Case Analysis of Public Relations Handling of Top Ten Crises in 2007

The LG renovation event originated in 2006 and intensified in the first half of 2007. June 5438 +2007 10, after the underground renovation factory was exposed, LG claimed that there was blackmail behind it; In February, another media exposed that the Industrial and Commercial Bureau sealed five LG suspected refurbished air conditioners, and then LG admitted to replacing some product packaging; In March, Zhang Hongfeng, a Hunan consumer, disclosed the appraisal results of Hunan Quality Inspection Association, and confirmed that "the five LG air conditioners he bought were refurbished machines". In May, Zhang Hongfeng once again disclosed the quality problems of LG air conditioners through his blog. With the continuous coverage of the national media, from the renovation of LG refrigerators to the renovation of LG air conditioners to the renovation of LG color TVs, new materials are constantly exposed, and the LG brand has fallen into an unprecedented brand crisis for a time.

Comments: After the renovation of a series of products was exposed, LG was evasive, refused to admit its mistakes and failed to take effective measures. Coupled with the condemnation of LG's renovation behavior by netizens on the Internet, its brand image and corporate reputation have been greatly reduced. It can also be seen that LG, as an internationally renowned brand, is ignorant and short-sighted in crisis public relations.

2. Motorola's mobile phone exploded.

On June 19, 2007, the first explosion of mobile phone battery in China occurred in Jinta County, Gansu Province. As a manufacturer of problematic mobile phones, Motorola failed to take active measures at the first time. About 10 days after the incident, it shifted the explosion responsibility to the mobile phone battery, and claimed that the explosion culprit was not Motorola's original battery without authoritative evidence. In this way, the explosion events that were originally caused by users' long-term misuse of the machine under high temperature conditions are wave after wave. In addition to letting many media and the general public recognize the true face of Motorola's shirking responsibility, it also triggered a greater passivity in the safety inspection of mobile phone batteries in Guangdong and other places.

Comments: The accident is not terrible. What is terrible is that the relevant enterprises can't face up to the existence of the problem and take corresponding countermeasures in time. Motorola's coping strategies after the explosion of mobile phones show us the weakness of the public relations crisis behind the strong brands of internationally renowned manufacturers.

3, Dell out of stock integrity storm

Since April 2007, due to the shortage of accessories such as LCD monitors, more and more consumers in China can't get the ordered computer products within the time promised by their direct sales, and even quietly launched a "class action lawsuit against Dell for delaying delivery time and safeguarding consumers' rights and interests" on the Internet. Different from the crisis events of many enterprises, the root cause of Dell's unexpected "monitor shortage" incident is the shortage of global computer LCD panel market, not Dell's internal. Unfortunately, as a direct selling company with zero inventory, Dell did not take effective measures in time, which eventually led to this unexpected storm.

Comments: Different from the sudden crisis events of many enterprises, the fuse of Dell's out-of-stock integrity storm is the transfer and spread of the crisis of upstream manufacturers. For Dell, the main problem is that there is no risk prevention for the out-of-stock products from the supply chain, which is enough to see the necessity of daily crisis management and crisis early warning. At the same time, through this incident, we also realized the role of supply chain crisis transfer, diffusion and network in corporate crisis public relations.

4. Siemens bribery scandal

This bribery scandal affecting Siemens' global market began in June 2006. On August 13, 2007, the examiners of Siemens bribery case announced that the latest investigation showed that Siemens had spent more than 10 billion euros on illegal bribery since the mid-1990s. On August 20th, the bribery case of Siemens broke out again. German Economic Weekly quoted insiders of Siemens as saying that about 90% of Siemens' business in China is conducted through third parties, and nearly half of Siemens' business in China involves bribery. Since then, the China media have paid close attention to the bribery scandal of Siemens.

Comments: Through the bribe amount of 65.438 billion euros and "50% of the business is related to bribery", we can see the seriousness of Siemens' bribery, which has also seriously damaged Siemens' brand image in the eyes of the global public. A series of grey transactions will also make the Volkswagen brand Siemens disobey business ethics, directly affect the public's confidence in Siemens, and the corporate reputation will be hit hard, which will directly impact Siemens' century-old foundation.

5, Mason advertising storm

In 2007, with the help of famous brands such as Nicholas Tse, it quickly became the "successful advertisement, failed advertisement" of Mason, a famous fashion and leisure clothing brand in the industry. In Mason's "Global Warming" advertisement, a young man wears headphones to enjoy music, and the advertising words above occupy a conspicuous position. Shortly after the advertisement was published on Tencent's website, it was bombarded by netizens for ignoring environmental protection.

Comments: Social responsibility is a "double-edged sword" for enterprises and should not be the material of enterprise advertising hype. What is commendable is that after the advertising storm, Mason actively admitted his mistake and sincerely apologized to the media, so that the storm could be solved in a short time. Through this incident, we can fully realize the triggering effect of new media such as blogs on enterprise crisis, and remind the majority of enterprises of the seriousness and caution in choosing advertising materials.

