Xiaopeng PR, incomprehensible operations

The self-media "Yikou Laopao" published an article predicting last weekend that public relations confronting the media will be a trend.

I don’t know if the predicted trend is correct in the end, but I have already experienced it. For example, a few days ago, Xiaopeng Motors’ public relations department started to criticize everything.

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This is roughly what happened.

On December 14, Liu Ding, a reporter for a financial magazine, complained about Xpeng Motors in a post on his Moments while attending a media exchange meeting held by NIO. He said that he was kicked out of the venue when he was interviewing Xpeng Motors and asking questions at the Guangzhou Auto Show.

As a result, this circle of friends was screenshoted by Ms. Xu, the public relations director of Xpeng Motors, who responded: "I have never invited him to any interview. After all, he can't even understand the financial report."

Isn’t the essence of public relations communication? In my opinion, when a corporate public relations responds to something, it only needs to explain the specific situation. It is a bit of an attack to deliberately escalate the conflict by dissing the reporter for not being able to understand the financial report.

Soon, the Xiaopeng PR explained in the WeChat community: I am not a "smooth" PR person, there is no such thing as being offensive. The reason for driving the reporter away was because I pretended to be an investor to enter the venue and record the conversation. I was driven out by the investor. Don't blame the PR.

It is not known whether Xiaopeng’s public relations team added humor or was tactful, but this series of “golden sentences” quickly and successfully made itself the focus, and many communities in the circle are discussing this matter.

If the PR criticizes the media, it is understandable if there is sufficient evidence, after all, they have been wronged.

But I learned from Lubianshe that the reporter Liu Ding, who was criticized by Xiaopeng PR, is now a member of the "Financial Eleven" and previously worked in the Financial Department of Southern Weekend. Liu Ding can work in two such influential media organizations. No matter how poor his professional level is, he should not be unable to understand financial reports, right? Doesn't it sound incredible?

Not only do I find it incredible, but my colleagues have already commented on this matter in their WeChat Moments. As a result, Xiaopeng's public relations officer went all out and started a pattern of attacking.

Judging from the screenshots of the conversation between the two parties that were circulated afterwards, the language level of this Xiaopeng public relations officer is somewhat worrying. At least make the facts clear first, and don't make the same mistake again and again, it's embarrassing.

Adhering to the attitude of "not afraid of excitement when eating melons", when I saw my colleagues discussing this matter enthusiastically, I also couldn't help but post a circle of friends, which caused trouble:

This Xiaopeng PR, who I had never spoken to since adding her on WeChat, quickly left me a message, a question mark, and a screenshot. Oh my god, when I saw the message and wanted to ask her what she meant, I found that she had blocked me.

Such hand speed, such efficiency, wow. What hatred or grudge is this?

According to incomplete statistics, this PR not only blocked me, but also blocked xx and xx on the same day. Another colleague sent me a private message. They had written an article about Xiaopeng before, and this PR also came to him. After just a few words, he blocked him.

Oh my god, is this the legendary blocking after a disagreement? Please ask a friend, does He Xiaopeng know the working style of this Xiaopeng PR?

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After talking about Xiaopeng’s personal experience of PR confronting people, let’s talk about Xiaopeng Motors’ public relations style and feelings.

Frankly speaking, in the minds of consumers, Xiaopeng Motors' functions and so on are still quite good, except for the backstabbing of old users. In the past two years, the company has also fallen into survival difficulties, has been making losses, and its product strategy and hematopoietic ability have been questioned.

In order to understand and feel the overall public relations style of Xiaopeng Motors more objectively, I searched the Internet for major events that happened to Xiaopeng over the past year, and summarized them in a simple timeline as follows:

In less than two years, Xpeng Motors has had more than 20 "incidents" that were featured in the media. These incidents were reported by the media for product reasons and marketing reasons. According to the industry, these incidents are so-called crisis events, and the company has responded, apologized, and of course, just let it go.

I selected the recent "He Xiaopeng and Huawei AEB dispute" incident and reviewed and talked about it.

At the launch of the M7 in September, the big mouth Yu Chengdong said that the M7's "AEB", or automatic emergency braking system, is far ahead of its peers.

Not long after, He Xiaopeng said in an interview with the media: "Companies talked about AEB, I think 99% of it is fake, it is fake, those promotions are not officially released by the company, they are all from short videos."

Good man, He Xiaopeng almost pointed at Yu Chengdong's nose and scolded him. Yu Chengdong couldn't stand it, and immediately fired back in his circle of friends:

He Xiaopeng then responded in his circle of friends:

Then many big names and executives in the automotive industry came out to speak. Zhao Changjiang of BYD, Zhang Yong of Hozon, Li Xiang of Ideal, and Tan Benhong of Avita all carefully shared their views on AEB and their own technical paths.

Xpeng Motors later posted another statement saying, "We can't win the argument? Then let's just show you the report card," and stated that Xpeng's self-developed AEB scored close to full marks in formal tests, and the P7 model became a double five-star model certified by both Euro NCAP and C-NCAP.

Then came the climax of the incident. In response to the controversy, Autohome conducted an AEB test on many models, and the result showed that Xiaopeng Motors ranked last. A car company that claims to have the best intelligent driving technology was slapped in the face after actual testing.

He Xiaopeng's attitude then took a 180-degree turn, from angrily criticizing Lao Yu to thanking Lao Yu:

The onlookers were stunned. What kind of trick did Xiaopeng PR pull? Why did they back down so quickly? Some netizens commented:

In my opinion, He Xiaopeng was slapped in the face and admitted defeat in the battle with Yu Chengdong this time. In addition to his lack of skills, Xiaopeng’s public relations department is also responsible.

For example, on Technology Day on October 24, He Xiaopeng used the PPT in his speech: "The king of big talk may influence public opinion, but only real technology can create the future." You can't say that He Xiaopeng wrote the PPT himself and the public relations department was completely unaware of this deliberate and obscure provocative vocabulary, right?

As we all know, the public relations team of a listed company will give suggestions and review what the boss of the company says in public and what the official microblog posts. The public relations team will make choices about what to say and what not to say.

The reason why He Xiaopeng had the confidence to angrily criticize Yu Dazui must be based on the information provided by the team, and he believed that the strength of his products was stronger than others. The boss was slapped in the face, can the public relations have no responsibility?

Media and public relations have always cared for and respected each other. All the public relations people I know (except Ms. Xu), whether they are transitioning from media to public relations or from other industries, are very friendly and sincere to the media, and many of them have become good friends. A brand public relations culture that is self-righteous and always confronts people is also incomprehensible to the outside world and cannot become a great company.

Finally, to paraphrase the title of "Yikou Laopao", the media will confront the public relations, which will also be a trend. They can confront each other. Your public relations department has not given the media a grain of rice, so why should they indulge you?

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.