Brand Equity of HTC

With its headquarters in Taiwan, HTC Corporation was founded in 1997 as computer electronics company. HTC has a long history where it achieved many milestones along the way to the position where it is at today. In 2007, HTC Corporation launched first touch-centric smartphone called HTC Touch. Later, it also became the first company to introduce Windows 3G smartphone. Their phones later where introduced with Android as well. Throughout their journey, they also made it to the list of ‘Best Global Brands’. They have been the pioneers in a lot of technical aspects in the world of technology which is why even in such a competitive technology market; they could still hold their place.

While they may not be number one in smartphone industry, HTC Corporation enjoys their own brand equity which is quite noticeable because of following factors:
Brand Awareness: While HTC is available to a global market today, it has a fair share of market in the United States and specifically in terms of brand equity. According to a statistics report released in 2012, HTC was ranked at number 2 in the United States, just after iPhone, in terms of brand equity. Moreover, the company expanded a lot in the past decade with its manufacturing as well as distribution units which brought a lot of awareness about HTC in a lot of regions.

Brand Loyalty

When it comes to loyalty, it is a well-known fact that HTC might not have as much loyal customers as Apple or Samsung. This is because of huge competition and the kind of position that they enjoy in the market. Stats show that Apple users are blindly loyal towards the brand while HTC lags behind in that area. This aspect also lowers down the overall brand equity for HTC in comparison to other big competitors in the immensely competitive mobile phone industry.

Brand Image

HTC has seen to have experimented in various ways in terms of developing its image in the minds of the consumers. Brand campaigns and advertising help the brands to form a perception about their brand in the minds of the consumers. In case of HTC, the company has always been experimenting with that perception with different products. In the beginning they were mainly targeting the masses, with their technologically advanced but cheaper phones. Later, they decided to change their positioning and started targeting the youth through their phones that were cooler in terms of aesthetics. They wanted the youth to relate to the products just as they want themselves to be associated with Apple. It is unfortunately not the case, and HTC still has that image where it is seen as a company that competes on price, providing phones in lower prices.