Crisis PR Review in the First Half of 2017: 5 Successful Cases + 5 Failed Cases

2017 is halfway through, and Xiaobao’s mid-year review series is here again. Today, we will review the top ten crisis public relations cases in the first half of 2017.

In the first half of this year, there was still the unavoidable 315 public relations crisis, there were still celebrities cheating and getting divorced, and there were still fierce fights over disagreements... Behind these crises, there were successes and failures. I have summarized 10 most impressive and influential crisis public relations events in the first half of the year, and divided them into two categories: success and failure.

Success story 1: Jack Ma personally defended Taobao during the crisis during the two sessions

During this year's Two Sessions, Huang Jianping, a member of the National People's Congress and chairman of Guangdong Weime Ceramics Co., Ltd. (Marco Polo Ceramics), publicly stated that the proposal materials he intended to submit this time could be summarized in one sentence: "The Internet's virtual economy destroys the real economy, and online stores are mostly selling counterfeit and shoddy products."

Not only that, Huang Jianping also singled out Taobao, saying, "Currently, when searching for the keywords "Marco Polo tiles" and "Marco Polo bathroom" on Taobao, there are more than 500 search results, but only two of them are authorized dealers by the group."

Faced with such a "crisis", Alibaba 's public relations responded quickly, and simultaneously released a response on Weibo and Weibo: "Discussion on the Three Points of Discussion by Huang Jianping, NPC Representative and Chairman of Marco Polo Ceramics." What’s even more impressive is that Jack Ma personally made a second response on Weibo. You know, Jack Ma posts on Weibo very rarely. I counted and he posted 14 Weibo posts in 2016. This response was his second Weibo post since 2017.

Swipe below to view the full response

Event review: "Why did Jack Ma, who only posted 14 Weibo posts a year, stand up this time? 》
Successful Case 2: 315 PR Crisis, MUJI's "Cold" Crisis PR

Among the brands exposed on March 15 this year, MUJI is a more interesting case. Muji and some cross-border e-commerce companies have been caught in the trap of importing goods from Japan, on the grounds that they illegally sold goods from places that were banned from sale during the Fukushima nuclear power plant leak in Japan.

At noon on March 16, MUJI finally issued a statement regarding being named by CCTV 315. Looking at this statement as a whole, we have to say that it continues MUJI's usual minimalist style. The whole article is rational, with almost no emotional elements.

MUJI pointed out that the reason for the misunderstanding was the Japanese label on the imported food it sold which read "MUJI Co., Ltd. Ryohin Keikaku RD01 4-26-3 Higashiikebukuro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo", while this information was the name of the company's parent company and its legal registered address, and not the origin of the imported food sold by the company.

In other words, the CCTV reporter confused the company's registered place with the food's origin. MUJI also attached a series of copies of certificates, including the customs declaration and inspection forms for each batch of food, at the end of the statement. It can be said that it is well-reasoned and neither humble nor arrogant.

Such a cold crisis public relations, but it quickly reversed public opinion, netizens' emotional values ​​quickly recovered, and the crisis public relations successfully helped the brand turn the crisis into safety.

Event review: "MUJI, which has always been "cold", is so "cold" even in crisis public relations"

Success story 3: An actor who can’t do public relations is not a good cook

On the evening of April 23, an article titled "Mr. Huang, we don't want the money for Chef Huang's proposal" suddenly went viral on WeChat Moments . A public relations company called A&A Communication complained that the proposal presented by Chef Huang at the noob market in Beijing was highly similar to the proposal they had proposed to Chef Huang. The problem is that A&A Communication participated in Huang Xiaochu's bidding, but ultimately did not win the bid.

The next morning, Huang Lei, the founder of the Huang Xiaochu brand, issued a personal statement. This public relations article was basically a positive example. It basically covers all the necessary attitudes for crisis public relations. Respond within 12 hours, which is timely; "If Huang Xiaochu is involved in plagiarism, Huang Xiaochu Company will bear the responsibility... The actual situation will not be taken out of context and announced to the public." Such a response also has a dignified attitude and guarantees a thorough investigation.

The Huang Xiaochu brand has always been built on Huang Lei's own personal brand. It won't be too bad if Huang Lei stands up and expresses his attitude in time. Since Huang Lei's personality has always been positive and he has a high level of public opinion favorability towards him, and the other party did not continue to pester him, this crisis public relations was generally considered a success.

Event review: "Learning crisis public relations with Mr. Huang Lei"
Successful Case 4: Jay Chou angrily criticized the police, and CCTV praised the crisis public relations
On the evening of April 30, at Jay Chou's solo concert in Xi'an, a policeman threw away a fan's light board. This action was seen by Jay Chou on the stage, who angrily told the policeman to "get out" in public.

Afterwards, we learned that the security personnel threw away the fan light boards because the light boards of the fans in the front row blocked the view of the fans in the back row, and the security personnel stepped forward to stop them in order to protect the interests of more fans. Jay Chou immediately apologized to the security guard through the company's official Weibo and other public channels such as the concert organizer.

The second step, after the written apology, Jay Chou recorded an apology video and personally went to the security command center to express his gratitude to the security personnel on duty during the concert. He also apologized to the security personnel in person and obtained forgiveness.

Timely, appropriate and sincere crisis public relations helped Jay Chou successfully restore his personal brand reputation. Even CCTV later praised Jay Chou's attitude and approach.

Successful Case 5: NetEase Yanxuan VS Towel Brother, winning favor even if not in the right

On May 23, "Zuishenghuo Towel" released a public relations manifesto, "To Ding Lei : Can you give entrepreneurs a way out? ”, the founder known as “Towel Brother” accused NetEase Yanxuan of infringing on a towel product. Brother Towel said that NetEase Yanxuan violated the regulations and infringed the rights by using the words "exclusively for G20" to describe its products.

