Lao Luo's two failures and Wang Ziru's three stupid moves

Luo Yonghao and Wang Ziru have been fighting and slapping each other for days, and it is a lose-lose situation. This is almost the unanimous conclusion of industry media and observers. The reason why I want to say more today is mainly because this lose-lose public relations show is of great reference value to companies and individuals in terms of public relations, and can be used as a negative example for everyone to learn from.

First, let’s talk about Luo Yonghao’s two failures in this incident:

Failure 1: Overdoing it, and angering the public with a strong attitude

As a startup, Luo Yonghao could have won some sympathy by being humble, but he didn't, and still responded with his usual tough attitude. This is certainly a display of backbone and sentiment, but as a company, you can't show off your personal power for a while, which may cause greater harm to the company.

While angering your competitors, you also put yourself in a situation where you make enemies on all sides.

There is a truth in the saying that it is difficult to offend the wrath of the masses. In the public relations war of enterprises, it is also important to make friends with those far away and attack those near. In the debate, Luo fired at four competitors at the same time, creating a passive situation of one against ten. In fact, it is not terrible to offend only Wang Ziru's fans, after all, Luo's fans are 10 times as many as Wang Ziru's. However, if Mi fans, Hua fans and OPPO fans all attack him at the same time, Luo obviously cannot resist.

Looking through Luo's recent Weibo posts, there are almost no positive comments on them, and the consequences of this failure are already apparent.

Failure 2: Killing all enemies and losing their “sentiment”

In the Youku debate with Wang Ziru, Luo was very well prepared and used three moves in a row, directly "knocking" Wang Ziru to the ground, without him being able to fight back. However, it was precisely because of Luo's bravery that his fans were disappointed.

Who is Luo Yonghao? In the eyes of Luo fans and Hammer fans, Luo Yonghao is a person with feelings, a person who deeply loves this world. Such a person who is free from vulgar tastes relies on his language talent and experience to "bully" a child born in 1988. This is obviously a matter of no grace and no feelings.

In fact, in this big show watched by the whole nation, it is no longer a question of who is right or wrong. In addition to paying attention to the event itself, the public also pays attention to the performance of both parties in front of the public. In particular, Luo Yonghao's dominance makes the public sympathize with the weak, causing Luo Yonghao to lose support and trust.

Therefore, in a public relations war, there is no need to wipe out the opponent while you can. As a public relations show, you should pay more attention to the public's feelings rather than your own feelings from beginning to end.

Let's talk about the three major mistakes Wang Ziru made in the whole incident:

Stupid move 1: Proactively post a video to apologize

Wang Ziru probably didn't expect that he had gone to discuss the quality issues of Hammer phones, but ended up with an apology from himself. Although taking responsibility is the first principle in crisis public relations, and there is nothing wrong with a sincere apology, his emotional admission of fault in response to Luo Yonghao's accusation undoubtedly undermined his confidence, and then he was naturally defeated.

The saying "lose the battle but not the battle" means that even if you know you have lost, you must not lose your composure.

Moreover, the subsequent apology video made Donglou even more upset. Why did he apologize and say that he lost? I really don't understand.

Obviously Wang Ziru was misled by the media. They were originally trying to reason with each other, so what was the difference between winning and losing? In fact, there was no conclusion in the end, and at most it ended in vain.

After all, this is not a war at all, so it doesn't matter who wins or who loses.

Stupid move 2: Remove the words “independent, objective, third party”

Regarding Luo Yonghao's question about whether he accepted investments from four manufacturers and was no longer an "independent, objective, and third party", Wang Ziru promised many times at the dialogue site that shareholders had no voting rights and would not interfere with the fairness of his evaluations, and that he was absolutely "independent, objective, and a third party."

However, one day after the debate ended, they released an apology video and voluntarily removed the words "independent, objective, and third party". This was tantamount to admitting the other party's accusations and confirming their previous image of being non-objective, non-independent, and not a third party.

Stupid move 3: From hardware review to anti-piracy fighter

The dumbest move was to expose the infringement of Hammer Store. Although this was the other party's fault, it undoubtedly confirmed Luo's accusation and speculation that Zealer was specifically targeting Hammer.

As the saying goes, hit the snake at its weakest point. From a public relations perspective, Hammer's weakest point is definitely not here. Wang Ziru's move gave Luo Yonghao another chance to strike back, which was really the biggest mistake.

However, the above only talks about the failures and mistakes of Lao Luo and Wang Ziru. However, in the current complex public opinion environment, it is hard to draw a conclusion whether it is a win-win or a lose-lose situation. Especially after this battle, Wang Ziru has gained something. His Weibo followers increased by 40,000 to 50,000, from 820,000 to 860,000. It is estimated that if the two continue to argue, they may even completely reverse the lose-lose situation, and netizens may forget why they fell out. The two of them gained fans and popularity during the quarrel, which was quite enjoyable.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.