A review of the top ten public relations crisis events in 2018 (Part 1)

Today, I will use three crisis public relations tools to analyze the top ten crisis public relations events in 2018. I hope this will inspire everyone’s public relations thinking.

Without a doubt, the most memorable event in 2018 is the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up.

It was also under the impetus of reform and opening up that the country's modern public relations industry was able to emerge, promote and prosper. Today, with the advent of the era of "everyone is a media", public relations has been increasingly widely and profoundly used in national image communication, public diplomacy, economic development, and all aspects of social life, becoming a kind of interpersonal communication thinking and concept that plays an increasingly important role.

However, we also feel that modern public relations in China is also facing many challenges, especially the public relations crisis that occurs "anytime, anywhere and everywhere", which makes not only public relations people, but also every organization and individual, fall into a state of crisis nerves being tense and on high alert.

There are only 21 days left in 2018. Looking back at the impressive crisis public relations events that have occurred this year, in addition to serving as a warning, we also hope that it will better promote the popularization of public relations thinking and concepts.

【Case Analysis】

The top ten crisis public relations events (groups) selected in 2018 include:

【01】Didi has encountered a series of murders by ride-sharing drivers;

【02】Hongmao Liquor "cross-province arrest" incident;

【03】Dolce & Gabbana "insulting China" incident;

【04】BlueCursor "dismissal" incident;

【05】CCTV’s “First Lesson of the School Year” was criticized by the public;

【06】Chongqing College Entrance Examination "Political Review" Controversy and Zhejiang Weighted Scoring Incident;

【07】Yu Minhong publicly discriminated against women;

【08】Country Garden series of collapse accidents;

【09】Quangang concealed the carbon nine leakage incident;

【10】Great Wall Motors and Geely Auto accused each other of being “black PR agents”.

The review of the top ten crisis public relations events (groups) will be presented in two issues, with five events (groups) in each issue. This issue presents the review of the first five crisis public relations events (groups) of the year:

A review of the top ten public relations crisis events in 2018 (Part 1)

——Case 01——

Didi encounters repeated murders by ride-hailing drivers

From the perspective of contact point review, the fundamental problem of this incident lies in the element of "products, services and their carriers", which is manifested in the fact that the platform attributes of the business model cannot solve the social, human and legal risks of drivers killing people. In addition, some public basic services in the current business environment are not yet perfect, which brings about inevitable contradictions in the rapid development of emerging business models such as the Internet + field. The relevant emerging enterprises not only have to undertake the task of supplementing and improving the inadequate social public services, but also bear heavy moral burdens and regulatory risks.

This problem has become the main contradiction that Didi must face in resolving the crisis. The damage it brings, in the worst case scenario, may be the cancellation of its operating license, which is related to the life and death of the company.

Therefore, the crisis management of this incident must address compliance, establish responsibility definitions and boundary criteria for issues such as "driver killings", provide a basis for judging similar issues in the future, and optimize the rule framework for the orderly and healthy development of enterprises and even industries. In fact, after the first hitchhiking driver murder incident, Didi should have treated this issue as of the highest urgency. If this problem is not solved, not only Didi, but the entire travel industry will not be able to free itself from the pressure of public opinion dominated by emotions. Just like the question of "whether to attack Jinzhou first or Shenyang first" in the Liaoshen Campaign of the War of Liberation, Didi needs to "attack Jinzhou first". On the contrary, if Didi "attacks Shenyang" first, even if Didi Hitch completes rectification and meets regulatory requirements and goes back online one day, if a driver killing incident occurs again, it will still not be able to escape another round of public criticism or even a more severe public relations crisis.

Having identified the main contradictions between the core contact points and the crisis damage, the strategy of crisis public relations will naturally be to establish responsibility definitions and boundary criteria for similar issues and to conduct consistent dialogues with stakeholders. Of course, this process will undoubtedly be extremely difficult.

——Case 02——

People arrested across provinces for Hongmao Liquor

On the surface, the contact point that triggered this incident seemed to be a questioning article written by a person with weak KOL attributes in the "pan-media relations and communication system", which triggered Hongmao Liquor to initiate legal claims and arrest people across provinces, causing a public relations crisis. However, in essence, it was the deeper issue of the controversial product interests of Hongmao Liquor itself, that is, the element of "products, services and their carriers", which was the root cause of public opinion and the deterioration of the crisis.

Obviously, it is necessary to recognize that the issue of "the controversial product interests of Hongmao Medicinal Wine itself" has not been resolved at all after the "cross-provincial arrests" incident seemed to have subsided. Therefore, for Hongmao Medicinal Wine, the main damage caused by this crisis event has not been eliminated, and it has become a "landmine" that may be detonated again at any time during the subsequent crisis recovery.

