Behind Huaxizi’s PR failure: Why does the boss always distrust his own PR team?

As a new domestic beauty brand that has emerged in recent years, Huaxizi is deeply tied to the top anchor Li Jiaqi. After Li Jiaqi's failure, Huaxizi was also pushed to the forefront. Consumers questioned the unreasonable price of 79 yuan per eyebrow pencil. One gram is equivalent to more than 900 yuan, which is cheaper than gold. The statement given by Huaxizi did not give a satisfactory answer, which once again attracted criticism from netizens. This article analyzes the mistakes of public relations. Let's take a look!

At 5 pm yesterday, Huaxizi's crisis public relations finally came. The public relations consisted of an open letter and a prize collection. In the long letter, Huaxizi expressed its helplessness and strengthened its oriental brand, focusing on "letting a hundred flowers bloom and domestic products become stronger", without mentioning any public opinion focus such as Li Jiaqi and the price per gram.

During the solicitation, Hua Xizi used "Hua Xi Coin" to refer to eyebrow pencils, and took out 10,000 copies for lottery, trying to use self-deprecating techniques to move the original negative brand public opinion words to a neutral zone.

Judging from the results, the results were minimal. Below the response, most netizens commented that they were "incomprehensible". Under the lucky draw post, there were also many comments such as "I still want to continue cutting leeks" and "Sisters, use something good". Amid the heated discussion, "Hua Xizi speaks out" quickly became a hot search, but a large number of discussions in the hot squares were negative about this response. "Responded, but it seems that nothing was responded to" became the core discussion word of a group of big Vs. Within a day, negative public opinion continued to ferment, and negative topics such as "Hua Xizi claims to be a genuine domestic product", "Hua Xizi's apology is not sincere enough", and "Hua Xizi's apology letter does not need to repeatedly emphasize that it is a domestic product" have successively become hot searches. At the same time, today, a large number of discussions about the crisis public relations operator appeared. An insider in the industry told China News Service that Hua Xizi's open letter did not come from its company's public relations department. At the same time, some employees in the public relations department have resigned voluntarily, and the team may face a collective change of blood.

Doujiao also confirmed again from several relevant insiders that the party that handled this public opinion was not from within the Huaxizi Group, but from an MCN company across the street from Huaxizi. "The public relations department handled public opinion on its own before. This time, we actually prepared a very sincere and long reply, but finally adopted the external version." Obviously, Huaxizi, which was affected by the Li Jiaqi incident, stood in the center of the public opinion field again because of this statement, sparking a second crusade from the majority of netizens. This statement not only failed to put an end to the negative public opinion, but instead had the opposite effect of adding more water to the pot to stop the boiling. What exactly is Huaxizi's fault?

1. Huaxizi PR Interpretation: Three core issues, wrong steps

"It's so stupid, from the timing to the content of the statement. It's better not to issue this statement." Kony, the head of a marketing company in East China and a crisis public relations expert, told Doujiao. First of all, from the timing point of view, the Li Jiaqi incident happened on September 10, the public opinion broke out on September 11, and Huaxizi's apology came late on September 19. In 9 days, public opinion has tripled. "To put it bluntly, it's still time to eat a banquet. The golden time to deal with the incident is within 24 hours. At worst, there is still hope in the first 3 days. Now 9 days have passed, no one is talking about you, and the negative impact has been fully revealed. What's the point of speaking out at this time?" Kony sighed.

To a certain extent, this is also related to the "seesaw" within Huaxizi. According to Doujiao, after the incident, there was a dispute within Huaxizi about whether to speak out and when to speak out, but no consensus was reached, and there were several completely different versions of the content of the statement. "There are people in the public relations department who have very strong public relations skills and made a very long and sincere statement, but it was not adopted in the end. The boss still chose the version of the external cooperation team." An insider revealed. But from the content point of view, this version presented to the public does not have the value of being carefully crafted and polished for a long time.

"The whole article is incomprehensible, and every sentence is arrogant, which violates the principle of sincerity and is another taboo in crisis public relations." Kony said. To explore the correct way to solve the crisis, we need to focus on the core negative discussion words about Hua Xizi.

