Brand Overrun War

The age of social networks, corporate or public organization If we still can't change the confrontational public relations thinking, we will be trapped in the quagmire of communication and cannot extricate ourselves.

When the stubborn German met more serious Luo Yonghao, what would the result be?

On the morning of November 20, a performance art was staged on a vacant land not far from Siemens China headquarters: Luo Yonghao, founder of laoluo English training, used a hammer in front of the camera of more than ten media reporters at home and abroad smash Three Siemens refrigerators were used to express his dissatisfaction with the quality and after-sales service of Siemens refrigerators.

The cause of the matter actually stems from a micro blog that Luo Yonghao posted two months ago.

On September 27, Luo Yonghao said on his microblog with millions of fans that the doors of Siemens refrigerators he bought three years ago often can't be closed tightly, which was subsequently responded by more than 500 Siemens users on Sina Weibo. After the investigation, Luo Yonghao decided that it was not a quality problem or a design defect, so he began to protect the rights of microblog for two months.

In the past two months of communication, although the relevant personnel of China Bosi household appliances Co., Ltd., which is responsible for the production and sales of Siemens Household appliances, twice called Luo Yonghao and proposed to come to the door for repair, but they did not admit it quality There are problems. The communication between the two sides has no result. Finally, a verbal war on microblog has evolved into a behavior art of smashing the refrigerator.

In the "seesaw battle" between Luo Yonghao and Siemens, it seems that it is an asymmetric war between a small individual and a large organization. However, with the power of our media and the amplification effect of social media such as microblog, even though Siemens has exhausted all his skills in public relations, it is still impossible to avoid the decline of its brand image.

We are entering an era of communication beyond the limit of war. In this era, the spread of asymmetric war may happen at any time, and will become the normal. With the rise of we media, organizations that seem to have huge energy are dancing in shackles. Many enterprises' traditional private communication in the process of crisis public relations, blocking media communication channels, and even using water forces may be put on the table, Some of the public relations strategies that try to make big things and small things will make the image of enterprises become infamous under the magnifying effect of social media.

In the era of social network, there has been a strong "crowd effect", as in the fable "the emperor's new clothes". For organizations and institutions in crisis, the first child to stand up and speak is not the most terrible. The most terrible thing is that the next imitators and identifiers join the children's camp. When there are more imitators, the spiral of silence will be broken, the lie of emperor's new clothes will be broken, and the power and authority will feel deeply powerless.

In the case of Luo Yonghao and Siemens, Luo Yonghao was like the first voice child. Millions of fans and powerful we media energy enabled his voice to attract enough people's attention. Then a group of supporters such as Feng Tang joined in and attracted more people to watch. The initial quality complaint began to evolve into a public Carnival on Weibo. Many Luo Yonghao support Perhaps it is out of the psychological identity of resistance to authority to join in, so that even if Siemens hired the most top public relations agencies to deal with it, it is still of no help.

In the traditional enterprise crisis public relations model, the enterprise causes the siege of the traditional media because of the problem, but at least it can know where the threat comes from, and there will be methods to deal with it in the enterprise risk management system. But the rise of we media seems to be just someone who has enough influence or can use social media to gather enough onlookers and supporters, ? The unorganized organizational power mentioned by the author of "the future is wet" may cause the organized traditional public relations system to disintegrate and even completely lose efficacy.

For example, in the case of Luo Yonghao, in the face of challenges, Siemens first refused to admit the problem in the public relations process, but at the same time wanted to collude with Luo Yonghao in private. After being refused, it used water force to exert pressure, and then shifted the responsibility to Bosch, its distributor in China; The consequence of refusing to apologize is that the incident will continue to escalate, lack of sincere communication and responsibility, and the brand image will only be passive step by step.

In the era of social network, the general public has gained more powerful "communication weapons", which means that the "beyond the limit war" of communication may happen at any time. With the help of the influence of social media and the moral advantages of the vulnerable groups, small individuals have gained the capital to confront large organizations. More and more such cases have also made enterprises, enterprises, enterprises, and other organizations face the challenge Public organizations or public figures must change their public relations thinking.

While Luo Yonghao and Siemens Weibo confront each other, Fang zhouziyin title Li Kaifu is also a typical "war of communication overrun". Li Kaifu is far stronger than Fang Zhouzi in terms of social influence, public reputation and social resources he can use. However, Fang Zhouzi's attack still forces him to respond in the first place.

On the evening of November 22, an hour after Fang Zhouzi sent out his first microblog, Kaifu Li quickly responded on his microblog. Different from big companies like Siemens, Kaifu Lee is very familiar with the habits of social media such as microblog. He strictly refuses to forward the original post while dealing with queries at the first time; Counterattack without emotion; The principle of speaking with facts. To be fair, from the perspective of crisis public relations, he has achieved the ultimate goal, but still can not completely eliminate the damage to his reputation caused by this "overrun war".

For enterprises and organizations, the full arrival of the social network era will bring them a greater test. It seems that there is no answer to how to carry out perfect public relations in the face of crisis. But it is certain that if the traditional antagonistic public relations thinking can not be changed, they will certainly be trapped in the quagmire of communication.