With One M9, HTC is back — brand spanking new

THE last thing any brand owner wants is for negative perceptions of the company to overshadow the positive qualities of its brands. Often, the result is that the company has to spend more energy addressing the percep- tions than rolling out new products.

That was the dilemma faced last year by smartphone maker HTC. A few years ago, its brand was iconic in South Africa. It was regarded as having among the best designed smartphones in the world and, in 2011, produced a tablet, the HTC Flyer, that was regarded as the best 7-inch device on the market.

A combination of management issues globally and dysfunctional support structures locally meant that, by 2014, it had become a nostalgia brand in South Africa. And that’s another status brands seldom desire.

New distributors were appointed, resulting in another false start — in both distribution and marketing — before the regional arm of global distributor Brightstar was handed the reins in South Africa.

It presided over the launch of the HTC One M8, regarded as one of the best-designed phones of 2014. However, it spent less time pushing the product than reassuring network operators and consumers it was back for good.

This week, a decidedly different atmosphere accompanied the South African launch of the HTC One M9, a solid, high-powered and high-specification phone that is expected to cement the return of the brand to South Africa. A global marketing team, led by Neeraj Seth, HTC’s head of marketing for the Middle East and Africa, presided over the launch. And this time Brightstar’s director of sales and distribution for Africa, Douglas Jewson, did not have to convince anyone of HTC’s chances of survival. Now, it was all about the phone.

“One of great things about this product launch is that we’re talking about product and design language and features and functions,” said Jewson. “A year ago, the discussion was, ‘How is HTC going to take care of after-sales service and retail presence?’

“Through the local partnership with Brightstar, we’ve been able to drive those fundamentals successfully. We’ve taken care of service and integrated with operators.”

One of the surprises of the One M9 was how soon after its predecessor it was launched in South Africa — a little more than six months later, bringing it more in line with global release cycles. Consumers can expect the next chapter even sooner.

“The technology moves so fast,” said Seth. “Today the turnaround is at most one year, sometimes six months, between models. Consumers of mid-tier and premium phones no longer want to wait. Earlier you may have waited three years to change phones, but in a contract-oriented market like South Africa, it sometimes becomes routine to change every year. In many non-contract countries people don’t even wait a year.”

The challenge for HTC is to convince such consumers that their next phone should be an HTC. The company’s design philosophy, said Seth, revolves around a love of craftsmanship, so that the smartphone becomes a piece of jewellery. It therefore appeals not to tech-oriented consumers, but to “people who love the ethos of creating that kind of jewellery, and know what goes into it”.

If he’s right, the product will once again develop from a forgotten story into a favourite series.

Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter on @art2gee and on YouTube

We’ve taken care of service and integrated with operators