Corporate Crisis Public Relations

Introduction: ?Crisis? is worried and feared by many companies, but modern companies face a market economy full of traps, and may fall into crisis every day. Financial crisis Crisis, marketing crisis, product crisis, even business leader crisis, etc. The following is the corporate crisis public relations I bring to you, I hope it will be helpful to you.

1. Crisis broke out

At 8:50 am on March 21, 2002, the headquarters of Anhui Hefei ** Food Co., Ltd. received a call from the company’s Guangzhou sales office The content of the urgent fax from the office was that the front page of Guangzhou's "** Newspaper" published an article that was extremely detrimental to the company's brand. The title was "** Food Contains Carcinogens?!". The Guangzhou Office included the detailed content published in the newspaper. Copy and Fax Company Headquarters.

The company headquarters office building, which is usually busy with people coming and going, was shaken by the sudden bad news. The employees were frightened and whispered, as if a disaster was coming and the building was about to collapse; in the past The rapid and frequent ringing of the phone seemed to have lost its previous hustle and bustle; the surrounding environment was chilling and depressing.

Around 9:20, a clerk suddenly screamed: NetEase has reprinted the article from Guangzhou "** Daily". Several people present immediately reacted and logged into Sina, Sohu, and Yahoo respectively. Unfortunately, in less than an hour, all major portals reprinted this article!

9: At about 50 minutes, the company's 800 phone number rang rapidly, and other phones at the company's China sales headquarters rang one after another, and almost all of them were calls from the media. Anhui's local Anhui Daily, Xin'an Evening News, Hefei Evening News, Jianghuai Morning News, Xinhua News Agency Anhui Reporter Station, People's Daily Online Anhui Station, and other local media, large and small, all mobilized to inquire into the authenticity and causes of the incident. Central-level media, including People's Daily Economic Edition, Economic Daily, Economic Information News, China Food News, China Quality News, CCTV "Quality Journey", etc. also hurriedly called to inquire. Local mainstream media in other provinces and cities also called the company headquarters, but due to busy calls, they turned to provincial and municipal offices.

Around 11:00, the phones of other departments in the company headquarters also rang one after another. Government leaders and relevant authorities in Anhui Province and Hefei City, as well as units and individuals in society who are concerned about the company, have called to inquire. The deputy mayor in charge of Hefei City, on behalf of the municipal government, personally called the company chairman at 12:00 to inquire about the development of the situation and the cause of the incident.

At 12:00 noon, dealers and secondary wholesalers across the country sent faxes requesting returns. Major chain shopping malls and supermarkets successively sent faxes, requiring that the company's products must be removed from shelves on the same day. Off the counter?.

In less than a day, in just five or six hours, the company has already felt the speed of the spread of information in society, and has felt the situation of "the storm is about to come and the wind is filling the building". And this incident has obviously resulted in a media propaganda and hype incident that has affected all parts of the country and enterprises in various related fields.

2. Cause of the incident

Everyone knows that in the food production process, in order to ensure the shelf life of the product, food companies will add various additives in accordance with relevant national standards, and in various countries in the world The standards and range requirements for additives, especially sweeteners, are different. The product that had the accident this time was caused by the different definitions of additive standards between domestic and international teams.

According to the National Ministry of Health’s GB2760? 1996 "Hygienic Standards for the Use of Food Additives", an appropriate amount of saccharin sodium can be added to this food as a sweetener, and this product has never been detected as sweet in China. Excessive dosage and other phenomena.

So, how did the Guangzhou media determine that the product contained harmful substances?

During a routine spot inspection of the Hong Kong market, the Food and Environment Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region found that the Hong Kong market The additives of 16 kinds of food on the market exceed the standards or the additives are used illegally. On March 19, when the Hong Kong Food and Environmental Hygiene Department held a press conference, 16 kinds of food were placed one by one at the front desk of the press conference for media reporters to take photos. Hong Kong Apple Channel, Jade Channel, Phoenix Channel, etc. held on-site meetings. live streaming.

Unfortunately, of the 16 exposed products, only the products of this Anhui company are products from mainland China, and the rest are imported foods from abroad. This naturally became the basis for the Guangzhou newspaper to write that report.

Why are products in the Hong Kong market unqualified?

