Jiuzhaigou earthquake, brands must stop issuing blessing posters!

Yesterday (August 8) at 9:19 p.m., a magnitude 7.0 earthquake occurred in Jiuzhaigou County, Aba Prefecture, Sichuan Province. Every major geological disaster arouses the concern of the Chinese people. I have also seen many companies and brands take action to provide disaster relief. Among them, since Jiuzhaigou is a famous tourist attraction, travel websites responded the fastest.

At the same time, the uncle found that some companies were distributing prayer posters and even put their own logos on them, which was obviously problematic. Maybe you are also wondering how companies should speak out when facing such major disasters? Let’s have a brief chat today.

The uncle first states his own opinion: in this matter, the official should not release content such as prayers, and the company's CSR is not to express its position and take advantage of the situation, but to demonstrate action. Let me explain in detail below.

A company's social responsibility is mainly reflected in its contribution to society, such as solving employment problems, paying taxes, making donations, and participating in charity activities. Many large international brands have dedicated CSR departments, but most brands do not have such positions, and some even leave it to PR or new media departments, which makes it easy for problems to be exposed.

How to say it? The new media department always has a habitual thinking, which is "taking advantage of the situation". According to common sense, a magnitude 7 earthquake is such a big thing that affects people's livelihood, and companies must express their stance. Everyone is praying, so I will also make a poster to pray. This is typical PR thinking, not CSR.

At the same time, this is also a problem of "humanization" of corporate official new media: ordinary people can pray, so why can't companies? Because companies are profit-making organizations, once you have made money, when faced with a major disaster, if you just express your stance but do not take concrete action to participate in disaster relief, this statement is actually counterproductive. There are even companies that have initiated fundraising activities among ordinary users, replacing the role of charitable foundations, which I personally think is very inappropriate.

If you don’t believe me, take a look:

You may ask: Why can the media publish prayer posters? This is not the case for companies. The media is a reporter, but if companies are reporting, they should change their perspective and provide valuable and useful information about the earthquake to their fans and users. This is also feasible. For example, @Haier Medical did this, as shown in the picture:

However, I think the Blue V Alliance launched by Haier's official Weibo account to find people is inappropriate, because in the face of such a major event as the earthquake, many rumors have been circulating since last night. Companies are not media or charities and have no way of distinguishing the truth from the false. Blindly helping may very well do more harm than good.

Let’s get back to the topic: Should we post posters or take action?

I remember working as a PR for a certain technology giant. The company donated 5 million to the disaster area and found several KOLs to spread the word. However, I was "scolded" by one of them. His reason was: Your company makes so much money, but you only donate this little, and you still have the nerve to publicize it. Of course, this person is an extreme case, but it can basically reflect the general mentality of the people.

For example, the box office of "Wolf Warrior 2" is about to break 4 billion yuan. Wu Jing posted a Weibo yesterday, "Pray for safety in the earthquake-stricken areas." Some people with good intentions left a message under his Weibo, which roughly meant: "Wolf Warrior 2" made so much money, you should donate some money. Fortunately, many fans immediately brought out pictures of Wu Jing participating in disaster relief and left comments on Weibo.

Therefore, the most basic principle for a company’s CSR communication is action, not just talk. We saw that after the Jiuzhaigou earthquake, brands including Ctrip , Qunar , JD.com and many state-owned enterprises organized disaster relief operations overnight.

Ctrip was the company that responded the fastest to this matter that I have received. Although Qunar was 50 minutes late, it was also showing action. JD.com and Suning both synchronized the progress of disaster relief through their official Weibo accounts, but the former had pictures of rushing to the disaster relief site, while although Suning’s copy mentioned the action, it only included a picture of praying.

I would like to talk about the actions of central enterprises in particular. With the topic #Central Enterprises in Action for Earthquake Relief and Disaster Relief#, the earthquake relief and disaster relief actions of many central enterprises including China National Petroleum Corporation, China Petrochemical Corporation, China Aviation Oil, State Grid Corporation of China, China Telecom , and China Mobile were showcased.

The details are as follows:

If you are a startup brand and don’t know what to do when faced with such a major event, I suggest you: either look at what your competitors or industry leaders are doing, or don’t post anything. The work of new media seems simple, just making a poster and sending a copy, but in fact it is representing a brand. When facing major events, you must be cautious in what you say and do.