How to “take advantage of crisis and turn crisis into opportunity” in crisis public relations from the BMW MINI incident

The BMW MINI incident was a hot topic. As a marketer, the author makes some rational analysis and suggestions on this "disaster-level public relations incident", and combines it with recent successful crisis public relations cases to find their commonalities, hoping to inspire you.

First of all, regarding the "double standards" and "discrimination" of the ice cream at the BMW MINI booth at the Shanghai International Auto Show, as a Chinese I am also very angry. The Shanghai Auto Show ended on April 27 and the hot topic is fading. At present, I can only make some rational analysis and suggestions on this "disaster-level public relations incident" from a marketer's perspective.

Crisis public relations is something that many marketers can only encounter but not seek, because even the most inexperienced marketers can become marketing masters if they successfully handle a crisis public relations incident, but of course, they may ruin their careers if they fail to handle it well. Unfortunately, the public relations crises that we have encountered before are not good enough to be put on the table, so we are quite interested in the crisis public relations of BMW MINI. At present, the crisis public relations of the BMW MINI "ice cream" incident has been called "disaster public relations" by some media. Indeed, because of the "ice cream" incident, BMW's market value evaporated by 18.3 billion, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a "disaster". So does BMW MINI really have no way to solve this crisis public relations incident?

Personally, I think the answer is no, but I’ll keep it a secret for now.

First, let’s take a look at the successful examples of crisis public relations in recent years to see if we can find a solution to the BMW MINI “ice cream” incident.

In recent years, there have been many successful crisis public relations cases, such as the Haidilao hygiene incident, the Xiabu Xiabu duck blood incident, the Starbucks "racial discrimination" incident, etc. These successful crisis public relations cases have certain commonalities in the handling process. Let's see whether these successful commonalities also exist in the handling process of the BMW MINI "ice cream" incident?

1. Several common characteristics of successful crisis public relations cases

1. Speed ​​& Systematicity

The Haidilao hygiene incident was manifested in the following: Haidilao issued an apology statement 3 hours after the crisis occurred, and provided a full set of rectification and handling measures on the same day.

The Xiabu Xiabu Duck Blood scandal manifested itself in the following ways: all relevant persons in charge were immediately brought into a group to discuss how to respond, and relevant emergency plans were urgently launched online. All persons in charge were in place to communicate effectively with the government and regulatory agencies, media, consumers, industry associations and shareholders, and the direction of public opinion was monitored at the first opportunity.

Starbucks' racial discrimination is manifested in the following aspects: after the racial discrimination crisis occurred, a crisis management team was quickly formed, and the company's top leader - the CEO personally came out to make a statement, clarify the facts and apologize.

2. Communicate sincerely

The Haidilao hygiene incident was manifested in the following aspects: verifying the problem as soon as possible, and after confirming the problem, actively admitting the mistake and thanking the media for supervision.

Xiabu Xiabu duck blood scandal was manifested in the following ways: first, it contacted the CCTV reporter who reported the news and hoped to give him the latest duck blood test report. Secondly, it released a statement to tell consumers, regulators, media and stakeholders what Xiabu Xiabu’s attitude towards the incident was.

Starbucks' racial discrimination is manifested in the following: Starbucks used soft public relations to reach a consensus with the two parties and sponsored them to go to college. Through this behavior, it stabilized the emotions and interests of the parties.

3. Take responsibility

The Haidilao hygiene incident was reflected in the fact that the company did not put the blame on employees and stores. Instead, the board of directors took the initiative to take responsibility for the employees' mistakes, and truly lived up to the principle of "I take the blame, I correct the mistakes, and I support the employees", perfectly presenting the corporate image of a responsible person.

The Xiabu Xiabu Duck Blood incident was manifested in the following: a Weibo post was posted providing an emergency solution and contact number. After the phone number was made public, the company received more than 70 calls and more than 200 text messages that night. The publication of the phone number showed that the company dared to face the crisis.

Starbucks' racial discrimination is manifested in the following aspects: the store closure training was mainly aimed at some people who did not know the truth and might still have doubts about racial discrimination, and special "anti-racial discrimination" training was carried out, resulting in a decrease of 16.7 million US dollars in the company's turnover.

4. Authoritative argument

The Haidilao hygiene incident is manifested in: hiring a professional third-party company to conduct a comprehensive inspection of hygiene in every corner of its own business to completely prevent similar problems from happening again.

The Xiabu Xiabu Duck Blood scandal manifested itself in the following aspects: the company invited the Food and Drug Administration to conduct sampling inspections, and adopted silent mode before the results were announced. After the media reported the relevant information and verified with the company, they successfully guided the media to wait for the government agency's test results.

Starbucks' racial discrimination is manifested in the following: in addition to funding the two parties involved, it also used the media to announce its willingness to fund African-Americans, thereby taking practical action to counter the rumors.