The reason is: Hong Kong and the mainland adopt different standards for food additives; only aspartame is allowed to be used as sweetener in Hong Kong food additives sweet. When this company in Anhui produced food for export to Hong Kong, it mistakenly confused domestic packaging with export packaging. As a result, the food exported to Hong Kong used domestic packaging, and the sweeteners marked on the domestic packaging and the export packaging were different. . This is the final reason for this incident!! 3. Public relations begins

Preparation?

At 9:00, the vice presidents, department directors, and managers at the company headquarters have gathered to the president office. The usually friendly, peaceful, approachable and kind-hearted president was stunned by the sudden impact, and he was half lying on the sofa in the half-office. Colleagues looked at the president who worked hard every day and received such a blow today, and they were praying silently in their hearts, praying that this good man, their own company, and their own brand would survive this crisis safely. Crisis!

At 9:30, all the middle and high-level managers in Hefei have arrived (in the middle of the meeting, the legal consultant, Lawyer Zhu, drove 70 to 80 kilometers to arrive). The CEO bowed and was sitting on the sofa. He asked his secretary to pour water for everyone and asked everyone to find a place to sit down. The president cleared his throat and said: "Dear colleagues, everyone knows what happened. I don't want to say anything more." I just want to tell you that history has given us an opportunity to stumble. How can we seize this opportunity and perform a wonderful "front flip" in front of the world, or at least a "forward roll"? This will test all of our basic skills? . Everyone was moved by the CEO's humorous metaphor, and gradually relaxed their tense nerves, and their expressions gradually lost their frozen state. At this time, the president continued: "Now, I announce that we will call today's incident the 3.21 incident, and the company will implement unified emergency command." At the same time, the company's March 21 Incident Crisis Public Relations Committee was established; the director is the president. The committee is divided into the legal group, the media public relations group, the government public relations group, the customer public relations group, the employee public relations group, the financial settlement and security group, and the secretariat. It also announced the names of the leaders and members of each group one by one, as well as the names of each group. work objectives and emergency decision-making procedures; the president also told everyone that the incident has been reported to the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee, Director Sun of the Propaganda Department, and Vice Mayor Sheng in charge of industry. (Sure enough, at 12:30 noon, Minister Sun and Vice Mayor Sheng came to the company on behalf of the municipal party committee and government, and personally served as the honorary director of the company's crisis public relations committee)

At noon on March 21, 2002, Department heads and company leaders who received the task launched public relations actions one after another.

At 2:00 p.m., the company’s legal letters, lawyers’ open letters, and company public statements regarding this incident were all drafted and finalized, and as required, began to be distributed to offices and branches across the country, mainstream media, and Send a fax to the relevant media that reprinted the article.

The beginning of public relations in online media?

Due to the relatively fast transmission speed of online media, the media does not bear legal responsibility for the reported content, so it has become the first "mountain" that must be overcome. Starting at 2:30 p.m., Beijing branch managers Ms. Li and Mr. Dai and their teams went to the Beijing headquarters or branches of portals such as Sina, Sohu, NetEase, and Yahoo respectively with lawyers' letters and open letters to conduct public relations lobbying and explain Reasons for the incident, stating the company’s position and lawyer’s attitude.

At 4:00 pm, Sina first deleted the report;

Starting at 4:30 pm, Sohu, NetEase, and Yahoo successively deleted the report.

At 7:30 in the evening, most of the reposted reports in the online media have been deleted!

The online media public relations campaign was successful. When the news came, the leaders and comrades at the headquarters were tense for a day. The nerves relaxed a little.

Government public relations begins?

The core of the 3.21 incident is the issue of technical standards. Therefore, the core of government public relations should still be the Ministry of Health, which is in charge of additives.

Vice President Xu of the company in Beijing ordered the public relations of the District Ministry of Health. They found the Standards Department and related departments. The company's product standards were initially affirmed by the health department. There were no problems in the domestic market, but they did not agree to issue relevant certificates. . Although there has been no substantial progress, the worries of those involved in public relations have finally been settled.