NetEase Yanxuan issued a response the next day. In the article, it was clearly seen that NetEase Yanxuan did not obtain the G20 authorization. However, even though it was not in the right, NetEase Yanxuan still won a lot of goodwill with its various public relations methods. This towel was sold out, and NetEase Yanxuan became the biggest winner.

NetEase Yanxuan later released a new single - "NetEase Yanxuan Refunded the Money". The song "NetEase Yanxuan Refunds the Money" was released on NetEase Cloud Music during the Dragon Boat Festival. The complacent lyrics such as "A few days ago, an article soiled Yanxuan's towels, and the boss said, hum~ I'm so unhappy", "We refunded the money, hahahaha" actually show that NetEase Yanxuan is a little proud of this matter.

Event review: "How much can you do with a towel? NetEase Yanxuan has done it all》

So, after the company Zhancheng Technology encountered a public opinion crisis, even if the PR team really wrote a public relations article that was enough to reverse the incident (in fact, judging from Zhancheng’s current performance, such a PR team may not exist), they found in retrospect that there was no suitable channel to publish it.

Event review: "Zhancheng CEO, you may not need a partner, but you definitely need a new media operator ! 》

Failure Case 2: Lijiang Tourism Suffers from a Crisis of Trust, a Textbook-like Failure in Crisis PR

In January this year, the incident of a Lijiang woman being beaten and disfigured caused a sensation. Female netizen @琳哒是我 posted a Weibo late at night, saying that she was provoked and beaten by several local men while dining at a barbecue restaurant in Lijiang on November 11 last year. Her face was scratched and disfigured by a broken wine bottle. When the men left, they robbed the woman and her companions of their belongings and mobile phones, and threatened that she was not afraid of the police and would sue them at will.

Netizens used Weibo as their main battlefield and almost unanimously launched verbal attacks on the official Weibo account of Lijiang. However, the official Weibo account of the relevant departments in Lijiang staged a textbook failure in crisis public relations. Not only did it fail to restore the city's image, but it also fueled condemnation from netizens.

Amid public outrage, Lijiang's image has plummeted. The public will only remember that Lijiang not only failed to handle the incident of tourists being beaten, but also that the authorities openly "slandered" the victims; it could not bear the negative comments from netizens and openly "confronted" them.

Event review: "A woman in Lijiang was beaten and disfigured. Does this mean we have to rely on Weibo to call the police now?" 》

Failure Case 3: Hong Kong Airlines ran into trouble and offended the son of Hong Kong's gambling king

On March 13, Ho Yau-kwan, the fourth son of Hong Kong gambling tycoon Stanley Ho, complained about Hong Kong Airlines on Weibo, saying that his fellow passenger's passport was lost on the plane and Hong Kong Airlines ignored him because he was in economy class. In the end, I had to sleep outdoors at the airport.

Afterwards, Hong Kong Airlines’ official Weibo account gave an official response to the complaint made by the gambling king’s son on Weibo 17 and a half hours later. The response was not timely and the writing was extremely exaggerated, especially when he called himself "Ben Shao", which made him seem a bit funny in front of the son of Hong Kong's gambling king.

Not only does the entire response not contain the word "apology", but the title is "A very 'powerful' response", and the tone is completely full of sarcasm and argument. As a company that "made a mistake", it lacked the necessary humility and customer-first awareness when facing customers. Instead, it posted a picture like this on Weibo, which seemed to add fuel to the fire.

It is no wonder that the gambling king’s son finally turned around and “apologized” to Hong Kong Airlines.

Failure Case 4: Bao Beier’s hotpot restaurant used cow blood as duck blood, and the flag was set too early

On March 22, the Lazhuang hotpot restaurant invested by celebrity Bao Beier became a hot topic. It was revealed online that Bao Beier's hotpot restaurant used cow blood mixed with water to impersonate duck blood, and there was not a drop of duck blood.

Bao Beier apologized on Weibo, and although he denied any knowledge of the matter, netizens' emotions were not calmed by the apology. The reason is precisely because of the various promises Bao Beier had made before.

Bao Beier has emphasized more than once before that food safety is the selling point of the hot pot restaurant he opened. But now that this kind of thing has happened, an apology alone seems not enough to quell the anger of netizens. It’s really not possible to set a flag too early.

Failure Case 5: Improper handling of crisis public relations caused United Airlines' market value to evaporate by nearly $1 billion

On April 10, a video of an Asian passenger of United Airlines being forcibly dragged from her seat on a flight at Chicago Airport due to "overbooking" continued to ferment on the Internet, triggering massive criticism from netizens. The video went viral on the Internet, sparking global outrage.

On April 10, United Airlines officially released a brief statement from CEO Oscar Munoz, but it obviously avoided the main point and only mentioned an apology to the "resettled passengers" but did not apologize to the injured Asian man.

Munoz later wrote in a letter to employees: "When the employee politely requested a passenger to deplane and was refused, it was necessary to contact Chicago Aviation Security personnel for assistance. The employee followed established procedures for handling this type of situation and the company commends the employee for their efforts." Munoz called them "great job" and accused the passenger who was dragged off the plane of being aggressive. The email further deepened public anger against United Airlines.

Under pressure, Munoz issued a second statement on the 11th. He apologized profusely and promised to complete the investigation into the incident by April 30. Munoz apologized again on ABC's "Good Morning America" ​​and said such an incident would not happen again. In addition, a United Airlines spokesperson said that passengers on the entire flight would receive refunds.

Munoz personally exacerbated United Airlines' crisis and caused the company's market value to evaporate by nearly $1 billion overnight.

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