6. Carrefour gang fights and stampedes

In the whole year of 2007, from the insufficient cashmere content of quilts sold to the deep-seated bribery incident at the "purchasing door", from the vicious group fight between Zhengzhou and Mengniu on the eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival to the stampede in Chongqing, Carrefour can be described as a constant worry. Through the vicious group battle between Carrefour and Zhengzhou Mengniu and a series of entrance fees related to Carrefour before, we can see that retail giants are constantly suppressing the interests of suppliers. From many incidents about entrance fees and the final settlement of this vicious group fight, we can easily see that the vast number of suppliers are helpless to retail giants.

Comments: Although it has the hegemony of "store bullying customers", Carrefour ignores the interests of suppliers and consumers, corporate responsibility and corporate reputation, and will eventually reap the consequences. At the same time, through a series of crisis events in Carrefour, we can see the deteriorating supply chain relationship behind the foreign giant supermarkets and the enterprise crisis that may be triggered at any time.

7. Pinke, Xerox and Evian encounter "standard door"

At the end of 2007, Pinke potato chips, Xerox potato chips and Evian mineral water were blacklisted by AQSIQ and classified as unqualified products. It's really shocking that the three well-known brand products, which used to sell well in the global market, have become unqualified products in China, so the three brands have become the targets of major media reports and the topics of general public comments. After the brand was blacklisted by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, although none of the three brand manufacturers made a formal statement on the incident, they all unanimously identified "China Standard" as the "culprit" of the incident.

Comments: Since products want to come to China market, they must meet relevant standards and regulations, and all this needs to be solved before products enter China market. Pinke, Xerox and Evian, after encountering the "standard door", did not look for reasons from themselves, but at the same time naively blamed the China standard. Based on this, we can see the lack of crisis management of the three major brands and the "China standard" pain that some foreign brands may cause at any time.

8, Mercedes-Benz car safety storm

On June 5th, 2007, Mr. Wang from Luoyang drove a German-imported Mercedes S350 and collided with a "Dongfeng" truck at 385km from Lianhuo Expressway. The front and top of the truck were seriously damaged, but none of the eight airbags deployed on the truck popped up, and the owner and daughter were injured. Subsequently, the owner repeatedly negotiated with Mercedes-Benz Zhengzhou dealers and Mercedes-Benz China headquarters on the airbag issue. 12 16, Mr. Wang dragged his unrecognizable Mercedes-Benz to the bank of the Yellow River in the north of Zhengzhou. Facing the mother river, he vowed to "only use domestic products in this life" and pushed the world-famous Mercedes-Benz to the "crater" for a time.

Comments: According to the parties, Mercedes-Benz responded that "the car did not hit the position and did not meet the airbag deployment conditions". In the China market, Mercedes-Benz has repeatedly denied that its cars have safety problems and refused to pay compensation. In the China market, it is short-sighted to rely on strength and domineering to exchange market reputation, and it is self-immolated by crisis public relations at any time.

9. Well-known enterprises such as Huawei withdrew.

The new Labor Contract Law, which aims at protecting the legitimate rights and interests of employees, will be officially implemented on June 65438+ 10/day, 2008. Who knows, since September 2007, many well-known enterprises, such as Huawei, Wal-Mart, LU ZHOU LAO JIAO CO.,LTD, Jiannanchun and Carrefour, have experienced various forms of dismissal before the implementation of the new law. Although they all claimed that they were not trying to escape the new labor law, they could not provide normal services.

Comments: Although the practices of related enterprises can keep the economic interests of enterprises on the surface, they have lost faith in employees, the government, the media and public relations, and are sad about the sense of social responsibility, thus damaging the reputation capital of enterprises. So it can be said that these well-known enterprises are short-sighted to gamble with the new labor law.

10, PetroChina social responsibility storm

At the end of June, 2007, from May to February, 2007, the results of the corporate social responsibility survey initiated by People.com were announced. In the end, 20 enterprises including PetroChina, China Development Bank, Samsung (China) and Haier won the "People's Social Responsibility" award. Who knows, the award of PetroChina has become the laughing stock of the internet and the general public for a time.

Comments: Netizens' disapproval of PetroChina's social responsibility is, in the final analysis, a matter of corporate reputation. Corporate reputation needs a long-term accumulation process, and its accumulation needs multiple factors, such as good product quality, excellent after-sales service, all-round social responsibility measures, and subjective recognition of the public. This "stealing clock" joke staged by PetroChina is thought-provoking.

Write at the end: Looking back on the crisis public relations events of China enterprises in 2007, it can be summarized by "countless". Although the trigger reasons and development process of the case are different, there are many * * * relationships behind many corporate crisis public relations events.