HTC's product excellence "tip jar"

John Chan | Nov 06, 2009

HTC CEO Peter Chou unveiling the "quietly brilliant" tagline.
(Credit: John Chan/CNET Asia)

We pointed out recently that HTC changed its tagline from "HTC Innovation" to "quietly brilliant". What we did not know then was that it was part of a large marketing push which includes a few TV commercials with a focus on the word "You". The 30-second spot was quite well-executed, as you can see from the YouTube clip after the jump.

In 1963, car rental company Avis started using its "We try harder" slogan, which has become one of the most recognizable taglines in advertising history. Bill Bernbach, co-founder of DDB, the advertising agency that conceived the idea, recommended that Avis first improve its services, saying: "It's always a mistake to make good advertising for a bad product."

Almost 50 years on, this statement still makes a lot of sense. Now that HTC has a fancy advertising campaign, will it continue to have great products to back that up? Well, going by what we heard about its CEO Peter Chou in a recent interview, it seems like he's trying hard to make sure of it.

During the launch of the HTC HD2, we asked Chou how involved he was in the company's development of new products. This was met by laughter around the room as his aides started to answer the question for him. The laughter stem from the fact that Chou takes an incredibly hands-on approach in this area and the question was a big "duh, of course" moment for them.

It seems HTC engineers meet their CEO frequently to update him on product development. What's particularly interesting is that Chou has a jar on his desk filled with 100-dollar Taiwan coins, contributed by the company's engineers one by one, each time the boss is dissatisfied with what has been presented to him. This provides great insight into the culture of the company, with the laughter indicating that the people involved see it as a fun personal challenge and that product quality is a number one priority from the head honcho.

Chou's statement about not wanting to make a "me-too" product, even if it means being able to enter the lucrative Netbook market quickly, is telling. It's not so big a company that it can dip its toes in every category, so making every product count becomes very important. The most famous stories about a CEO obsessed with his products are, of course, from Apple and its leader, Steve Jobs. We've all seen how successful it has become since his return to the company in 1997. This may not be entirely due to the quality of its products, but you cannot deny that it's a big part of the equation.

As of now, applying Bernbach's Avis statement to HTC, it feels like the company hasn't made a mistake in investing on good advertising.

Filed under: Mobile Phones
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