Immediately afterwards, Mr. Xu and Ms. Li from the Beijing branch went to the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce to ask when the approval for the company's brand declaration "China Well-known Trademark" would be obtained. What they didn't expect was that the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce already knew the company's situation and immediately handed over the completed "China Well-known Trademark" plaque and approval to Mr. Xu and his party. This indicates that the company is carrying another "Shang Fang Sword".

No matter what kind of enterprise it is, it is inseparable from the strong support of the local government. The 3.21 incident has attracted the attention of relevant provincial and municipal leaders and departments. The company’s president reported face-to-face to the Provincial Economic and Trade Commission, the Planning Commission, the Provincial Government Office, as well as the main leaders and leaders in charge of the municipal party committee and government in the afternoon of the same day, and obtained the provincial and municipal leaders’ opinions. With the approval and strong support, Director Wang of the Hefei Municipal Party Committee External Publicity Office was entrusted to take the lead in organizing and holding a press conference in the name of the Hefei Municipal Government. On the one hand, it showed the company's "China Famous Trademark" title and corporate style to the media, and on the other hand, it This aspect shows the government's trust attitude towards the enterprise! At the same time, the mayor in charge requested the Hefei Municipal Technical Supervision Bureau and the Health Bureau to urgently check the product qualifications, and announced them at the meeting. This press conference is so important, it is simply the most important part of the entire crisis public relations.

Customer PR begins?

Because the 3.21 incident had such a huge impact and spread so fast, it was exposed in front of the public before anyone had any reaction. Therefore, the response from customers is very strong, because this kind of food has been selling well for just one or two years, and adults and children love to eat it; but as soon as the media reports were made public, it seemed that everyone suddenly became a cancer patient . As a result, supermarkets removed shelves and counters, and customers returned goods one after another.

After receiving the company’s unified instructions, lawyers’ letters, and open letters, each sales office launched the most difficult round of public relations targeting clients and customers. Because these offices and branches are not as concentrated in resources as the company headquarters. They have to face the tracking of local mainstream media and deal with the doubts of customers and customers. Many supervisors have not been able to sleep for four or five days in a row. A full sleep.

Customer public relations in various places first start with chain hypermarkets, such as Carrefour, Wal-Mart, Tesco, Hualian, Xinyijia, Lianhua, Yichu Lotus, etc. After communication with local offices and branches, as well as legal letters from the company headquarters to these large supermarket chains and store headquarters, the major hypermarkets will not remove the products from their shelves for the time being, and will wait and see for a few days before making any decisions. Therefore, the company carried out customer public relations in various major stores, and carried out product promotion and brand promotion work. It took about fifteen days for the turmoil in supermarkets and stores to gradually stabilize.

Consumer public relations?

Due to the large volume and dispersed crowds, consumer public relations mainly rely on media advertising and public relations. First, the company is notified of the "China Well-known Trademark", and the second is the domestic company's products. Image promotion. The company has signed emergency advertising contracts with CCTV and provincial and municipal satellite TVs for air media dissemination; at the same time, it has urgently cooperated with China Quality Newspaper, China Food Newspaper, and mainstream print media in various provinces and cities. Later, combined with the announcement of the Ministry of Health, continuous publicity was carried out, which made the public relations effect among consumers more obvious. In about thirty days, sales recovered again, and dealers began to place orders one after another.

Press conference?

Among all public relations links, the two press conferences on the 3.21 incident played a crucial role. The first is the press conference held by the Hefei Municipal Government on March 24, and the second is the press conference held by the Hefei Municipal Government and the company in Guangzhou on March 27.

On March 24, the Hefei Municipal Government’s ** brand was awarded the “China Well-known Trademark” press conference, led by the Hefei Municipal Foreign Propaganda Office and held at the Hefei Angang Hotel.

