership between Delta and Shake Shack is exciting — you can preorder a Shake Shack burger and enjoy it in the sky. Of course, it’s only for first class passengers but we’d love to see more for the people in the back!!
In order airline news, Spirit is officially bankrupt. Which is crazy, but also maybe not surprising? Apparently, they have a plan to recapitalize - so it’s not the end for them.
Guinness is getting in on the non-alcoholic beer trend, which feels incredibly off brand. It’s only in the UK right now, but curious to see how it will fare when it rolls out.
Leset and Madewell dropped a collab and everything feels cute, cozy, and very overpriced. I’m a huge Leset fan in concept but can’t bring myself to spend that amount of money on loungewear. Anyone with me?
Famous chef Molly Baz just launched aesthetic mayo, and I’m into the loud branding. She cleverly positioned it as “sando sauce” and I can’t think of another brand in that space, so I feel like it’s a smart move.
Earlier this week, Paramount staged an insane media takeover for Gladiator II: they played the same 60-second trailer across 4,000 different media channels. For $2 a million buy, they reached 300 million people at once, and I think we’ll see more of this kind of thing as brands try to crack our collective highly fragmented attention spans.
I’ve written about the fall of Lululemon, and their new hire feels like a step in a new direction. They’ve brought on ex-Google and W+K exec Brandon Viney to lead Creative for NA. Having working on Nike and Gatorade, I’m excited to see how he’ll shake things up.
I’m loving the new Olipop holiday campaign. For a brand that truly wants to be the next better-for-you Coke, creating a mascot that can stand the test of time is a smart strategy.
The world’s priciest shopping street is maybe not where you think. No longer New York’s Fifth Avenue, it’s now Via Monte Napoleone in Milan — calculated by an storefront rents, which went up 11% year over year. Guess my next trip is to Milan.
As part of its Experiences offering and in partnership with Gladiator II, Airbnb is apparently trying to stage gladiator fights in Rome’s Colosseum. Local lawmakers aren’t happy and feel like it’s giving Disneyland. I can’t say I disagree.
🆕 TREND REPORT
Online shopping’s “Slop era”. This Atlantic piece is nothing short of an indictment on Amazon’s new Haul, offering under $20 products that are “unbelievable deals” a direct competitor to Shein/Temu/TT Shop. I can’t say I disagree — why are we overconsuming to this degree, and do we really need more thing-a-majigs?
Anderson Cooper who? According to a study by the Pew Research Center, nearly 40% of young adults get their news from social media influencers.
Eye color surgery. There’s a recent increase in a surgery called keratopigmentation, or corneal tattooing, which allows patients to change their eye color, surgically. It costs about $12k and is apparently super risky (which makes sense, because anything to do with the eyes tends to be). I’m honestly terrified of this and feel like people should just embrace their natural eye color, or wear colored contacts if they really want?!
Grandparent woes. A controversial New York Times article came out earlier this month, called The Unspoken Grief of Never Becoming a Grandparent, and apparently the comments section is a bit of a minefield, with children of Boomer parents freaking out that Boomers could be so selfish and Boomers trying to defend their POV. Worth a read, tbh.
🎲 ONE LAST THING
I went to Barry’s the other day, and in my sweaty post-class stupor, saw these smoothies lined up perfectly on the bar. It was so pleasing to the eye that I snapped a photo.
Naturally, my brain went to the branding of it all. Seemingly small details like this are the reason that Barry’s has built such an incredible brand: nothing is accidental. Put differently, everything is intentional.
A Barry’s post workout smoothie (which IMO, are very mediocre, but I digress) is the ultimate reward — it’s also likely a very high margin product. The smoothie bar and lounge area of every studio is a great “third place” where Barry’s lovers socialize — building community, which builds loyalty.
Their locker rooms are stocked with premium beauty products & hairdryers, and of course, the Red Room lighting is ripe for selfies, with vibey EDM and pop remixes blaring — all of which justify the $37/class cost.
Pretty Brandiose if you ask me.
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have a great week.
- Sabena
Personally, I’m excited to see what Jaguar has in store. This 'teaser' is just the beginning, with their new design vision unveiling next month. They’re choosing bold over safe, and the buzz proves it. Honestly, when was the last time Jaguar had us all talking this much? Bold moves like this are how brands stay relevant.
I've purchased several items from Leset (all secondhand) and I am 100% converted. The failure in the partnership with Madewell is that the pieces are the exact pieces they've always sold at the same price point. I *think* it's $10 cheaper to get a set at Madewell then direct but I was looking for them to do something that feels unique. TBH it's a Madewell failing not a Leset one; the Madewell brand is becoming so vanilla that it hurts.