Alley Cheung

WMBA 506

Global Strategy Paper

Dr. Kristen Schiele

April 18, 2013

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I. Background

More than ten years ago, HTC started out as a manufacturer of PDA and handheld

devices founded in Taiwan. It produced products under the brands such as Qtek, Dopod, and

O2, etc., and it later began to manufacture smartphones and tablets under the HTC name,

introducing itself to the consumers as an independent brand which it used to be well known to

its corporate partners only. According to John Wan, Chief Marketing Officer of HTC, he claims

that branding is not about communications. Its about the thousands of pixels in the raindrop of

a weather app. HTCs brand is built on a culture that does not put the company at the center; it

puts the consumer at the center (Interbrand, 2012). Wang describes HTC as an innovative

company, which needs to formulate their brand strategy when facing a bundle of competitive

competitors in the industry (Interbrand, 2012). HTC is facing strong competitors, as Nokia,

Motorola, and Sony Ericson were better known for innovation. LG and Samsung were making

good quality products. The iPhone had just launched. And they all had deep distribution, long

heritage and huge marketing budgets (Interbrand, 2012). Although the market portfolio has

changed throughout the past year, it holds true that all competitors of HTC spend a lot on

marketing budgets.

The companys customer-centric strategy, which is Quietly Brilliant as shown in the

startup screen of all HTC phones, is explained to be committed to innovation quietly by Wang

(Interbrand, 2012). He also claims that Quietly Brilliant refers to do great things in a humble

way, as it is HTCs personality and has a universally good meaning around the world (2012).

From the currently launched of its new flagship smartphone, the HTC One, it has integrated

U.S. marketing campaign to include Live Experience Tour in the major cities of U.S. (HTC,
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2013), giving consumers the chance to experience the phone in person before it is available in

stores.

II. Analysis

According to HTC, the phone will be available globally through more than 185

mobile operators and major retailers in more than 80 regions and countries (2013), and it will

be sold at AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Best Buy. The company claims that the new HTC One

has reinvent the mobile experience and set a new standard for smartphone (2013). They are

trying to provide their customers a chance to compare their current phone experience with the

new HTC One, so that customers words can tell the world about how unique is the new HTC

One. Since HTC is marketing its products with a global approach, as stated in the book

Strategic Marketing, that products are developed for the global market, selling the same

product in the same way, to everywhere. (Mooradian, Matzler, & Ring, 2012, pp.302). This

marketing strategy has always been true for HTC, as they never put advertising campaign as

their major marketing strategy. Perhaps this is a good tradition for Asian company to do a

business in a way that they would rather focus on working hard to make better products, than to

make a lot of noise in different mass medias, they have built their reputation through word-of-

mouth in many Asian countries such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

On one hand, HTC has been working very well in providing differentiated products to

customers with different preferences. It has been developing phone operating on Windows and

Android systems. However, when HTC believes that their innovative well-designed products

can attract customers without advertising a lot in all of its target markets; it obviously has not
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done enough research on customer assessment. It is important to get enough understanding on

the study of customers in general to identify (a) trends in needs and demand, and (b) customer

insights (Mooradian, Matzler, & Ring, 2012, pp.72). Getting to know customers characteristics

in different geographic locations can help the company to better develop their marketing mix

and positioning. They should have focus on researching to pretest and refine tactics, including

price, promotions, and advertising, new products or product modifications, and merchandising

programs; and to gauge the effects of those tactics on achieving the desired position

(Mooradian, Matzler, & Ring, 2012, pp.72).

From the article, Its time for HTC to start fighting dirty by Dan Graziano, he

discusses that the main reason that lead HTCs revenue to decline for five consecutive quarters

is because the company is lacking of brand recognition among consumers, when it is still a

relatively new company compared to Apple, Samsung, and LG (2013). Graziano also

comments that HTC has not done well in building its brand image which can identify it from its

competitors (2013). This situation has been improved a bit, after HTC has appointed Benjamin

Ho to become the Chief Marketing Officer starting from January 2013, right before the new

HTC One was released (HTC, 2012). Ho is responsible to refocus HTCs marketing and mass-

market brand outreach, which is referred to as Marketing 2.0 internally (HTC, 2012). Graziano

doubts that HTCs new brand direction is less favorable as Apple and Samsung, while Apple has

its i branding and Samsung is well-known for its Galaxy brand (2013). One is not a good

name which can recognize users about what type of smartphone they are using.

Moreover, HTC was not successful in advertising its products, as it once tried to

challenge skydivers to take pictures with HTC smartphones when they were falling from the

sky at 126mph (Hing, 2012). As Hing describes, the aim is for the ad to be treated as a
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personal recommendation (2012), it was a failure that the general public could not relate their

needs of using smartphones to the HTC phone which could take pictures high up in sky. It is

important for HTC to have a clear direction of what it wants to tell the consumers about what

HTC One is capable of, and what they can do better than iPhones and Galaxy phones.

III. Results

It is good that HTC has recognized what went wrong on their marketing strategy in

the past few years. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, HTC CEO Peter Chou admitted

that the company did not market their products aggressively enough last year, but vowed to

win consumers back by developing more innovative products (Poon, 2013). HTC has been

keeping its words by introducing the new flagship HTC One smartphone, and set up HTC

BoomSound Lounge to introduce their front-facing stereo speakers on One; HTC One

Showroom to interact with customers in the pop-up stores where they can experience the new

phone; and the HTC Live Cinema Experience where HTC One is introduced to people through

live product demonstrations in the lobby of select theaters and showing the latest commercial

for the new HTC One on the big screen (HTC, 2013). At this point, HTC is moving a step

forward to get closer to its customers, showing improvement on its marketing strategy. It is still

early to give a conclusion on whether the new marketing strategy of HTC has succeeded or

failed, but it is foreseeable that in the near future, the sales figure for HTC One can tell if the

company is getting on the right track.

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References

Graziano, D. (2013). Its time for HTC to start fighting dirty. BGR Media. Retrieved from

http://bgr.com/2013/03/21/htc-one-marketing-analysis-389415/

Hing, D. (2012, March 30). HTC kicks off new marketing strategy. M&M Global. Retrieved from

http://www.mandmglobal.com/news/30-03-12/htc-kicks-off-new-marketing-strategy.aspx

HTC. (2012, November 28). HTC appoints Benjamin Ho Chief Marketing Officer. Retrieved

from http://www.htc.com/www/about/newsroom/2012/2012-11-28-HTC-appoints-

Benjamin-Ho-Chief-Marketing-Officer

HTC. (2013, April 5). HTC challenges consumer expectations with new HTC One live

experience tour: Tour launches across the country to show consumers the new HTC One

is everything your phone isnt Retrieved from

http://www.htc.com/us/about/newsroom/2013/2013-04-05-htc-challenges-consumer-

expectations-with-new-htc-one-live-experience-tour

Mooradian, T. A., Matzler, K., & Ring, L. J. (2012). Strategic marketing. New Jersey: Pearson.

Poon, A. (2013). HTC vows to step up innovation. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323374504578220860255595952.html