Advertisement

HTC hires marketing exec who led Samsung to smartphone dominance

It's no secret, HTC has an image problem. Despite consistently creating some of our favorite phones, it's failed to reach the heights of popularity of manufacturers like Samsung. That could soon change. In what is almost certainly not a coincidence, HTC has hired Samsung's former Chief Marketing Officer, Paul Golden. The Verge confirmed the rumor, first picked up by Bloomberg, earlier this afternoon. Golden, who "created and launched the highly successful Galaxy brand for Samsung," according to his LinkedIn profile, was reportedly hired on as a consultant to Chairwoman Cher Wang.

Among other achievements, Golden attributes his work on the Galaxy brand with "a 4X increase in market share (from 4.5% to 21.0%) in the strategically critical smartphone segment." HTC has repeatedly pointed back to marketing as one of its weakest points. In 2013, CEO Peter Chou pointed to weak marketing as the reason for poor financial performance, and, as Bloomberg point out, Wang reiterated that issue on April 8th, saying, "We just have to communicate well with our customers. I believe if we can communicate better, we will do better."

With Robert Downey Jr. holding down the cats and Golden's ability to bolster the next big thing, perhaps it's finally HTC's time to shine.