The final result:

The success of Haidilao’s crisis public relations for the health incident not only quickly gained the widespread trust and goodwill of netizens, but also appeased the company’s internal employees, making them feel that the company was responsible for themselves and the stores. It not only successfully restored the company’s reputation, but more importantly, it united the hearts of the people within the company.

After the inspection of the Food and Drug Administration, Xiabu Xiabu finally cleared its name and the duck blood was found to be fine. At the same time, Xiabu Xiabu's stock price stopped falling and rose by 33% in one week.

Starbucks's series of public relations measures for the racial discrimination crisis not only successfully resolved the crisis, but also fully demonstrated its world view, outlook on life, and values ​​to the outside world, realizing opportunities in crisis and turning crisis into opportunity. Using the above example, let's take a look at BMW MINI's crisis response in the "ice cream" incident.

2. BMW MINI’s crisis response in the “ice cream” incident

On April 19, 2023, a netizen broke the news that when visiting the BMW MINI booth at the Shanghai Auto Show, the booth staff refused to give ice cream to Chinese visitors, claiming that they had run out of ice cream. But when foreign visitors came to pick it up, not only did they get the ice cream, but the staff also kindly taught them how to eat it. The BMW MINI booth had problems of "double standards" and "discrimination against Chinese people."

On April 20, 2023, MINI China issued an apology, saying: The "Shanghai Auto Show On-site Gift-Sweet Pet" event initiated by MINI was originally intended to give sweetness to the friends and relatives who visited the exhibition. Due to our poor internal management and negligence of our staff, it caused everyone's unhappiness. We sincerely apologize for this!

On April 21, 2023, BMW MINI apologized again for the auto show ice cream incident, saying that the "foreigners" in the video were colleagues. The statement said that in addition to distributing 300 ice creams every day on the 18th and 19th, a very small portion was reserved for colleagues on the scene. The 4-5 "foreigners" seen in the video were colleagues, and they wore employee badges.

BMW MINI's crisis public relations was resolved very quickly. The reason of blaming the management loopholes and proposing a "foreign" colleague was so pale, and such a solution and plan was full of loopholes, which is also the reason for netizens' dissatisfaction and dissatisfaction. Many netizens even shouted "ChatGPT's editing copy is better than this." This crisis public relations was ruined by the marketing team!

Is it feasible to borrow the successful crisis management methods of Haidilao, Xiabu Xiabu and Starbucks? To be honest, it is difficult. Admitting mistakes means admitting one's own "double standards" and "discrimination", which is fatal to the Chinese market. Choose not to admit it? Because there is really no other choice but to choose not to admit it. It's just a pity that the crisis public relations resolution team is too bad!

Is there really no solution? The answer is still no, there are currently two feasible solutions for reference.

3. Two feasible solutions to the BMW MINI "ice cream" incident

When talking about solutions, let’s first look at what factors we can borrow?

• The two young ladies at the booth are employees of the agency.
• Ice cream is only pushed to "foreigners".
• On April 17, BMW Greater China President and CEO Jochen Goller delivered a speech in Chinese at the opening of BMW's "Imagining the Future Night", which shows his emphasis on the Chinese market. Goller repeatedly emphasized that BMW's "home is in China" and said that nearly half of the BMW Group's board of directors came to the event.

Solution 1: Agents take responsibility for entering the market

The first factor that can be borrowed is that the girl at the booth is an employee of the agent, so the event is most likely planned and implemented by the agent. Therefore, the agent can be allowed to take responsibility. After all, BMW is the "Party A" and has a strong voice. In order to have a good relationship with the "Party A", the agent can stand up and take responsibility. Of course, this assumption of responsibility needs to have a direction, that is, shifting the contradictions. So how can BMW MINI survive this crisis by shifting the contradictions?

Crisis Solutions:

1. The agent should appear as the organizer of the event, and not as the planner, because the planning proposal needs to be reviewed by BMW MINI, so the agent should appear as the organizer of the event.

2. The agent admitted the mistake and acknowledged that the ice cream was only given to "foreigners" in the later stage because the amount of ice cream was underestimated during the event, resulting in a limited amount of ice cream in the later stage. The agent only gave it to "foreigners" because the foreign management of BMW MINI would randomly check the event organizer's ability to host the event in the form of auto show audiences. In order not to affect the cooperation between each other, the ice cream was only distributed to "foreigners" when the amount was limited in the later stage of the event.

3. BMW MINI will come out and forward the apology statement of the event organizer, criticize the event organizer, and take responsibility for the impact of the event. There are two options for cooperation with the agent:

1) Eliminate the agents (if the agents take the blame on behalf of BMW MINI, they can register a company at a very low cost to continue the cooperation) and continue to shape the strict and rigorous corporate image of German companies in China. However, this plan is suspected of completely shifting the blame to the organizer.

