HTC gets new marketing chief in executive switcheroo

By Alex Dobie
published

HTC has announced that a new head of marketing will join the company from January, according to reports from the Wall Street Journal. Benjamin Ho is a former CMO of Motorola currently in charge of marketing at Taiwanese carrier FarEasTone. He will report directly to HTC CEO Peter Chou.

HTC's current marketing and sales chief Jason Mackenzie will focus on sales strategy, the WSJ reports, while current CMO John Wang will be stepping down.

HTC said that Mr. Ho’s first project at the company will be dubbed “Marketing 2.0,” with a goal of “refocusing HTC’s efforts around holistic marketing and mass-market brand outreach.”

The past year has seen HTC lose ground to rivals Samsung and Apple, and suffer financially as a result. Samsung dominated the Android smartphone space over the summer with marketing efforts tied into the Olympic Games in London. With these top-level changes, HTC will be hoping to set the stage for an improved marketing performance, and greater public mindshare, in the new year.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Alex Dobie
Alex Dobie
Executive Editor

Alex was with Android Central for over a decade, producing written and video content for the site, and served as global Executive Editor from 2016 to 2022.

17 Comments
  • hmm.At least they're trying.
  • True. They were doing so well when they were running their YOU ads on TV. I'm glad they streamlined their product offerings but the marketing took a nosedive.
  • They needed to do something. Surprised that it took this long. Lets hope we see HTC get back in the game.
  • I hadn't realized they even had one....couldn't really tell
  • Snoogins!
  • Well they need some kind of shake up. Most people could tell you who Apple, Microsoft, and Samsung are and what they make...HTC Who? It's time they stop taking the "Quietly" of "Quietly Brilliant" so seriously.
  • HTC can definitely make a big come back and if not be on top but right next to Samsung if they just market themselves right. They make solid and beautiful hardware but it never hurts to make it even better either.
  • Now let's see if he can do something about marketing this "One" line that wasn't one line of phones lol.
  • WTF do they need a new marketing plan for?! All they need to do is manufacture a phone with decent battery life and let people know about it. I don't think I've ever talked to or read about someone who hasn't complained about how pathetic battery life is on HTC phones. Stop paying these executives millions of dollars to come up with ideas I could contrive.
  • Yea they were way off the mark when they said people valued thinness over battery life.
  • “refocusing HTC’s efforts around holistic marketing and mass-market brand outreach.”
    Please don't talk like that.
  • I really hope this guy's good. I didn't know HTC marketed at all to consumers (at least not in the US).
  • Remember the "YOU" campaign?
    Hire the same guy responsible for "YOU" to make a new campaign, and make it global...
  • Hello Mr. Ho Well, I have the HTC EVO 4G stuck on Gingerbread and 7" HTC Flyer tablet stuck on Honeycomb. How about some upgrade to at least to ICS Mr. Ho? We paid big money for these devices (Flyer was >$600 with Pen) and just tried to get Sailboat Championship and it will not load due to compatibility issues. It will be hard to win customers over if you don't support them. I teach elders on smart devices and HTC doesn't come off looking good.
  • Hilariously, everyone knew and was interested in HTC until the HTC One adverts. Some guy jumping out a plane and ending up with the most average shot possible. I don't quite get how hiring the CMO from Motorola is meant to help given that no one cares about Motorola. Yeah they might have ads up everywhere but there's zero interest in their product. Surely that proves the former CMO failed at his job? Frankly the problem with HTC is that they're going nowhere. There's no vision, they're not trying to compete against Samsung, hence why they couldn't stick with the one flagship phone a year thing and they're not sure where to go. They lack ambition other than the ambition of the middle ground. Which is hilarious given that they keep aspiring to beat the highs of their stock rather than be happy with the fact they're doing better than when they started. It is just a confused company that needs firm leadership.
  • It would go a long way if HTC would just listen to there customer's, Put larger battery's in there phones, And update there phones. They have lost a Ton of customers because of not providing updates they have promised.
  • +1, and they're about to lose another. The EVO LTE has been having issues for months, and wer're still waiting for word on a fix.