HTC’s making some sweeping changes to their marketing lately with a new announcement that they are dropping the “Quietly Brilliant” tagline in future 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.
HTC’s new marketing effort is just part of their effort to reassure both investors and customers that its turning things around. Mr. Ho stated that along with changes to the company’s tagline, the digital marketing budget will increase by 250% in 2013 compared to 2012 and a 100% increase in traditional media marketing spending compared to last year.
HTC will begin its “bolder strategy” with a new marketing campaign for the HTC One with themes like “bold,” “authentic,” and “playful.” Ho says “bold” will demonstrate that HTC wants to be more aggressive in their marketing speak. “Authentic” will reinforce focus on HTC’s innovation and “playful” will highlight new features that are based on consumer demand.
Ho stepped outside of the marketing conversation by confirming the delay of the HTC One is due to camera supply shortages.
“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.”
HTC is clearly going to step up its marketing efforts in light of delays causing the One to launch at a similar timeframe as the Galaxy S 4, its main Android competitor for 2013.