What textbook disaster-level public relations have you seen?

Public Relations (Public Relations) refers to a series of communication activities and strategic management adopted by enterprises, institutions and organizations to maintain their own image in order to achieve their own goals and generate trust and recognition among their audiences. , the behavior of shaping brand image. However, in actual operation, some companies handle public relations incidents inappropriately, which even increases the risk of worsening the crisis. Here are a few textbook disaster-level public relations cases.

1. United Airlines passenger dragging incident

On April 10, 2017, a United Airlines passenger dragging incident occurred in Chicago. The incident occurred on United Airlines Flight 3411. At that time, a doctor was asked to get off the plane, but he was reluctant to leave. Security personnel roughly dragged him out of the cabin. The video immediately attracted widespread attention and condemnation. United Airlines took a threatening and tough approach in handling the matter and failed to apologize promptly, sparking discussion and protests on social media. The incident developed rapidly, and the incident eventually led to a significant decline in United Airlines' market value, with the company's stock price falling by more than five percentage points.

2. Volkswagen Emissions Gate Incident

In 2015, Volkswagen became a figure worldwide for cheating on emissions tests. Volkswagen installed software to deceive the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and European regulators in emissions tests, causing some diesel vehicles to emit lower emissions than they actually were. The leak of this information caused billions of dollars in losses and, more importantly, damaged the company's reputation. Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess resigned and the company's top management changed. This incident is still widely regarded as one of the representative cases of public relations crisis.

3. Service quality issues of Comcast in the United States

In 2014, Comcast in the United States was accused of inappropriate behavior in user services, such as Ridiculing customers, lengthy and tedious voice menus, inability to resolve issues, etc. After these complaints were raised, Comcast failed to take timely action to improve service quality. Instead, it adopted "strong tactics" to deal with the complaints, further deteriorating its image. Later, the company was repeatedly rated as one of the companies with the worst business services, and its market share and image were seriously damaged.

4. Pepsi-Cola advertising incident in the United States

In 2017, Pepsi-Cola used footage of Kendall Jenner confronting peaceful demonstrators in an advertisement. and portrayed it as a "mediator" in an attempt to convey "unity and reconciliation" in this way, which resulted in widespread criticism and condemnation. Many people believe that this advertisement is an attempt to use social hot spots to make up and downplay reality, making Pepsi Cola infamous among the public.

To sum up, the above-mentioned cases all caused worsening crises due to improper handling of corporate public relations. For enterprises, quick response to the situation, active image management and sincere apology are all key factors in resolving the crisis. The following lessons can be learned from these cases:

1. Apologize promptly

When a public relations crisis occurs, companies should take timely measures to communicate to the audience through social media or press conferences. Apologize and express your willingness to take responsibility and improve the problem. A long period of silence or shirk of responsibility will worsen the corporate image and further worsen the crisis.

2. Choose topics carefully

When planning advertising, companies should pay special attention to topic selection. Certain sensitive topics may trigger public sensitivities and ultimately lead to public relations risks. Therefore, companies need to carefully select appropriate advertising topics through market research and observing social media responses.

3. The importance of social media

In public relations events, social media has become one of the platforms to spread information and arouse public opinion. Therefore, companies need to pay close attention to the dynamics of social media and actively respond to netizens’ reactions. The practice of issuing statements in a timely manner and in line with the development trend of the times is particularly important in the Internet era.

4. Take service quality issues seriously

Especially for companies in the service industry, attitude towards customers and service quality are crucial. When inappropriate behavior occurs, companies should take immediate steps to resolve the issue.

Excessive shirking of responsibilities or ignoring customer complaints will cause companies to lose customer loyalty, damage their image, and reduce market share.

In general, public relations crisis management is very important and necessary for enterprises. Enterprises need to establish a rigorous crisis management system, improve response speed and accuracy, strengthen social media monitoring and adopt reasonable crisis public relations strategies based on actual situations, and ultimately protect the enterprise's brand reputation and image.