It’s been a busy few days for Jaguar Land Rover with three motor shows in three different countries on two continents. It stretches resources to the limit, but newly appointed global marketing director Phil Popham told just-auto that events and new model launches are now becoming part of everyday business.
He said: “In the past we have been able to plan three or four years ahead but they now come at us thick and fast as the product portfolio expands and our markets grow. We are now in line with our competitors in terms of a seven year change cycle. We are building capable teams around the world to ensure that the JLR experience is consistent – our customers, wherever they are, are affluent, well-travelled and expect a lot from us.”
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Popham was speaking at the Tokyo Motor Show where the company was unveiling the new F-Type Coupe.
He explained the body variant split on the F-Type. “When we launched the Convertible F-Type we knew this market tended to split 60 percent towards Coupe but we thought the Cabriolet was the right thing to do. It gave us an impact model and with the Coupe we can now take advantage of playing in the higher segment.”
Japan is still a fairly small market for JLR, although Asia is important as a region. “We still see Japan as an area of growth. Our sales are up 77 percent year on year and the Evoque has been a big success. Also the introduction of the 2-litre engines in Jaguar models has been very appropriate in this market.
“South Korea is our fastest-growing market in the world while the whole Asia Pacific region is growing quickly and this means we have to invest in infrastructure and people. We have appointed new managing directors in Australia and Japan and opened a new regional headquarters in Singapore.
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By GlobalData“It’s important that we continue to invest in people and infrastructure around the world and there is also the issue of the huge investment dealers have to make.”
JLR is also expanding its industrial footprint. Outside the UK it is already making vehicles in India while its new factory is China is well under way. The building is almost complete and equipment starts going in soon ahead of the plant opening towards the end of next year.
The company has also formed a new Global Business Expansion team that it is looking at other production opportunities. These include Brazil where there is a very strong market for Land Rover products. “Brazil is by far the biggest market in quite a volatile region in terms of sales and currencies but we are looking at the long term potential,” Popham said.
“We are also looking at possibilities in Saudi Arabia where, again, we have a very strong sales presence. We are a very small player in automotive terms and everywhere we invest has to be thought through. We have to balance currency fluctuations along with investment incentives, fiscal and regulatory differences to create a natural hedge against any future economic downturns or even natural disasters.
“It is my aim not to have more than 20 percent of volume in any one of our six regions: UK, rest of Europe, North America, China, Asia Pacific and rest of the World.”
The next model in the Jaguar line up will be a compact crossover based on the C-X17 concept. “We have spent a long time researching the market with regard to the Jaguar crossover, as we did with Range Rover Evoque when we already had Freelander in the market,” Popham said.
“We have to take a good look at what people expect and how the models sit alongside each other.
“The C-X17 will be a Jaguar in every way, with four wheel drive but with an on-road bias as against Range Rover which has greater off road capability. The important thing is that the two can sit together comfortably in the showroom.”
“Our job is to continue to refresh the current product portfolio and develop new vehicles where it is appropriate. C-X17 is part of that and we recognise that there is a trend towards down-sizing and there is certainly room for a premium mid-size model below the XF and we are seeing if we can exploit that.”
There are plans to focus the next generation Freelander as a ‘baby’ Discovery, so how does Popham see the future of Land Rover’s brand identity? “I see three distinct areas: luxury, which is Range Rover, leisure, or versatility and active lifestyle as currently in Freelander and Discovery and utility, which is Defender.
“These are three clear market areas. What we have in the Land Rover brand is versatility and capability and we can dial those up and down depending on which of the areas the vehicles are in.”
Popham took on the role as joint marketing chief for Jaguar and Land Rover earlier this year, but has spent the past three years researching how the brands expand globally.
“We now operate in 178 markets as well as going into newly developing ones, the network is growing and the only way we can move forward is on a joint JLR basis which creates economies of scale. The issue is to maximise efficiency while maintaining brand dedication to ensure the vehicles sit alongside each other in a single retail outlet.”
