On the eve of 315, here’s a super detailed PR guide for you!

"Planning is the key to success, while lack of planning leads to failure." The best public relations is prevention. So before March 15, you might as well take a look at this PR guide to be fully prepared for the battle~

In a few days it will be "3.15", a festival jokingly called "International Butt Wiping Day" by netizens. The annual corporate public relations test makes many public relations professionals tremble with fear. Many brands have even started their cautious 315 public relations activities a month or two in advance, and have also tended to adopt a conservative strategy in external publicity, for fear of being the first to stand out.

(Picture from Meihua.com)

After all, at this moment when the whole nation is watching, if something goes wrong with a company, its shortcomings or slight deficiencies will be infinitely magnified. Not to mention the relevant departments, public opinion alone can make the company lose a lot of money. Therefore, when facing a public relations crisis, there is no such thing as "every failure makes you wiser", but rather you should turn the lessons that others have paid for with money and blood into your own use.

"Planning is the key to success, while lack of planning leads to failure." The best public relations is prevention. So before March 15, you might as well take a look at this PR guide to be fully prepared for the battle~

2 attitudes

1. Don’t shirk responsibility, take responsibility first

Maybe everyone has almost forgotten that the essence of 315 as Consumer Rights Day is not public relations, but concentrated publicity in the form of a festival to better protect the rights of consumers.

"World Consumer Rights Day was established by the International Consumers Union in 1983 and is held on March 15 each year. Its purpose is to expand the publicity of consumer rights protection and make it receive attention worldwide, so as to promote cooperation and exchanges between consumer organizations of various countries and regions and better protect consumer rights on an international scale."

The reason why "corporate public relations" has become an indelible keyword on March 15 every year is precisely because of the sequelae of corporate infringement on consumer rights, among which the main cause is the harm to consumer rights caused by corporate products/services. Therefore, in order to fundamentally prevent the occurrence of corporate public relations crises, tracing the root causes requires the company's own high quality - products and services must be based on protecting consumer rights during the production and circulation process.

We are not going to talk about strengthening quality control and ensuring quality here, because this is not something that companies need to do on March 15, but something they need to do deliberately at other times. What we really need to pay attention to is that we are talking about two links here: "production" and "circulation".

When the branches are broken, no snowflake feels it is their fault - this proverb well describes the awareness of self-responsibility of various links in the market or various departments/employees of the enterprise when consumers' rights are infringed.

Once something goes wrong, no one in the interest chain can escape. However, the public relations costs at this time can often only be borne by the "party most affected by the crisis."

For example: the addition of melamine in milk powder is not the fault of dairy companies, but dairy companies need to strengthen the control and supervision of milk stations and dairy farmers; 39-year-old pork ribs and takeaways that are fried without washing are provided by merchants, but takeaway platforms also need to bear the risk of public relations crisis.

In the 315 public relations life-and-death game that has attracted national attention, whoever's public image and brand assets are most vulnerable to damage will be the first to take up arms and protect themselves. Companies that normally benefit from cognitive assets need to spend more energy to ensure that their cognitive assets do not depreciate due to public relations crises.

Only by reaching a consensus on this point can companies take the initiative to assume some of their own responsibilities and even the industry's responsibilities, rather than shifting the blame and shirking responsibility afterwards, which in turn exacerbates the negative evaluations of increasingly savvy consumers.

1. Rather than being beaten, it is better to cut off your own arm to protect yourself

It is also on the basis of this consensus that companies that take the initiative to assume responsibility (mainly in advance) can carry out public relations activities that many consumers do not quite understand but praise. These companies are regarded by consumers as "taking the initiative to assume social or industry responsibility", which is essentially what they have to do.

For example, Taobao’s anti-counterfeiting rules are becoming increasingly stringent, Meituan has strict control over the merchants that join the platform, and Baidu has launched the “Clearing Sand Operation” against merchants that hijack traffic. On the one hand, it promotes the standardization of the entire industry and helps protect the rights and interests of consumers, but on the other hand, it is also out of consideration for the sustainable development of its own platform and its long-term public relations image.

After all, rather than being criticized by CCTV and dragged out to be beaten half to death, it is better to cut off one's own arm to protect oneself: firstly, one can control the severity of the blow; secondly, one can keep a good image of being iron-faced and selfless, saying "I will even cut myself when I am serious."

1 key point

Public relations can be expanded into four words: "public relations", but when it comes to relationships, the most important thing is "people". If an enterprise wants to avoid problems, it must first prevent problems with its products and secondly, prevent problems with its people. Generally speaking, it is better to manage people than to manage the heaven and the earth.

The "people" part in corporate public relations can be roughly divided into three parts: key figures in the company, ordinary employees, and corporate competitors.

1. Key figures of the enterprise

Key figures in an enterprise are generally the founders and important leaders of the enterprise. Sometimes brand spokespersons are also included in this category. Key figures often receive more attention than ordinary people, their words and actions have greater influence and are more easily magnified by the public.

Not to mention the importance of founders or top management to corporate public relations, such as Taobao's best PR manager Ma and Huawei's most low-key PR manager Ren Zhengfei, the remarks of ordinary management will also be amplified at critical moments. For example, when an Ele.me executive was named on March 15, a Weibo post that was deleted in seconds saying "I forgot to renew my subscription with CCTV" amplified the crisis.