At the same time, Hongmao Medicinal Wine also needs to be aware that the "national secret formula" on which it relies to protect the interests of its products has become more fragile after this crisis, which creates a hidden risk of cumulative damage. In addition, in another crisis public relations incident this year, "Yunnan Baiyao toothpaste was accused of containing prescription drug ingredients", Yunnan Baiyao also used its "national secret formula" as key support, which increased its vulnerability. Will the occurrence of consecutive similar incidents trigger the regulatory authorities to re-evaluate the mechanism of "national secret formula"? For companies such as Hongmao Medicinal Wine and Yunnan Baiyao that use "national secret formula" as a "talisman", there is obviously a greater risk of crisis at the contact point of "policy supervision system and operating rules". The extent of the damage cannot be fundamentally solved by seemingly short-term relief of public opinion.

Based on such "facts", neither Hongmao Medicinal Wine nor Yunnan Baiyao should rush into the crisis repair stage and take a large number of positive public relations actions, but should still focus on resolving major damages as the strategic focus of crisis management. Because, the short-term relief of public opinion actually only gives companies an "opportunity". How can they truly "change for the better"?

Two issues worth addressing:

First, it is time to actively remove the "talisman" of the "national secret formula". For such an already fragile and controversial historical mechanism, it may soon be of no protective effect and may even eventually cause fatal damage. It is better to give it up than to continue to guard it.

Second, reshaping the interest points of corresponding products in accordance with the new regulatory mechanism is a more valuable way to protect brands. For example, is Hongmao Medicinal Wine a food, a health product, or a medicine? How to comply with the new regulatory mechanism and redefine it in terms of product positioning, functional benefits, and communication concepts? As the company claims, Yunnan Baiyao toothpaste is a cosmetic, so it should be defined according to the regulatory mechanism for cosmetics. The "national secret formula" corresponds to the protective significance of Yunnan Baiyao as a medicine. The clever practice of grafting it onto toothpaste will sooner or later pay a heavy price.

Undoubtedly, this kind of trade-off decision requires greater and longer-term considerations, not only of public relations but also of operations, strategic pattern, foresight and decisiveness!

——Case 03——

Dolce & Gabbana insults China incident

From the contact point of this incident, the element of "ideology and social environment" under the "environment" module was triggered, and then expressed through the element of "image of senior executives and employees" in the "organization" module, and deeply reflected the element of "business philosophy and values". After the incident, D&G's "pan-text system" and "pan-press spokesperson system" also exposed serious flaws, causing public opinion to deteriorate and the crisis to intensify.

It can be seen from this that the incident that happened in D&G was the result of a long period of uncertainty. It was the result of the company's long-term disregard for the impact of "ideology and social environment" factors on market operations and its lack of necessary management of the words and deeds of senior executives and employees, which inevitably led to its own consequences. In fact, this factor often brings a fatal blow to a company. As it stands now, it is probably difficult for D&G to revive in the Chinese market. It is even possible that some Chinese people in other countries or regions will join the ranks of saying "NO!" to the brand. This is the first point of damage in the D&G China insult incident.

So, from the perspective of crisis management, although we cannot assume, we can only say with a sense of hindsight that if D&G were given another chance, perhaps admitting its mistakes, apologizing and reflecting on the values ​​​​carried by the relevant communication texts as soon as the incident occurred, and decisively cutting off the partners who made the insulting remarks from the brand, would be the only opportunity and method to save D&G. Of course, the premise must be that most of the decision makers of D&G do not really have the "idea" of despising Chinese consumers deeply rooted in their bones, but are merely culturally unfamiliar, uncomfortable and misunderstood. Otherwise, such incidents will happen sooner or later, and are doomed to be incurable and irreversible.

As for the excuse of "account stolen", it is a real misjudgment of the situation. This also provides a warning to more companies and public relations professionals: culture can be biased, values ​​can be divergent, and behavior can be faulty, but never try to conduct crisis public relations dialogues on a track that contradicts the facts. The reason is simple: the reason why facts are considered to be the first element in effectively handling crisis public relations is because they carry multiple evaluation dimensions of universal values, legal standards and moral norms. Any mismatch in any dimension will not be beneficial to the resolution of crisis public relations. On the contrary, it will make the outcome of the crisis worse.

——Case 04——

BlueFocus "dismissal"

The conclusion of the contact point review of this incident is actually quite clear, which is the element of "business philosophy and values" expressed through "employees and their relationships." The challenge of public opinion and crisis response lies in how to accurately judge and grasp the most important one from multiple damage points: the value orientation and work confidence of thousands of internal employees. Other points of damage, such as public sentiment, regulatory attention of listed companies, customer concerns and confidence, and damage to brand reputation, are all extremely disruptive. In essence, the issue of "the value orientation and work confidence of thousands of internal employees" is the most fatal damage point and also the key breakthrough point.

