After weeks of HTC Corp. being coy about a delayed launch for its new
flagship smartphone, the company’s new chief marketing officer was
surprisingly frank during his first meeting with the press since joining
the company in January.
HTC’s Chief Marketing Officer Benjamin Ho
Benjamin Ho touched on component shortages holding back shipments of the new phone, discussed his new marketing strategy, and said HTC will be making big changes, not least of which will be retiring the company’s “Quietly Brilliant” tagline from product ads.
“We have a lot of innovations but we haven’t been loud enough,” said Mr. Ho, a Singaporean who is HTC’s third marketing chief in less than two years. The new approach, he says, will be bolder.
Customers were treated to a sneak peek of the new strategy when HTC fielded teams to demo the One outside the venue of Samsung Electronics Co. ’s Galaxy S 4 launch earlier this month. It also mounted an unusually aggressive Twitter campaign that mocked the S 4 as “#theNextBigFlop.” The Taiwanese smartphone maker had previously shied away from direct comparisons to competitors, preferring to focus on its own products’ features.
A Samsung spokesman declined to comment.
The new approach is part of HTC’s efforts to reassure investors and customers that it is turning around. Its sales were down 41% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, as it lost ground to rivals like Apple Inc. and Samsung.
Mr. Ho outlined other marketing changes for HTC, such as increasing the digital marketing budget for the company by 250% this year compared with 2012, and increasing traditional media marketing spending by 100%.
Mr. Ho confirmed that the insufficient supply of cameras was behind the HTC One’s delayed launch.
“Our friends in the media have been asking why there has been a delay in shipments for the new HTC One, whether there is a component shortage,” he said. “There is some shortage, because the phone’s camera was designed specifically for us, and production cannot be ramped up so quickly.”
Prior to joining HTC, Mr. Ho oversaw marketing for Taiwanese telecom operator FarEasTone Telecommunications Co. and Motorola Asia Pacific Ltd.
http://blogs.wsj.com
HTC’s Chief Marketing Officer Benjamin Ho
Benjamin Ho touched on component shortages holding back shipments of the new phone, discussed his new marketing strategy, and said HTC will be making big changes, not least of which will be retiring the company’s “Quietly Brilliant” tagline from product ads.
“We have a lot of innovations but we haven’t been loud enough,” said Mr. Ho, a Singaporean who is HTC’s third marketing chief in less than two years. The new approach, he says, will be bolder.
Customers were treated to a sneak peek of the new strategy when HTC fielded teams to demo the One outside the venue of Samsung Electronics Co. ’s Galaxy S 4 launch earlier this month. It also mounted an unusually aggressive Twitter campaign that mocked the S 4 as “#theNextBigFlop.” The Taiwanese smartphone maker had previously shied away from direct comparisons to competitors, preferring to focus on its own products’ features.
A Samsung spokesman declined to comment.
The new approach is part of HTC’s efforts to reassure investors and customers that it is turning around. Its sales were down 41% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, as it lost ground to rivals like Apple Inc. and Samsung.
Mr. Ho outlined other marketing changes for HTC, such as increasing the digital marketing budget for the company by 250% this year compared with 2012, and increasing traditional media marketing spending by 100%.
Mr. Ho confirmed that the insufficient supply of cameras was behind the HTC One’s delayed launch.
“Our friends in the media have been asking why there has been a delay in shipments for the new HTC One, whether there is a component shortage,” he said. “There is some shortage, because the phone’s camera was designed specifically for us, and production cannot be ramped up so quickly.”
Prior to joining HTC, Mr. Ho oversaw marketing for Taiwanese telecom operator FarEasTone Telecommunications Co. and Motorola Asia Pacific Ltd.
http://blogs.wsj.com
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