It is easy to admire a business for being brave when you are not the one who has to answer the questions, fund the transition and deliver on the promise afterwards.
Design Week’s coverage of Jaguar’s new Type 01 brings that challenge into focus. The report describes a substantial reset: a new electric grand tourer, an expected starting price around £130,000 and a deliberately uncompromising design. It also reports sharply divided responses in early design clinics, rather than comfortable approval across the board.
That is a useful starting point for a discussion about disruptor brands. It is not a basis for declaring Jaguar’s strategy a commercial success or failure. A reveal can show us a direction; it cannot tell us how customers will respond to the full ownership experience.
As a design agency owner, I think the difficult part of disruption is what happens after people notice you. You have asked them to reconsider the business. Now you need to give them a reason to believe the new version.
Being noticed and being chosen are different tests.
A dramatic identity, an unusual campaign or a product that breaks with convention can make people stop. That is valuable, especially in a market where competitors look and sound much the same.
But attention leaves several questions unanswered. Does the customer understand the offer? Is the difference useful to them? Do they trust the business to deliver it? Will they pay for it?
I would be wary of treating a strong reaction as proof either way. Criticism does not automatically mean a strategy is wrong. Equally, being controversial does not make it right. A business still needs evidence that the people it wants to reach see something worth choosing.
For a small or medium-sized company, that is why I would want the brief to define the commercial purpose of standing apart. More relevant enquiries, a clearer specialist position or a stronger case for the price are useful ambitions. Being talked about is not enough on its own.
You have to explain what the old conventions used to explain.
Familiar design gives people shortcuts. A website layout, a style of photography or a category’s usual language can help them recognise what a business does before they read very much.
When you deliberately break those conventions, you may lose some of that immediate understanding. The creative work has to find another way to orient people.
Imagine a local accountancy practice adopting a striking editorial identity to appeal to creative businesses. It could feel far more relevant to that audience than another page of handshakes and calculators. But visitors still need to understand the services, who they are suitable for and how to arrange a conversation.
That is a hypothetical example, but it captures the balance. I would encourage distinctive art direction while keeping the essential information easy to find. A website can feel original without requiring customers to solve it.
An established brand has more history to negotiate.
A new business can introduce itself on its own terms. An established one is also responding to what people already think they know.
Its name, appearance and service carry associations built over time. Some may be restrictive; others may be the reasons customers trust it. A radical change needs to distinguish between the two.
In my recent piece on the NFL’s London ticket debate, I looked at the risk of leaving existing customers behind. Disruption adds another challenge: making the new direction credible to people who have not chosen you before.
You can end up explaining the change to both groups at once. Existing customers want to know what remains. Prospective customers want to know why the new offer belongs in their consideration. Those conversations deserve more thought than a launch announcement.
The whole business has to support the creative decision.
A brand that presents itself as a different kind of business creates expectations about more than its visual identity.
If the website promises a simpler experience, the enquiry process should not be unnecessarily complicated. If the positioning is premium, the proposal, communication and delivery need to support the price. If the brand claims to challenge an industry’s habits, customers should be able to see which habits have actually changed.
This is where branding, design and development need to work with the people running the company. An ambitious identity should be a considered expression of what the business can deliver, including any improvements needed to make the promise true.
For an SME, that may mean changing the brief from “make us look different” to something more useful: “help customers understand our specialist approach, and make the experience reflect it”.
Disruption needs patience, but not blind persistence.
A significant change can take time to establish. People may need to encounter the business more than once, see the work or understand the offer before their first impression becomes a considered view.
That creates a practical difficulty for smaller businesses with limited resources. You need enough commitment to give the direction a fair chance, alongside a way to identify problems before they become expensive.
I would agree the review criteria before launch. Which customers are we trying to attract? What should they understand? Which behaviours would indicate progress? What feedback would suggest that the difference is appealing but the offer is unclear?
That last distinction matters. An adjustment to the wording or enquiry journey might solve a genuine issue without abandoning the creative direction. Listening carefully does not have to mean retreating to the safest design.
What should a business settle before choosing a disruptive direction?
- The meaningful difference. Identify what customers gain from your approach. If the difference only exists in the styling, be honest about that.
- The intended audience. Know whose response matters and why. General approval is not always the objective, but relevant customer understanding should be.
- The evidence. Decide what work, expertise, product detail or service experience will make the positioning believable.
- The practical experience. Test the website and customer journey. Keep useful tasks straightforward, even when the presentation challenges convention.
- The capacity to follow through. Plan the delivery, communications and review process, rather than spending the entire effort on the reveal.
Through Treefrog, I can help businesses connect those decisions with their positioning, identity and digital presence. The aim is to develop a distinctive direction that the company can use confidently and customers can make sense of.
I am in favour of ambitious design. Smaller businesses should not have to look like reduced versions of everyone else in their market. But the ambition becomes more useful when it is supported by a clear offer and a well-delivered experience.
Being different gives people a reason to look. What you do with their attention gives them a reason to choose you.
If you are considering a bolder direction for your brand or website, see how I can help or get in touch.