First of all, the biggest keyword is expensive. Doujiao has reported this before (Hua Xizi was "punished by public opinion" by Li Jiaqi, is it unfair?). After the Li Jiaqi incident fermented, public opinion quickly transitioned to discussing "gram weight", and concluded that Hua Xizi's eyebrow pencil and powder are more expensive per gram than similar products of Shu Uemura and Chanel. Therefore, it is believed that its price is too high and not worth it. On the one hand, there are a lot of international brands with lower per gram prices than Hua Xizi to choose from. On the other hand, there are more cost-effective domestic brands such as Khaki Color, Black Rabbit, and Hua Luolia, especially Hua Luolia, which costs less than 10 yuan per stick. As a domestic product, it is much cheaper.

"In fact, discussing price differences based on weight is not the price comparison logic of the color beauty industry. Color beauty products with small packages and light weight are the product of adapting to the usage trends of consumers in recent years. The intrinsic value attributes such as unpacking fees, research and development costs, styling and appearance aesthetics, and technological support are the factors that determine pricing." Susan, the person in charge of a domestic beauty brand, told Doujiao.

"PR must face the public's price controversy and explain why the price is set so clearly, so as to refute the weight logic that undermines the brand's foundation," said Kony. "But the current PR statement does not contain any price-related content at all."

Secondly, the second key word is over-marketing. The second round of discussion triggered by high prices and anchors is that Huaxizi gave too much money to the top anchor Li Jiaqi and a group of Internet celebrities, cutting "consumers" leeks in disguise: the marketing expenses are inflated, which increases the cost, but the product itself is not worth it. Some netizens broke the news on the Internet that the commission for the cooperation between Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room and Huaxizi is as high as 80%. Such content has also caused a lot of negative emotions and great dissatisfaction among a large number of netizens. Surprisingly, in this response, the content related to the sky-high pit fees, live broadcast room commissions and marketing research and development logic also did not appear in the statement at all.

"As far as I know, the claim of 80% commission is a huge exaggeration. Even though Huaxizi and Li Jiaqi are deeply tied and highly dependent on each other, it is not to this extent. Many of these revelations are just muddying the waters. Brands don't respond positively, perhaps because there is no way to directly announce the cooperation model and commission, or they may feel that this topic is sensitive and difficult to talk about directly with the public." A brand supplier who has had contact with Li Jiaqi told Doujiao. But in kony's opinion, even if it is inconvenient to disclose the specific amount, an official statement is needed about the untruth of the commission sharing rumored on the Internet, and at the same time, the concept of brand R&D investment and reasonable marketing expenditure should be strengthened. "In the public system, explanation does not mean it is useful, but avoidance = default, which is very dangerous."

Hua Xizi only responded to the commission in an interview with the media . The third core point of public disgust is arrogance.

To a certain extent, Hua Xizi is a victim of Li Jiaqi's remarks. Li Jiaqi's words "domestic products are already miserable" directly pushed Hua Xizi into the middle of the fire. A large number of consumers who are "much worse off than domestic products" are fighting back against the top anchor Li Jiaqi, and naturally they also hate Hua Xizi. Whether it is the anchor who is labeled as "2.08 million" or Hua Xizi who is labeled as a "capitalist", they all sell misery to consumers in the live broadcast room with a kind of high-handed arrogance, which constitutes the core reason for netizens to explode. The unit of measurement such as "Hua Xi Coin" is precisely a resistance to this arrogant core. But in the response, Hua Xizi apologized on one side, and on the other side, the official played the "Hua Xi Coin" stalk, trying to adjust the meaning of this negative term with self-deprecation, but it had the exact opposite effect.

" Playing memes and making fun of oneself is a common crisis public relations tactic, but what needs to be distinguished is the subject and object of the meme. Artists like Yang Mi play memes because they are victims themselves, and speaking out themselves gives off a sense of magnanimity, tolerance, and playfulness. However, in the term Huaxibi, the victim is the consumer, and Huaxizi, like Li Jiaqi, is the subject of the perpetrator. Playing memes at this time will only increase the sense of arrogance. What the brand needs to do is to apologize humbly instead of trying to simply pass it over. How can a perpetrator make a joke to make the victim laugh?" Kony explained.

