The Green Oval

Land Rover‘s image has evolved a great deal since the inception of the original back in 1947. Based on a Willis jeep, Maurice Wilks created the Land Rover, which he wanted to use on his vast farmland. Now the average Land Rover  owner not only uses their vehicle off-road, but tends to use it a lot on road as well.

Ford’s ownership of Land Rover wasn’t kind to their brand image, however Tata Tata motors has allowed Jaguar Land Rover to flourish, by keeping the brands in Britain. According to Tata, they are British brands that belong to Britain.

When Tom McCahill a famed New York journalist tested a Land Rover in 1960, he stated that the vehicle “is as rugged as a cement casket”.

To keep up the rugged feel of Land Rover, when cars nowadays are become more and more luxurious and somewhat softer by nature, LR keep feeding their vehicles into Motorsport. Most recently Land Rover announced that they are going to continue sponsoring Race2Recovery. Race2Recovery is the only disabled rally raid team in the world. The team will enter two defender based Bowler Wildcats in the 2014 Dakar rally. Land Rover will provide parts, logistics, vehicle and financial support throughout the 2014 campaign.

Land Rover had made a strategic partnership with Bowler Motorsport back in 2012 forging the path for a Motorsport series known as the Defender Challenge whereby competition prepared Land Rover Defenders are used in a seven round rally series across the UK.

Today, Land Rover has gone from rugged work horse to Industrial chic. If its good enough for royalty, its good enough for everyone else.

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Hardworking gentleman’s wagon

Today Range Rover is working as its own brand, with JaguarLandRover dealers now representing all three-brand logos. After the release of the Range Rover Evoque, The Land Rover brand stated that Land Rover dealerships would not only sell Land Rover and Jaguar but will also sell Range Rover. This allowed the company to give the brands their own identity.

“Land Rover is more utilitarian, Range Rover is the top end of luxury,” said Wayne Kung, Jaguar-Land Rover’s manager of national product communications.

Early Range Rover products were utilitarian just as the previous Land Rover models but with a slightly more luxurious feel. Modern luxuries included a cigar lighter and sporty paint. It was not until Range Rover was used in sporting events such as the British Trans Americas expedition in 1972 led by John Blashford-Snell. He used two Range Rovers travelling through swamp jungle establishing the vehicle as a tough Land Rover.

The brand went ahead with advertising the vehicle as one that is as comfortable on the road in a city as it is in the desert. This style is still used today with the adverts for the Range Rover Evoque.

It took until 1981 for Land Rover to start pushing their brand image to the higher end of the luxury market. Over Finch in collaboration with Land Rover designed and built the automatic gearbox fitted in the Range Rover.

Land Rover was never a name synonymous with luxury, but that has changed with its current range of vehicles competing with the most luxurious on the market. Current owners consist of professional footballers and many celebrities who not only own a Range Rover but also choose to add their own bespoke elements, which can be seen on most glossy magazines and newspapers.

Victoria Beckham is the brand ambassador and was on the design team for the interior of the Range Rover Evoque. Putting on an event for the vehicle release in Bejing in 2012, the brand created a viral campaign that was backed by social media marketing via the automaker and Ms. Beckham. Brand analysts judged this as a wrong move by the Range Rover brand as fundamentally it has always been an elitist brand for the ‘posh’ which the Beckham brand does not evoke.

In 2013, Daniel Craig (007 actor) launched the new Range Rover Sport in New York in front of a huge audience. This further propelled the brand into its cool stage, linking with one of the coolest agents in the business.