So, in reverse, BlueFocus's definition of "Employees first means the overall interests of employees first. Hard-working employees are the group of employees who create value for the company first. Employees first should never be a reason or excuse for individuals to be lazy or even harm the interests of the company and the overall interests of employees without being punished..." has very accurately grasped the main points of damage and adopted a response strategy. The subsequent introduction of third-party forces such as trade unions and the advocacy of solutions within the legal framework are all concrete actions guided by this strategy.

As for the final compensation to the dismissed employees, this is a mistake that needs to be faced and corrected. Just like why BlueFocus did not choose to compromise after the second reversal of the incident, but instead advocated a solution within the legal framework, a truly thorough solution, using a method that complies with the legal framework to resolve behaviors that originally violated the law, is actually one of the wisest and most effective ways to fundamentally resolve the issue.

Therefore, the handling of this crisis event was not as some people believed, that BlueFocus, as a professional public relations company, failed to handle its own crisis well, but rather it resolved a typical public opinion risk in employee relations relatively well.

It should be noted that the reason why this case is included in the top ten crisis public relations events of the year is that the main body of the event is a public relations company, which actually verifies one point: we have entered an era in which no organization or individual can stay out of crisis public relations and exists as a crisis public relations "insulator".

Looking at it from a different perspective, this incident actually has more significance than just crisis public relations: along with public opinion response and crisis management, BlueFocus carried out an important internal communication on employee values; the incident provided a legal and compliant warning education to the industry and even a wider range of dismissed employees; and it objectively prompted more people to raise their awareness of labor rights protection.

——Case 05——

CCTV's "First Lesson of School" was criticized by the whole nation

In addition to public relations companies, powerful media such as CCTV are also unable to stay out of crisis public relations. This year's "First Lesson of the School Year" was criticized by the whole nation, which is a representative public opinion crisis event with the media as the main body. As everyone knows, this is not the first time that CCTV has encountered similar problems. The famous "315 Gala" alone has encountered two major public opinion incidents, namely the "broadcast at about 8:20" in 2013 and the delayed broadcast in 2015 which was suspected to be a temporary withdrawal.

The reality is that not only CCTV, but any media will face increasingly frequent public opinion risks and crisis public relations. On the one hand, this is due to the impact of the popularization of the Internet and the acceleration of mobile Internet. Decentralization has become a major trend. CCTV, which once represented the centralized era, needs to integrate itself into the new era environment and re-examine its position and situation in the social structure. On the other hand, top-down media reform is about to enter the deep water zone. The single media attributes of most media organizations are constantly weakening, while their business attributes are strengthened. Faced with a new market ecology, media organizations have to raise their own organizational operations and brand management, and other issues that were once considered unnecessary and could be ignored, including brand reputation management issues, to a more important level for unified consideration. Therefore, the warning and enlightenment role of this incident cannot be ignored. So, for many media that were once or still are powerful, how can they pay attention to their own brand reputation management and crisis prevention? Obviously, this is a major proposition that cannot be avoided.

After clarifying these issues, let’s look at the fact that CCTV’s “First Lesson of the School Year” was criticized by the whole nation. Its occurrence was inevitable. If we use the same tool, Touchpoint Review, this event falls under the element of “Business Philosophy and Values” and is triggered by “User Association”. Specifically, it is normal for an educational program that is broadcast during prime time on the first evening of the school season and required by the national education authority that parents of students across the country watch it with their children. It has a series of problems such as not being broadcast on time, containing advertisements that clearly violate regulatory policies, and the value orientation conveyed by the content of the program itself being highly controversial.

The main damage may seem to be just the strong doubts about the program "The First Lesson of the School Year", but behind it is the questioning of CCTV's overall brand reputation and credibility.

The crisis public relations handling of this incident itself, due to an apology signed by CCTV Advertising Center that "showed nothing but arrogance and no sincerity", as well as an inappropriate personal defense episode that was suspected to be from the director of "The First Lesson of the School Year", has temporarily faded the heat of public opinion over time. In fact, it has also laid the seeds for a new crisis. Once a new emergency occurs, CCTV may once again fall into new and greater public opinion risks and public relations crises, and the legacy issues of this incident will most likely be brought up and accused again. If this situation continues to deteriorate, CCTV's overall brand reputation will inevitably continue to deteriorate, and it will become more difficult to restore trust.

This concludes the first part. Everyone is welcome to express your views and opinions on these public relations events.

Source: Chief Enablement Officer (ID:chiefuller)