Enquire Within
Upon Everything

The Hutchison Whampoa Global Handset Team made the move in 2008 to become a mobile handset company in their own right. Their goal? To compete with mainstream, global mobile manufacturers and disrupt the market. WHAM partnered with Hutchison and this new company to create a brand, positioning, strategy and visual identity to meet these challenges.

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Branded environment at INQ London headquarters.
INQ’s first brand workshop with WHAM.

The brand would need to make an impact as the “new kid on the block” whilst retaining the credibility as one of the most experienced mobile internet teams in the world. Our first question to answer was why a consumer would choose this new brand over Sony Ericsson, Nokia (the main player at the time) or other new entrants like Apple?

The Global Handset Team felt that established players had forgotten the consumer. Through a series of brand positioning workshops with key founding members, we defined their role to select, curate, edit and delete on behalf of the customer. This was a new kind of handset company, the first to genuinely believe that less is more. As the first virtual handset manufacturer – designing the UI, the product, and working with specialist manufacturers on the build – they were perfectly placed to own this position.

Support advertising for The Carphone Warehouse
event sponsorship.
Big screen visuals – for The Carphone Warehouse event sponsorship.

To develop the brand name we started with the target audience, defined as the next generation of phone users. The handset was intended to improve access to social media sites such as Facebook. Updating your status or sending messages were to be as easy as sending a text.

Tim Berners-Lee named his precursor to the World Wide Web, ‘Enquire Within Upon Everything’. A fitting reflection of this new venture’s ambitions, and an apt description of our intended audience. Enquire evolved into Inquire, reflecting the brand’s international reach, and so the INQ name was born.

Kiosk concept Westfield shopping centre, London.
Both the brand positioning and name lent themselves to a bold visual identity, creating impact as the new entrant in the market. WHAM created the INQ tag together with a strong visual language and tone of voice. Disruptive launch communications in outdoor, press, online and POS formats built excitement and anticipation around the brand.The product lived up to the hype. At the World Mobile Congress held annually in Barcelona, INQ won the coveted “Best Mobile Handset/Device” award 2009 for the INQ1 Facebook phone. WHAM was responsible for producing all branded communications for the event including the stand, the avenue take-over (the path leading through the central area of the event), the branded trucks and the sponsored awards ceremony and after party.
INQ at the Mobile World
Congress, Barcelona 2010.

WHAM continues to work with INQ on ATL campaigns, such as ‘Are you INQ?’. Introducing the INQ Chat into the Italian market, we positioned the handset as a fashion accessory, due to its broad range of colourful casings. WHAM developed the creative concept, cast and directed the fashion shoot. The ads we produced were featured in Italian publications.

INQ is currently available in 11 countries: Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, India, Ireland, Italy, Singapore, Sweden and the UK.