The Jaguar is roaring again. And it is design that is leading to the resurgence of the marquee brand, according to Adrian Hallmark, Global Brand Director of Jaguar. “We are placed number one or two against all competitors when it comes to desirability of design,” says Hallmark, who is a member of Jaguar Land Rover's Executive Committee and reports directly to Jaguar Land Rover Chief Executive Officer, Dr Ralf Speth.

A veteran in the automotive industry, Hallmark has held board positions at Porsche, Bentley, Volkswagen and most recently SAAB Automobil AB where he was Executive Sales Director, before he joined Jaguar in December 2010. Excerpts from an interview with BrandLine

What has led to the change in perceptions about Jaguar globally over the past three to four years?

Design ... full stop. If you looked at a Jaguar showroom five years ago, you wouldn't have seen the XF, you wouldn't have seen the XJ and you would only just have seen the XK. What you would have seen is the old X-Type, S-Type and the previous XJ. And all of these three cars were very traditional in design. We were building cars that conformed to the baggage.

All of a sudden, initiated by the Ford management or liberated by the Ford management, Ian Callum (Jaguar's Design Director) was allowed to do something. He created XF and XJ, with his team in a totally different direction - really a progressive leap forward.

In the Sixties, Jaguar's E-Type and the XJ were considered design icons. They were almost like they came from another planet when you looked at contemporary design of that era. So, we have a tradition of being non-traditional and yet we went through this period when our designs were utterly traditional, which is not traditional for Jaguar.

With any research that's done, we now get results that we are placed number one or two against all competitors when it comes to desirability of design. So, with the brand Audi or BMW, which are fantastic brands, buyers may have much more brand awareness and detailed knowledge about the brand, but when it comes to a question like “which one would you prefer - the Audi A6, or the XF or the Mercedes E-Class or the BMW 5-Series?”, we are always number one or number two. So, design has enabled Jaguar to go from being wherever it was, to being much more distinctive. And in the future this has to remain the case. Standout design has to be one of our core values.

Are you happy with the awareness that Jaguar enjoys in India or is visibility an issue?

We did a study a year ago on brand health globally. The Indian numbers didn't make sense. We had two per cent brand awareness, compared to globally having 90 to 99 per cent brand awareness in most markets. So, two per cent awareness and yet we are the segment leader with the XJ, outselling Mercedes, BMW and Audi quite handsomely. It just shows that even though it is only two per cent, it is the right two per cent. It is the luxury car buyers and they may be only one per cent of the population. So, actually in the target group that buys premium cars we are well known.

But the other factor which we are seeing through the distribution development is the good name of Tata and the fact that Jaguar is part of that empire brings an awareness that is beyond normal.

But we haven't spent at all in above-the-line marketing. It is mostly PR, word of mouth and one-to-one marketing. So, you can be assured that as we grow, we will also invest more and more in communications and repositioning Jaguar. I think we have a good level of desirability in terms of the brand's status and the connection with Tata. But we need to add dimensions to it, especially as we expand our product range. We will use new product launches to accelerate the communication.

How is your network strategy for the Indian market shaping up?

We are currently in 13 cities and have 15 dealers in India. And I start with dealerships because that is quite important in India. Without the right coverage, visibility and infrastructure, no matter how famous you are as a brand, you are not going to be successful. So, the entry strategy to India is this balanced approach between building infrastructure and building the brand and building the infrastructure again in phases.

The current product range is okay for India and we are segment leader with the Jaguar XJ from pretty much a zero start.

But clearly, if we are to be successful in India in the long term, then we need to have a completely different strategy - not just for dealers, but we have to Indianise our products. It doesn't mean to say that we need to change what Jaguar stands for, but it does mean that we need to adapt to what the Indian consumer wants. A quick example: currently we use the diesel V6 3-litre engine as the primary powertrain for our Jaguar products. Clearly we need four-cylinders and down-sized engines because of tax and just customer norms. This is true in other markets, but because of the legislation and fuel situation in India, we need a different type of solution. Today we don't have all the engines we need for India, but within the next two years, we will correct all the gaps in the current cars. Getting the right powertrains in the current cars is a top, top priority for us. As soon as we have those in place, we want to expand our distribution again. And so by the end of 2013, we want to be in 20 cities with 25 outlets.

For any country in the world, this is a relatively big network for us. Not as big as the US or the UK, but that is half as big as China is today, and China makes up 17 per cent of our company's volume.

There is also a third element - How big is the market? Today the premium car segment in India is tiny, few thousand cars a year. But over the next 5-10 years, we expect that to grow massively… in multiples, not just percentages. So, we are playing this game, to get the right kind of visual presence for Jaguar. But, it is no good putting a 100 dealers in, if there is only a market for a 1,000 cars a year.

The powertrain is one example. How else will new markets such as India and China influence Jaguar?

We have made no secret of our ambitions to build cars in China. Five years ago, we never had an idea to build the car anywhere outside of the UK. But five years from now, we have to be building outside the UK. These developing market opportunities are forcing us to look at the global footprint, and take a totally different approach. Sourcing of components, construction of vehicles, that is one part of it. But, that is a big change for a small company like ours.

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