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JQ wondering into the unknown...
Phil from neo-buggy.net asked me to write something for his site, because he couldn't be bothered himself. So I thought I would help him out since writing BS has never been specially hard for me. I told him no one would read it anyway, but he wouldn't have any of that. So here goes. The first in a series of articles: A peek into the strange mind of JQ.
The first two months of turning my hobby into my job (for real, not just for when I'm racing, after my racing career too) has been an interesting ride. I knew it was going to be tough, but there was more to do than I first imagined. After the owners of Himoto and I had reached a deal, had discussed everything, had a business plan,knew what we wanted to do, and how and when we intended to do it, we had to start working. First goal was to attend the Nurnberg Toyfair in order to get JQ Products out there and find some distributors. All the things that have been done within the first two months include: designing a logo, and some variations of it, designing and printing stickers, designing and printing a flyer, poster and a banner for the toyfair, finishing the Hyper 8.5 upgrade parts, modifying some parts on the buggy for the first prototype, producing the Hyper 8.5 parts and the first prototype of my design, making the starter box bracket and decals, designing a tool set, registering domains, setting up company email accounts, creating part numbers for all the buggy parts, organising all files on the computer, designing and printing a business card, going to school and racing electric hair dryers on carpet. Or was it Touring Cars. Late nights and early mornings. Well not too early I hate waking up. But definitely late nights. Usually the night ends violently as my girlfriend kicks my ass at around 1 o'clock, as the computer is in the bedroom. Or then the bed is in my office. Well we only have two rooms!
Lets take a look at some of the things that crossed my mind as I started this adventure. First thing on the “To Do” list: LOGO.
Deciding on a logo was for me the biggest pain in the ass since my cheese slicer broke back in 2003. And that's bad. A logo is very important. Its going to be everywhere, and you are going to have to live with it. We went through many different variations and I was panicking. My dads an illustrator and we finally managed to work it out to where it was good enough for me. In the end we ended up with something similar to what it all started with, an idea from my friend and sponsor Maurizio Fantinell, www.maugrafix.com. He did the first version already about two years ago. That's when JQ Products first crossed my mind. Basically we just used what I have had painted on my bodyshell pretty much since I started racing. A weird looking bird.
Logos are hard to do. Good logos are simple ,and great logos are simple, yet manage to communicate a message. One look at the logo and you know what its all about. I like many shoe company logos. Don't know why, maybe its because they have to be simple so they can be stitched on the shoes and so they still look good on there. DC, Osiris, DVS...all good.
 
OK, so the logo is done, that's it then. Not quite! Then we needed the logo in various sizes and styles, outline, filled in, and what about colours! Well those were easy to chose, I have ever since my second year racing run similar colours. Green, black, yellow and white just look great together I think. So that's what we need to use. Just proved to be a bit harder getting those to work with the logo. And now this is what I am quite interested in, and I have a good idea of what I want in my head, just don't seem to have the skills to get it done quite like I would like it. Setting up a new image, branding JQ Products!
What's a brand? I don't know the official definition, but mine is: a brand is everything that crosses your mind as you think about or see a product. A brand links certain qualities to a product or service and people have expectations that something will be either good or bad, based on how well the company has managed to brand itself. A company's brand creates a reputation. Everything is part of that brand, not just the products themselves, but the logo, all the marketing images, the website, and even customer support etc. But all I was worried about at the moment was to get the logo and all the other material to look right. Sounds so easy but it isn't. There are many examples of good products but crap branding that prove that out there! Its going to be hard not to become another example of that.
Some more examples of what was going through my head:
In cosmetics, how do people choose their products? And don't tell me its the cent or the fact that one anti-wrinkle cream anti-wrinkles better than another. Its the brand! Its how cool the package and the bottle looks, and how hot their models are, and who they are.
Energy drinks; at the end of the day, they all taste pretty much the same. There's no way that one of them tastes so much better than the rest that it becomes #1 is there? What separates them? The image we get when we see their logo, or better yet, when we see something that we associate with the brand. If I was to ask a hardcore motocross fan: Name an energy drink: Chances are he would say Monster Energy. And every single person that follows motocross only needs to see a glimpse of a green and black bike to think the same thing. If I asked a hardcore F1 fan the same thing, chances are the answer would be Red Bull. Why? Because of the way the brands have managed to market themselves, and make their brand part of the sport.
I'm not saying RC companies should start sponsoring major sporting events, but I'm just saying it doesn't seem like there's very much thought going into branding current RC companies. XRAY are just about the only ones who have clearly had a vision and a goal from the start. When you see the flashy XRAY style banners, or see an XRAY logo, what do you think? First thoughts are probably “Luxury” or “Quality”, even if you don't agree with it, you think it! Associated = World Champions, Kyosho = Red. Mugen = I don't even know, and JQ Products = Well that's just it. Right now it equals me, but that will surely change in the future. How many of you knew when you first started racing RC cars that Losi was in fact some ones surname? I didn't! I only viewed Losi as this American company that make great racing cars that the top Finnish driver at the time, Jukka Steenari used, so they clearly had to be the best!
So what should JQ Products equal? That's what is so hard to do right now when there's no team of people behind the project, no group for marketing, no group of designers and engineers and no separate management overseeing everything. Right now its just a case of doing everything to the best of our abilities with the means we have. The first car we make will make the biggest mark on peoples minds, and the JQ Products brand will start evolving from there. Making the car good is the number one priority, but making everything else look and work great would be awesome too.
One good thing is that you don't necessarily have to get everything right the first time. Look at Apple. About 10-15 years ago, Apple was for a number of reasons not popular to the mainstream computer consumer. In order to get out of the slump, Apple needed to do more than just lower the price of their products, or include new features, they needed to perform a complete facelift. And it worked. Now Apple has managed to become a mainstream products, and its brand is one of the strongest in the world. When you see a small white electronic gadget with headphones connected to it, you think Apple iPod. When you see a cool white computer you think iMac, you think top level, trendy, cool, great looking, those have to be good! That company really reinvented itself. Someone must have earned some good money there. Job well done.
I don't know why I wrote that and what the point of all that is, but if you read it, now you know some of the major things that were going through my head when I flew back from Hong Kong after the deal was done.
JQ
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