The Challenge of Creating a New Brand

The challenge of building something new in a competitive world can seem intimidating if not downright scary. In the case of creating a new brand my advise is to find what it is that differentiates this new brand form everything else the world has already seen. What is it about this new brand that will peak people's interests and capture the attention of the entire planet...and how will you show it to them?

In the case of launching Faraday Future (FF) we wanted to inspire people to believe in what's possible in bringing a new species of electric vehicle to life. Not just a platform to get people from A to B, but a portfolio of vehicles loaded with extreme technology unlike anything the world has ever seen. Vehicles that were fun to drive due to their high performance and handling capabilities and also vehicles where you didn't have to drive at all if that's what you wanted.

To get people excited we launched the FF brand at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas with the FF ZERO1 concept. It was an extreme visualization of the design language the FF team was developing and a design that could be built on the company's proprietary variable platform architecture (VPA). The point of showing this design to the world was not that FF was developing an electric high-performance hyper-car, but that there were concepts we wanted the world to see which would be included in our future portfolio of EVs.

Design concepts such as a cabin forward design provided improved visibility for the driver. Without the need of a traditional combustion engine FF was able to bring the cabin forward, allowing the user to see more of the road and therefore improve the driver experience. Other design features such as the UFO line and LED headlamp band would also find their way into future products such as the FF 91 revealed at CES the following year.

There were also technological concepts we wanted the world to see such as using the car's exterior skin to as a platform to communicate to the world around them. Also the idea where the smartphone could interact with the vehicle in meaningful ways to enhance daily life and not just to make calls or find restaurants. The idea of hailing your car from your phone, opening the doors with your phone and allowing the device you use every day to become part of the interface, therefore bringing human and technology closer together.

These were the things we wanted people to be excited about and while this may have been seen as controversial, launching the FF brand at CES did get people thinking about what was possible, talking about FF and weather or not they could be successful where so many others had not and dreaming about how far we could take this new technology. As a marketing professional and a creative team, that's what we set out to do.

In closing my advise is allow yourself to dream and dare to take big steps where others have taken small ones. Seize the unique qualities that differentiate your new brand from everything else and make it your own. It's not going to be easy and in fact I can attest it's going to be hard, but I encourage you to get after it. Not tomorrow, but today.

Good luck, and happy hunting.

-Jason Wallace

Design Dichotomy - Gold Award: Best Exhibit Design