2. Behind the crisis statements made by outsiders: the PR silence of big brands

It is not difficult to find that behind this statement that is incomprehensible to consumers, practitioners and crisis public relations experts is a trust given to an external team rather than its own public relations team. Combining reports from multiple media outlets and conversations with insiders, Huaxizi's statement error is also closely related to the fact that it outsourced the matter to an outsourced team rather than its own public relations department. This is also a common choice for many Internet brands and top brands when they encounter major crises. Compared with their own public relations team, they will trust the external "crisis public relations handling agency" more.

"This is related to the functions of the PR department of some brands," Kony told Doujiao. "For some growing brands and international brands in China, the PR team's functions are divided into very detailed parts. Many of them are responsible for daily positive communication and point-to-point and single event negative public opinion monitoring and elimination. The crisis team may have only one or two or three people. When encountering major crisis events, professional third-party agencies are often needed to help." But sometimes this is also related to power disputes within large companies. " The PR department is here to take the blame when something goes wrong.

Good communication is done by the marketing department, and they have the final say, but the public relations department is usually not trusted. They have no say in front of the big boss. But when something like this happens, the boss's first reaction is to blame the public relations team for not making a good crisis plan and causing public opinion. But sometimes it is really a crisis that cannot be planned. But at this time, the boss does not care, and they naturally do not trust us. "The public relations manager of a certain brand complained to Doujiao.

Doujiao also learned that several years ago, after a major Internet company encountered a major crisis, the boss directly blamed the public relations team, chose to deal with it coldly, and finally disbanded the entire public relations department within half a year after the incident. There is also a certain car brand that has frequently encountered public opinion crises in the past two years, and every time a crisis occurs, there will be a major change in the public relations team. "In this case, many incredible crisis public relations will be born," Kony said: "A good crisis must be the intervention of an external mature team and good cooperation and joint efforts with the internal team of the brand. We provide channels and strategic suggestions, and they clarify brand needs, pain points and details. The most feared thing is unprofessional third parties and blindly trusting bosses, and the end is often a bad review case that is better left unsaid." Obviously, Huaxizi's public relations statement can be classified as the latter.

At present, public opinion has once again been in an uproar, and the brand's response has made it the center of public criticism. This belated statement did not respond to any of the points about the price per gram, excessive marketing, and brand mentality. The core pricing logic, brand core, and other areas that should and need to be explained were not expanded at all. On the surface, it seems to avoid the public's sensitive emotions and avoid triggering secondary public opinion, but in fact it only seems to avoid the main issue and further confirm the brand's "nothing to say." "

After the incident, we were actually very confused about why the public began to compare by grams. For new domestic brands that want to achieve brand premium, we also hope to explain clearly the so-called difficulties of domestic brands, but there is none in this statement. "Susan said helplessly. But she also told Doujiao, "If the crisis comes to us, the final choice may be not to speak out. Because this incident has triggered collective public emotions, such emotions cannot be listened to reasonable explanations. The pricing logic of domestic beauty brands, the rationality and inevitability of channel marketing expenses, the brand premium of new domestic products and the difficult situation in the past two years are all very industry-related things. Under the current public opinion, it is difficult to explain it to consumers. It is better not to say it. "

Kony has a different view: "The most important factor in crisis public relations is not to reason, but to gain emotional understanding. Don't try to prove that the audience is wrong, but to guide everyone to discuss the direction that is beneficial to the brand. At this time, the posture is very important, the identity must be low enough, and the emotional card must be played.

The biggest problem with this statement is that it doesn’t make sense, but it also doesn’t give a stance. The whole thing is that we are Chinese products, and we are actually not wrong. But since we came out with crisis public relations, we want to be forgiven, and we have to admit our mistakes.”

Have you read Hua Xizi’s statement?

Author: A Guan

WeChat public account: Doujiao TMT (ID: ylwanjia)