What went wrong with the marketing and public relations of the three named companies exposed by the 315 Gala?

The 315 Party is here again. Every year at this time, some people are happy and some are sad. What problems did the famous companies exposed in marketing and public relations have? Let's take a look~

This year's 315 Gala changed the style of the past few years of only criticizing the phenomenon without naming the companies, and exposed several companies by name. Compared with the past when the industry problems accumulated on their own brands, the lethality of exposure by name is naturally more powerful. For the current situation faced by these companies, we can only say "karma has always worked."

There will be many analyses on how these companies cope with the crisis, but I would like to briefly analyze the marketing and public relations problems presented by three of the well-known companies in the reports to see what exactly caused them to fall into their current situation. I also hope that it can serve as a lesson for other companies.

1. [Tinghuajiu] - False propaganda, fooling people

Tinghua Liquor, a liquor brand with a mysterious and poetic name, has attracted wide attention in the market in recent years. It differentiates itself by its magical skill of "listening to the flowers and judging the liquor", claiming that one can tell the quality of the liquor simply by listening to the sound of the hops bursting. This unique tasting method makes Tinghua Liquor stand out in the liquor market and attracts the attention of countless consumers.

Later, Tinghua Liquor claimed to have many functions such as improving immune indicators, increasing the proportion of deep sleep and improving male functional indicators. It used the "asymmetric" information marketing techniques that were previously used in the field of health products, and seemed to have achieved results. It once attracted attention from all walks of life at a price of 50,000 yuan.

The core attribute of mid- to high-end liquor lies in its social attributes, and high-end liquor is a carrier of face. There is nothing wrong with using marketing means to create a high-end positioning and raise the price, which can satisfy some people's desire to show off and win the market.

However, it is not advisable for Tinghua Liquor to treat consumers as fools and fool them, and to create a high-end positioning through false propaganda, which means it has extreme contempt for consumers.

Today, Tinghua Liquor has to swallow the bitter fruit of its past "false propaganda". After the 315 Gala, Tinghua Liquor has become a pariah, with e-commerce platforms and airport advertisements removing it from the shelves. The local market supervision and administration bureau has also paid attention to its problems, and it will face severe interrogation.

Even if it can get through this hurdle, the future prospects are not optimistic. To put it bluntly: if Tinghua Wine wanted to be so expensive that people would think "those who can't afford it are poor", now that it has been exposed, it will only make people think "whoever buys it is an idiot".

2. [BMW] - Arrogant treatment of customers, unfavorable public relations risk investigation

Regarding the problem of BMW's drive shaft that was exposed in the 315 Gala, there are relatively clear consumer protection regulations in the industry. BMW has also conducted multiple recalls for similar situations in the past. However, it has been slow to resolve the frequently occurring problems in terms of product design and manufacturing quality, and has always left the problems to be resolved in the after-sales stage, which undoubtedly shows its arrogant attitude towards customers.

In fact, the careless attitude, slow work pace and perfunctory measures of 4S stores in the 315 Gala report all show this feeling. Although 4S stores are not fully owned by BMW, excellent automobile OEMs have always had a strong influence and control over 4S stores. BMW seems to be an exception. Or has its arrogance towards customers led to a comprehensive decline in its requirements for the service level of itself and 4S stores?

In addition, this case also exposed problems in BMW's crisis public relations work:

The transmission shaft problem is not an isolated case. There are endless online complaints. In the context of the overall rise of domestically produced cars, was there no awareness to carry out relevant media risk investigation before March 15? Or was it that the risks were investigated but there was no ability to eliminate them after all attempts?

Whether it is due to lack of awareness or insufficient ability, BMW needs to strengthen its crisis public relations work.

3. [Tongcheng Finance] - Neglecting consumer protection and failing to effectively manage customer complaint risks

The problems with Tongcheng Finance's products themselves will not be elaborated here, but only the problems in its response to consumer complaints will be analyzed.

Thanks to the fact that I have been in charge of related work in the past, I know that the relevant national regulatory authorities actually attach great importance to the protection of financial consumer rights and interests. They have repeatedly required financial institutions to establish a consumer rights protection mechanism, set up channels for enterprises to accept consumer complaints, and report customer complaint handling and consumer protection work to the regulatory authorities on a regular basis.

We have no way of knowing how Tongcheng Finance's overall consumer protection performance is, but we saw in the 315 Gala report that when it received a customer complaint, it sent a public affairs department staff member (some institutions may have this department responsible for consumer protection complaints) to receive the customer, but the staff member behaved extremely unprofessionally.

Without verifying in detail the problems and demands encountered by consumers, they simply emphasized that their products were legal and compliant, ignored the feelings of consumers, and failed to calm their emotions in a timely manner. They even gave magical suggestions for customers to call the police or complain to the Industrial and Commercial Bureau.

The extremely unprofessional behavior of this person reflects the company's neglect of consumer protection, which is contrary to the requirements of the regulatory authorities, not to mention being consumer-centric, and may harm the company's long-term stable development.

However, when faced with customer complaints that come to the company proactively, the company is unable to resolve them within its internal system, but instead pushes the complaints outward, giving customers a very poor experience, or even directly refers them to administrative law enforcement departments, further exacerbating conflicts, allowing risks to spill over, and escalating into a public opinion crisis. This fully reflects the company's poor control of customer complaint risks in its crisis management work, which has created huge hidden dangers to its brand development and business security.

In fact, summarizing the problems of marketing and public relations of these three companies, we find that they have common characteristics: 1. Ignoring laws and regulations and testing the edge of breaking the law and regulations; 2. Not only failing to be consumer-centric, but also putting corporate interests above consumer interests; 3. Weak crisis management awareness, especially lack of crisis public relations capabilities. This also reminds other companies that strictly adhering to the bottom line of legality and compliance is the guarantee of their own safety. There is still a long way to go to put consumer-centricity into practice. Crisis management should start from daily life, from small things, and from the heart. We must remember that only by walking steadily can we go far.

Author: Chen Hao; WeChat public account: Brand Market Relativity (ID: Brand-Marketing)