Therefore, key figures in the company must avoid inappropriate behavior and remarks. It is best to have everything they say and do be uniformly arranged and approved by the public relations team, especially at critical moments like March 15.

In addition to the misconduct of key figures themselves, here are two pitfalls that are easier to step on:

• The first is disrespect for the media. Some corporate executives and even bosses do not quite understand the PR team's licking of the media teachers (mainly a relationship-maintaining behavior when the company is not in trouble). Instead, they regard the media as the exposer of negative news and an accomplice in fanning the flames, which creates hostility and more or less damages the relationship between the company and the media, causing the media to take advantage of the situation and trample on the company when the company is in crisis.
• The second is disrespect for employees. The relationship between boss and employee is one of equal employment (although in reality it is still not quite equal), not that of slave owner and slave. This relationship is not a lifelong attachment, but can be changed at any time. When the relationship is dissolved, when the employee changes from an "insider" to an "outsider", the boss's disrespect for the employee will become a dagger stabbing the company. Many of the corporate crises we see are not discovered by outsiders, but are exposed by employees who are extremely disappointed with the company.

1. Ordinary employees of the enterprise

Although ordinary employees do not have as much influence as key figures, they often play the role of disseminators of "gossip", which can easily cause negative impact on the company's image.

Externally, it increases the difficulty for companies to dispel rumors and handle crises. "According to internal employees of XX" seems to have a magical power that makes people believe it, no matter if you are an intern who has no idea of ​​the depth of the situation, or you are a senior executive with real power and information sources. In the absence of any credible source, people tend to ignore logic and reason and trust a so-called "insider". As more and more information comes from "anonymous internal employees", companies are not only busy dealing with the original crisis, but also busy refuting rumors, which only increases the cost of corporate public relations.

Internally, it can easily shake people's hearts, leading to collective collapse or even exodus. When a company encounters turmoil or crisis, people urgently need information to increase their certainty. Gossip is mostly negative information that can easily spread virally (good news will definitely be spread by everyone). Some corporate crises are not at the user level, but at the employee level. Negative news spreads from one person to ten, from ten to a hundred, and from three people to a tiger. Many people lose confidence in the company, and even talented people leave, which gives the outside world the opportunity to confirm some speculations.

So what does corporate public relations require ordinary employees to do?

Do what you need to do, maintain normal operations, and don't let the crisis affect the company's normal services. Don’t discuss things that shouldn’t be discussed, just wait for the company’s official announcement. To put it bluntly, what ordinary employees need to do is "don't make mistakes" and don't let the crisis escalate.

1. Business competitors

To take a step back, even if you are clean, you may still face attacks from your competitors. What should I do? Remember two sentences: You should not have the intention to harm others, but you must be on guard against others; don't look for trouble when there is none, and don't be afraid of trouble when it occurs.

What does it mean? Be prepared to defend as well as attack. For specific countermeasures, we have prepared the following table~

1 Team

The public relations strategies and implementation points we talked about earlier actually cannot avoid the public relations team - from the top leader's speech to the employees' unified external voice, to media relations, government relations, etc., all require the full participation and follow-up of the public relations team. It is no exaggeration to say that the best approach should be led by the public relations team.

When facing a major public relations test like the one on March 15, what preparations should public relations professionals make?

1) Conduct risk pre-inspection. Large companies usually start making public relations preparations for 315 several months in advance, and at the latest they should have made certain preparations after returning from the Spring Festival. Especially after a holiday like the Spring Festival when the whole nation is on holiday, it is particularly easy for them to slack off in service. The public relations department should seize the period before March 15 to take precautions against possible crises, promote risk pre-inspections by various departments, reduce the risk of being caught, and detect problems early so that there is time to prepare for crises.

2) Obtain full authorization from top leadership for this public relations action and maintain communication with them at all times. At critical moments, it is best to persuade them to speak on behalf of the company.

3) Establish a 315 emergency public relations team. This team should be composed of people who have a say in various departments of the company and understand the specific situation. In this way, when a crisis occurs, they can not only understand the situation in the first time and formulate corresponding countermeasures, but also better convey relevant decision-making information to ordinary employees.

4) Identify an official spokesperson to ensure uniformity of information delivery.

5) Prepare public relations materials in advance, such as multiple versions of public relations press releases and basic templates for crisis statements.

Crisis statement template previously summarized by netizens

6) Maintain external relations, mainly media relations and government relations. The gifts given to media teachers during festivals come in handy at this time. When the company is in turmoil, even if they don’t always protect you, at least they can avoid following the trend and trampling on you. As for government relations, you can go with the flow. You can refer to JD.com’s National Products Day, catch up with the direction of policy focus, become a partner, and take advantage of the opportunity for publicity.

The above is the entire 3.15 public relations guide. Whether there are problems or not, you can actually use it for self-examination or to seek help from others. But I sincerely hope that every company can make 315 public relations a daily routine, implement consumer rights in all aspects of the company, and truly achieve round-the-clock public relations for all employees.

Source: Nanyou Chestnut (WeChat: seanchan0)