How Ratan Tata bailed out Ford by buying Jaguar-Land Rover, despite the American firm humiliating him years before

Ford chairman Bill Ford thanked Ratan Tata, saying, ‘You are doing us a big favour by buying JLR’

Updated - October 10, 2024 02:14 pm IST - Mumbai


File picture of Ratan Tata, centre, with officials of Tata Motors and Jaguar Land Rover at a press conference to announce Jaguar Land Rover’s official entry in India on June 28, 2009. | Photo Credit: Paul Noronha


The story of two iconic brands Jaguar and Land Rover entering the Tata stable began with an insult Ratan Tata couldn't bear.


Back in 1998, the legendary industrialist launched his dream project, Tata Indica — India's first hatchback with a diesel engine. But sales initially were slow and Tata Motors decided to sell off its fledgling car business within a year of its debut.

U.S. auto giant Ford was seen as an ideal candidate. The company acceded to a meeting requirement from Ford Motors. Officials of the U.S. firm came to Bombay House for talks sometime in 1999.

During the meeting at the Tata headquarters, the American company evinced interest in buying out the business. To take the deal forward, Ratan Tata and his team flew to Detroit to meet Bill Ford, then the chairman of Ford. The meeting lasted about three hours but did not go well.

The American businessman was condescending and "humiliated" the Indian businessman, according to a person who attended the meeting.

"You do not know anything, why did you start the passenger car division at all," the Ford officials told their guests, and spoke about doing a favour to the Indian company by buying out the latter's business. The deal fell.

The team decided to return to India immediately after the meeting. On the 90-minute flight taking them back to New York, a sombre Ratan Tata spoke very few words.

The mortifying experience only made Ratan Tata more focused on his goals. He decided not to sell the unit and what followed was a classic example of a failure-turned success story.

2008 Great Recession
Nine years later, Ford was on the verge of bankruptcy following the Great Recession of 2008. Tata offered to buy two iconic brands in the Ford portfolio — Jaguar and Land Rover.

The $2.3 billion all-cash deal was completed in June 2008 and Ford chairman Bill Ford thanked Tata, saying, "You are doing us a big favour by buying JLR'," Pravin Kadle, who was part of the team that travelled with Ratan Tata to the U.S. in 1999, had recounted during a public event in 2015.

Post-acquisition, the Tata Group has scripted one of the most fabulous turnarounds in the auto industry and has been able to position the marquee British brands as formidable entities in the fiercely competitive global car market.


Even as Tata Motors has come a long way and gained market share in India, it continues to earn a significant part of revenues from the JLR.

Today, JLR is the backbone of Tata Motors.

Published - October 10, 2024 02:13 pm IST

...According to Graham Hitchmough, chief operating officer at The Bonsey Design, any significant change of direction for a revered brand is always likely to put some noses out of joint. However, he said that Jaguar’s "jarring new look" seems to be "willfully courting controversy".

"Jaguar’s business model and product strategy is changing dramatically to keep pace with the industry’s transition to EVs and compete effectively for a new generation of luxury car buyers. In that sense, a jolt to the brand’s core visual motifs is justified," he said.

Hitchmough added that the newly developed ‘device mark’ and Jaguar ‘leaper’ will not find favour with existing Jaguar fans or traditionalists, but that this is largely the point.

"While a through-line to the heritage of the brand is no doubt important, these ‘symbols of change’ are primarily there to signal where the brand is heading, rather than where it has come from. For a business that must adapt quickly to stay relevant, that may be no bad thing," he said.

Hitchmough went on to explain that the brand symbols may seem "over-designed", and the language used by Jaguar to introduce them is "definitely overwrought", but after a slew of anodyne logo updates from the auto sector, too much rather than too little makes a refreshing change. And, as always, the full picture will only be revealed once we see how these assets are deployed, across communication and on the vehicles themselves.

