Scott Button

Theory of Constraints, DevOps, Agile, Cynefin, TRIZ, Cybertruck VIN 004603. Doctor of Engineering. Retired Boeing Associate Technical Fellow.

[Scott Button @ScottButton2]

.@cybertruck drove me up the highest maintained road in the state of Washington yesterday.

[Scott Button @ScottButton2]

@TeslaPatriot @Chassdesk https://t.co/pqqsWKjIAE

[Scott Button @ScottButton2]

@isuggest_app @SawyerMerritt @SpaceX I don’t see any IPOs available there either. I guess we must monitor.

[Scott Button @ScottButton2]

@cybertruck @gailalfaratx

[Scott Button @ScottButton2]

@spotted_model @JoeTegtmeyer I also use my frunk rarely, I have never had that problem. My problem is the tonneau cover occasionally bounces open when I hit the auto close.

[Simon Wardley @swardley]

On the question of debt with technical systems & vibe coding

https://t.co/I77TdiESdX

[Scott Button @ScottButton2]

@jockowillink @grok what is the context?

[Scott Button @ScottButton2]

Who knows someone that owns a Tesla in Fairbanks Alaska? I have a friend that’s interested in purchasing one.

Concerned about lack of a service center there.

[Scott Button @ScottButton2]

Who knows someone that owns a Tesla in Fairbanks Alaska? I have a friend that’s interested in purchasing one.

Concerned about lack of a service center there.

[Scott Button @ScottButton2]

@TeslaTruckClub Thanks so much!

[Scott Button @ScottButton2]

Doing the work.

[Scott Button @ScottButton2]

@CzechArtGirl Melatonin eventually gives me stomach aches if I take it regularly, so I switched to Valerian root complex.

[Scott Button @ScottButton2]

Power share is incredible. We went for a week without grid power after the November bomb cyclone in the Pacific Northwest. We just charged up every other day in town, switched over to Starlink, and everything else was business as usual, including using the oven to roast chicken. Cybertruck plus power share provides a complete back up for my entire house.

[Dishpit @Dishpit]

in case you didn't know, this is how you're actually supposed to do software versioning

[Dominic Gates @dominicgates]

Sad news:
I learned today that famed Boeing engineer John Hart-Smith died this week in his native Australia

John was a humble, gentle man with a brilliant and tough intellect.
In 2001 he presented a daring paper to Boeing leadership critiquing their ruinous outsourcing strategy

[Steve Chambers @4thWaveStevie]

I have never "peeked" under the hood of an IDE before, but as an old systems programmer I always wondered how IDEs did the language magic they do, like autocompletion.

Learning @zeddotdev I find that it's because of Language Server Protocol, which came from Microsoft Visual Studio Code. It's great learning new things!

[Scott Button @ScottButton2]

@4thWaveStevie Very much so. It only makes stuff up sometimes instead of usually.

[Scott Button @ScottButton2]

#GrokAI works well for explaining statistical test results.

https://t.co/jusLjHCwoR

[Scott Button @ScottButton2]

@MattWallace1701 @JonnyUW89 In case you are not aware, there is a decent open source flight simulator, FlightGear.

https://t.co/vPQXGlsqFD

[Scott Button @ScottButton2]

@brookec_4 Add linked below this analysis

[Lulu Cheng Meservey @lulumeservey]

Taste aside — from a purely strategic perspective, this brand marketing is disastrous for Jaguar.

For context, Jaguar sales have been plummeting (down 70% in the US in five years). It’s a crisis. Their #1 strategic imperative for comms and marketing should be to sell cars. So let’s analyze it through that lens.

Up to 2018, Jaguar was actually growing quickly, doubling sales in a few years. Their subsequent decline was caused by two main things:

1) LAGGING INNOVATION AND ENGINEERING

Jaguar went five (!) years without releasing a new production model, and their technology felt outdated.

2) UNCLEAR POSITIONING

Jaguar got stuck between lanes. They used to be associated with classic sophistication and luxury, competing effectively with Bentley and Aston Martin in a rarefied space.

But then they shifted down to premium, competing with the likes of BMW and Mercedes in a more crowded market. Jaguar SUV sales are cannibalized by their own sister brand (Range Rover).

Now they’re not upscale enough to compete in the luxury market, and not cutting edge enough to compete in the premium market.

DOUBLING DOWN

Even at a basic level, we know that any Jaguar rebrand should (1) highlight innovation, and engineering, and (2) pick a clear lane for branding.

Here they’ve done the opposite.

This campaign is about “collaborating with a collective of original creators across the arts,” according to Jaguar’s website, which has been taken over by the rebrand.

That message is roughly the opposite of what Jaguar should be saying, which is some version of “our cars are engineered to the gills and go very very fast.” Art school grads simply aren’t associated with elite engineering ability, I’m sorry.

It’s possible a marketing exec read too many think pieces about how millennials shop based on values and forgot that people want cars that are really well built.

On top of that, instead of choosing a clear lane, Jaguar’s brand has meandered further into no man’s land. Literally — this is NOT for men. While men have been an important audience for Jaguar historically (it’s a favored ride for James Bond and Bruce Wayne), the latest campaign features six women and two people of indistinguishable gender (one appears to be a man but I don’t want to assume).

If they’re going to abandon the male audience, they should replace it with a more lucrative audience, and it’s unclear who they’re going for here. Vegans?

So the same way Jaguar lost the ultra luxury segment without winning the premium segment, with this campaign they’re losing the “classic sophistication” audience without winning the “Just Stop Oil” audience. It’s risky to be an orphan brand.

MISSED ZEITGEIST

Lastly, Jaguar simply failed to read the room. We are in an era of NOSTALGIA. People want to RETVRN. Tradition, heritage, and classics are more in demand than they’ve been for a long time.

Jaguar was perfectly positioned. Jaguar’s iconic image of an old school British gentleman — think Sir Roger Moore, a known devotee of the brand — would have been a massive asset in today’s environment. Why not a retro themed campaign contrasting state of the art technology with a 70s aesthetic?

TIME FOR A TURNAROUND

This is like when movies used to come out in other countries a year after they were done showing in Hollywood. The vibe of this rebrand might have worked in 2021, but to drop this in late 2024 only emphasizes the reasons for Jaguar’s brand decline in the first place: it’s outdated and confusing.

Apparently Jaguar is planning a broader brand reset for 2025. From early indications, that reset is misguided and likely to fail. Jaguar is a luxury product so their brand can make or break sales, and in this case, they’ll need a U-turn to get back on track.