Reporters from Xinhua News Agency, People's Daily, and Economic Daily in Fei, as well as local reporters from Anhui TV, Anhui Daily, Xin'an Evening News, Jianghuai Morning News, Hefei TV, Hefei Evening News, and other professional media are invited to participate. The press conference invited Director Wu of the Provincial Administration for Industry and Commerce, Member of the Standing Committee of the Hefei Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, Minister Sun of the Propaganda Department, Deputy Mayor Sheng of the Hefei Municipal Government, and Director Shang of the Hefei Municipal Technical Supervision Bureau to attend the press conference. The press conference began with the company's Vice President Xiong introducing the company's response measures after the incident, and reading out the company's statement and lawyer's letter; Director Wu of the Provincial Administration for Industry and Commerce read out the approval from the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce that the ** brand was a "well-known trademark in China" ; Director Shang of the Hefei Municipal Technical Supervision Bureau read out the results of emergency product spot inspections and reported the results of previous spot inspections, emphasizing that product quality and production processes conform to national standards; Deputy Mayor Sheng of the Hefei Municipal Government expressed "Three Firms" on behalf of the municipal government: Firmly believe The company's products resolutely support the company's crisis public relations work and resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the company. On behalf of the Hefei Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, Minister Sun of the Municipal Party Committee made a request to the local media in Anhui and Hefei from the perspective of publicity: "Be based on facts and not spread unfounded news." Finally, company leaders accepted questions from the media. Because the Hefei Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government had a firm attitude and the press conference was of a relatively high standard,

Therefore, the local media in Anhui Province and Hefei City no longer had any negative news or hype. ?The doorstep? It’s settled.

On March 25, the team was led by Minister Sun of the Municipal Party Committee, Deputy Mayor Sheng of the Government, Director Shang of the Hefei Technical Supervision Bureau, Director Wang of the External Publicity Office, Deputy Director Huang of the Government Office, as well as the president and president of the company A group of eight people, including the office manager and secretary, flew to Guangzhou and met with Vice President Xiong,

Lawyer Zhu, the company’s legal advisor, and Manager Peng of the Guangzhou office, who had arrived in Guangzhou earlier, to prepare for March 27 Guangzhou press conference.

At 10:00 am on March 27, the press conference of Hefei Municipal People’s Government and Hefei ** Food Company’s ** brand to obtain China’s Well-known Trademark started on time. Local leaders and experts who were invited and attended the meeting include Deputy Director Lin of the Guangdong Provincial Economic and Trade Commission, Deputy Director Li of the Guangzhou Technical Supervision Bureau, and one biology expert each from the Food Inspection Institute of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Health and South China University of Technology; Eleven people in charge of important Category A stores such as Wal-Mart, Carrefour, and Trust-Mart attended the meeting; more than 30 reporters were invited and attended the meeting. Hong Kong and Macao media include Phoenix News Channel, Apple Channel, Jade Channel, Macau TV, Hong Kong Wen Wei Po, Ta Kung Pao, Macau Daily, media in Guangdong Province, Guangzhou City, and Shenzhen City include Guangzhou Daily, Yangcheng Evening News, New Express, Southern Metropolis Daily, Shenzhen Business Daily, China Quality News, Guangdong Industrial and Commercial News, Guangdong TV, Southern TV Station (Economic Station, Metropolis Station), Shenzhen TV Station, etc. The press conference was hosted by Director Wang of the Hefei Municipal Foreign Publicity Office. First, Vice President Xiong of the company introduced the 3.21 incident and the current situation; then Vice Mayor Sheng of the Hefei Municipal Government announced that the ** brand had obtained the "China Famous Trademark" and announced the Hefei Municipal Government The government's "three resolute" opinions; Director Shang of the Hefei Municipal Technical Supervision Bureau and experts from the Food Inspection Institute of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Health successively issued product quality announcements; then, a professor from South China University of Technology rescued the legal use of additives and excessive intake of animals. Expert opinions were expressed on the specific environment involved in the test, academic research on hazards and controversies, as well as the effectiveness and safety of the National Ministry of Health's GB2760-1996 "Hygienic Standards for the Use of Food Additives"; finally, Minister Sun delivered a topic on behalf of the Hefei Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government. In order to "unswervingly support the development of the enterprise", he invited the media to visit the enterprise in Hefei and welcomed the media to continue to supervise the enterprise.

After the news release, company leaders and professors from South China University of Technology accepted joint interviews from Phoenix News, Macau TV, Hong Kong Wen Wei Po, Ta Kung Pao, Macau Daily, Guangdong TV, Southern TV, and Shenzhen TV.

That night, the media attending the press conference successively reported the news that the ** brand had obtained the "China Famous Trademark", and reported on the live joint interview, as well as the South China University of Science and Technology experts' interviews with reporters. At this point, the news media's public relations victory was successful in the first battle, and every tough nut was broken. Everyone's deep affection, which had been tense for a week, gradually released a trace of smile.