"The element of the relaunch that has received the most online condemnation and which appears to be least explicable is the launch film. The absence of an actual car can be forgiven by the fact that this is effectively a teaser for the main product reveal at Miami Art Week in December, and it’s a sad sign of the times that the use of a diverse cast triggers a knee-jerk response from the ‘anti-wokeism’ brigade," said Hitchmough, adding:

For a brand claiming to ‘copy nothing’ and ‘break moulds’, the imagery of the film seems entirely derivative.

With its sci-fi sets and vivid over-the-top styling, it comes across like a Luc Besson fever-dream, said Hitchmough. "If this is the future that Jaguar is driving towards, then it seems neither original nor inspirational. The concept of ‘exuberant modernism’ that the film seeks to embody feels like an internal design brief rather than a brand manifesto that’s likely to turn heads and clock up test-drives."

He added that it may be that the full launch in Miami will reveal more mischief than madness in Jaguar’s approach. Either the brand really is ‘breaking moulds’ with a scorched earth policy to jettison legacy loyalists in favour of an imagined new avant-garde audience, or it is strategically dialling up the ‘artsy’ angle for all its worth to stoke media interest and create buzz around a new brand and product that will ultimately prove to be far more palatable.

Wishful thinking doesn’t make for great marketing strategy

Adding to his point, Ambrish Chaudhry, head of strategy Asia, MSQ and Elmwood said that this has been a humbling year for marketers. From Burberry’s rebound to Nike’s plummeting value and to the recent furore over Jaguar’s rebrand - there are strong reminders that brands exist to facilitate customer aspirations and not the other way around.

"Nike assumed that if they focused on D2C and reduced presence in store, customers followed suit. They were wrong. Burberry assumed that if they wanted to move up the luxury ladder customers would follow suit. They were wrong," he said, adding:

Wishful thinking then, doesn’t make for great marketing strategy.

Chaudhry explained that this is the trap that Jaguar seems to have fallen into. "Fashionably dressed, gyrating GenZs don’t make a brand relevant again," he said.

He went on to say that the one caveat here is that we don’t really know what Jaguar has coming up next. They could have a truly pathbreaking line up of vehicles and that may justify the risk they’ve taken. They also have two years without products to sell so there’s plenty of time to course correct if needed so this rebrand may well be a justifiable gambit.


"However as for as rebrands go this one gets the fundamentals wrong. The best rejuvenations focus on what is truly unique about the brand and its relationship with customers and amplify that in relevant ways. You would only break away from your heritage if the brand is seriously tainted or if the business were entering a space where the current brand would not have any credibility or be a serious impediment," said Chaudhry.

Chaudhry went on to explain that for Jaguar, as is obvious from the reactions, this just isn’t the case for their entry into electric vehicles. "Yes, newer audiences may gravitate towards them if their vehicles are compelling enough but their storied history, reinterpreted for modern times, would only enhance desirability and not diminish it," he said.

It's never an accident

Meanwhile, Chris Moody, global executive creative director at Landor said that he loves the bold declaration of intent. The deliberate shake down of the past, and clear statement of change. He added:

It's not for everyone, it's not for the existing customer base, that's the point.


Moody went on to explain that its ultimately a more luxury positioning for younger, wealthier and more mosaic global audience, which is where Jaguar need to play to rekindle the desire of their heritage.

"It’s what the branding world needs more of - will the logo look good cast in tin and glued to a car - probably not, will it look cool embossed anodised metal or projected in light - yeah I think it will. It's built for EV not ICE," he said.

He added that the world needs change but that the internet seems to not like change. Especially when that change comes as a surprise, or from left field. "The reality is that this endeavor is no knee jerk reaction and has likely been in the planning for months if not years. He added:

Before any rebrand is considered a 'mistake' people must understand that this kind of move is never an accident.

"It’s easier to hate something than be nuanced, its simpler think one thing rather than accept the world is made of many often conflicting things," Moody explained. "The idea they just threw this out into the world without thinking is just daft, they've been planning this for years, meticulously."