2) Continue to cooperate with agents and propose improvement measures for their own management. After all, if agents lose customers, it is also a loss for Chinese employees. Create a responsible and humane corporate image.

4. Explain why we conduct random checks on the organizers, and propose that the purpose of checking the organizers’ hosting capacity is to better take care of Chinese consumers and let the event benefit every consumer. Then, say some official words about regarding the Chinese market as...

This plan smoothly transfers the conflict between BMW MINI and Chinese consumers to the conflict between BMW MINI and the agency company, that is, weakens the problems of "double standards" and "discrimination" caused by the "ice cream" incident, because the problem between the agency and the "Party A" does exist (many marketers have the experience of being tortured by the "Party A" and were tortured by the Party A in the past when they worked in 4A companies. A plan could be changed more than a dozen times), so it is easier for marketers and the public to recognize it, and later on, it can just publish a few complaint articles in the role of marketers.

At the same time, the dealer can effectively promote BMW MINI because of its emphasis on the Chinese market, strictly control the content and effect of the event, sincerely apologize for the problems in this event, and propose improvement strategies, so that it can kill two birds with one stone, not only transfer the crisis but also establish a good image among Chinese consumers. At the same time, this plan can also easily resolve the public relations crisis of the two young ladies at the booth fawning on the "foreigners" into fawning on potential leaders. In this era, flattering leaders is often accepted by people.

Solution 2: Expand the board’s oversight role

Solution 1: Let the agents take the blame to resolve the "ice cream" crisis. Although it is feasible, there are problems. After all, BMW MINI did not blame the agents in the "ice cream" incident. Either there were no agents, or it was indeed BMW MINI's own problem, so the agents could not bear the responsibility. Therefore, it may be difficult to implement the agents taking responsibility. However, we still have a factor that has not been called upon, that is, half of BMW's board of directors.

As the top management of a company, the board of directors has the responsibility to supervise its subsidiaries. On April 17, BMW Greater China President and CEO Jochen Goller announced that half of the BMW board of directors would visit the Shanghai International Auto Show. Therefore, the board of directors' supervisory role can also be used to solve the BMW MINI "ice cream" crisis, and transform the conflict between BMW MINI and Chinese consumers into a management conflict between the board of directors and its subsidiaries. So how can the crisis be successfully resolved by transferring it to a management conflict?

Crisis Solutions:

1. The person in charge of BMW MINI marketing/corporate affairs took the responsibility and attributed the blame to the underestimation of the number of gifts for the event. The limited number of gifts left at the end of the event was also explained. The reason was that the ice cream was only sent to "foreigners" at the end. The reason was that the board members would conduct unannounced visits to the exhibition in the form of auto show spectators. In order to gain the approval of the board members for the event, the ice cream was only distributed to "foreigners" at the end.

2. The board of directors came forward to admit that it had relatively strict management responsibilities towards its subordinates, apologized for the confusion caused to its subordinates, and put forward the core demand that strict supervision was to better serve Chinese consumers.

3. BMW MINI officially apologized again for the problems that occurred during the management process, and was brave enough to take responsibility, refusing to shift the blame to relevant personnel. This is just like Haidilao’s crisis management model: I take the blame, I correct the mistakes, and I support the employees. It perfectly presents the company’s responsible image and reiterates that strict management is to better serve Chinese consumers.

This solution transforms the conflict between BMW and Chinese consumers in the "ice cream" incident of BMW MINI into a conflict between high-level managers and low-level managers. Hierarchical conflicts are real and are the easiest to accept. Not over-treating the responsible person shows a humane side. At the same time, promoting the responsible image of the company can use this crisis to establish a responsible and humane brand image in the minds of Chinese consumers. This solution can also easily resolve the public relations crisis of the two young ladies at the booth fawning on the "foreigners" into fawning on potential corporate executives. Fawning on senior leaders is often accepted in this era.

The above two solutions for shifting conflicts are what I feel are more reliable solutions, and are also the best solutions to achieve “seizing opportunities in times of crisis and turning crisis into opportunity”. In fact, the solutions in the process of crisis public relations resolution are not limited to the courage to take responsibility and strengthen the responsible image in the above successful cases and the solutions for shifting conflicts proposed by individuals. There are many other crisis resolution solutions.

4. Crisis public relations solutions and extended applications

The above are crisis public relations solutions and application extension methods summarized based on years of crisis public relations solutions. However, there are many different solutions to crisis public relations and they are by no means limited to the above points. Therefore, friends with different opinions and better insights are welcome to discuss together and contribute wisdom and strength to China's crisis public relations solutions.

Author: Beimo, WeChat public account: Beimo Chats about Digital Internet