Employee public relations?

Since the company enjoys a high reputation in Anhui Province and Hefei City, and the company and the president have a good reputation, the employees are very concerned about the development of this incident, but no one People resigned or left their jobs because of this incident. As long as the president is in Hefei, he will personally go to the production and management sites every day to explain to everyone the latest progress in incident handling. All departments and units will follow the instructions issued by the company in an orderly manner. Therefore, there was basically no turmoil or uneasiness among employees. The workshop resumed production the day after the incident.

Responsible media communication

The media responsible for the 3.21 incident---Guangzhou *** Newspaper is a subsidiary newspaper of a larger local evening newspaper in Guangzhou. The report contained a certain degree of distortion. Hype. The company's legal advisor, Lawyer Zhu, took the company's opinions and repeatedly communicated with the media to clarify the legal consequences. In the end, the company spent hundreds of thousands to advertise in this media, and the media also published a statement with incorrect information.

Continuous follow-up work?

After the incident, many media still requested to come to the company to follow up the reports. They received constant calls and emails every day, and some media took the opportunity to ask the company to do so. Advertising and publicity continued until the end of April, and there were still sporadic media reports.

On March 29, the Ministry of Health issued a statement on the stevia incident. It turns out that due to the impact of Chinese stevia products, the international sweet additive industry has experienced great turmoil and controversy, and some countries in the world, especially in North America and Oceania, have stopped importing Chinese stevia. Just as the company was dealing with the 3.21 incident, many stevia production companies in the mainland had stopped production and closed down. Therefore, the Ministry of Health's announcement gave everyone an official result. The whole incident was gradually calmed down due to the announcement from the Ministry of Health.

IV. Crisis Reflection

Looking back at the company’s 3.21 incident, it is not difficult to find that there are major problems in the company’s internal management. Especially two days before the incident occurred, that is, on the night of March 19, when the Hong Kong media exposed it, a vice president of the company already knew the news, but did not pay attention to it and take remedial measures in a timely manner; instead, it was delayed until the March 21 incident broke out. Report the matter to the president. This may be another reason for the crisis. Just imagine, if the company immediately found the cause after the Hong Kong media exposure on March 19 and started public relations in the Hong Kong media on March 20, the subsequent March 21 incident might not have happened.

The 3.21 incident caused direct and indirect economic losses of about 12 million yuan, and the brand image was affected to a certain extent. The incident itself gave the company a lot of reflection:

First, all aspects of corporate management, especially detail management, have not yet adapted to the needs of rapid corporate development. The company's sales have doubled for three consecutive years, causing some people, especially middle and senior managers, to neglect details and the end of management.

Second, internal communication has not been timely, accurate, and borderless. The foreign trade department guided Hong Kong media reports, but blocked other departments of the company.

Third, the company has not established an emergency response plan and prevention system. Although the company has very detailed arrangements for crisis management, because there is no system to regulate it, everyone is still confused and unsure; and it is because of the lack of preventive measures that the 3.21 incident broke out.

Fourth, there was a problem with the inspection and supervision of the product realization process. The wrong packaging was used, and there was no inspection and investigation. This caused great doubts about the inspection process. How to ensure product quality?

< p>The fifth is how to mobilize corporate resources in crisis. It should be said that the company's internal and external resources, especially Renmai's resources, are very rich. Office managers across the country are all independent public relations. The headquarters only has public statements and lawyer's letters, and local resources are deployed by the offices themselves. Therefore, the cooperation between the headquarters and various locations is very tacit, maximizing the resource advantages.

Sixth, the role of the government in crisis public relations. If the crisis public relations of the 3.21 incident did not involve the full participation of government leaders, the results of the public relations would be difficult to predict. Because the government's attitude is very firm, and the government's credibility is much greater than that of a single enterprise.

The seventh is how to deal with the media.

Some people say that the media is a country that has little success or failure. It can only be kept at a distance, acquainted but not close, and used but not valued. I also agree with these views. Some media, in order to hype the popularity of the media or the reporter himself, publish irresponsible reports in a distorted and malicious manner, which has caused the collapse of many companies. ;