The Inspiration of Plasticizer Disturbance to Wine Industry

No matter what industry, product quality is the lifeline of the company. At the end of 2012, the "plasticizer storm" in the spirits industry was buzzing. The whole incident reminds people of the "Changyu agricultural residue gate incident" that occurred in the wine industry in August.

It is also a report originated from online media. It also touches the bottom line of people's trust in food safety. It also lacks correspondingly clear and unified national standards. It also causes the stock price of the company and even the entire industry to fall... It can be seen that two There are too many similarities in the development process, just like everything. There is no clear evidence that this is being manipulated. But to be sure, similar incidents are likely to happen in the future. Therefore, how to learn from the "plasticizer storm" in order to better cope with future crisis events has become an urgent focus of the entire wine industry.

In fact, people from different angles in this incident can read out many different connotations. As a wine industry that also stands in the wine industry, what should be learned is how to prevent the occurrence of such incidents. What is more important is how to control the impact after the sudden incident and bring the crisis to the entire industry. To a minimum, this is the biggest positive significance of the crisis.

Revelation 1: Avoiding Upsurge from Corporate Events to the Industry Crisis When the “Plasticizer Incident” was just exposed, it was just a negative news from a wine company. However, in the subsequent fermentation process, under the impetus of various factors, the incident that was originally a single incident was quickly amplified and spread throughout the industry, becoming a crisis for the entire industry. At this time, the consumers have formed the bad impression that “the plasticizers are commonly found in white wine, and the higher the content of high-grade wine plasticizers,” which has caused great damage and harm to the entire liquor industry. Among the factors that have magnified the effects of this series of crises, the negative factors include:

1. Misunderstanding of the Association's Statement After the “plasticizer incident” was exposed, the Chinese Wine Association issued a “Note on Problems Related to Plasticizers for Liquor Products”. The appearance of this document can be said to have inspired a thousand layers of waves. The content has been quoted by many media, especially the excerpt of the “content of plasticizer content in Chinese liquor products”, which is the direct cause of misunderstandings among consumers. The cause of such adverse consequences, of course, is that some media are out of context and sensational responsibility. However, the wording of the Association and the timing of its publication are also open to question.

2. The promotion of the mass media has helped the mass media to also play a very important role in the entire incident. Whether it is the news of a few ulterior motives or the follow-up of other mass media, it has pushed the entire liquor industry to the cusp. In particular, we must be alert to the role of online media. The entire incident began on the Internet, but it was also widely spread because of a communications platform and major portals. This kind of thing is not uncommon nowadays. In the era of web2.0, the Internet has become a trigger and amplifier for corporate crisis public relations, and many netizens are both participants in the incident, the communicators of the incident, and even the producers of rumors.

3. The use of social psychology In the context of the global financial crisis that has not yet passed and the country’s macroeconomic situation is still sluggish, the liquor industry has grown at a rapid rate. Not only has the market rebounded against the market, leading the broader market, it is prone to cause social problems. The hatred of wealth created by the widening of the gap. At the same time, food safety problems in China have become more frequent in recent years. In particular, the issue of plasticizers in a Taiwanese company has just been exposed. This has created a public frightened attitude in the food industry. Any minor problems in this area may be short. The time has become a hot spot for public opinion. This "plasticizer storm" is the use of these two common social psychology to make the problem quickly expanded and severe.

Through the above analysis, we can see that if you want to avoid the crisis of a company's evolution into an industry crisis, first of all, you should not provide outsiders with gimmicks and reasons, and then you should communicate with the media in time to eliminate negative reports and control the impact of events. Finally, you must To appease hostility or anxiety in the entire society.

Revelation 2: Use Various Forces to Effectively Implement Crisis Public Relations The so-called crisis public relations refer to the crisis of a company or brand after a crisis caused by a company’s poor management, peer competition or even vandalism or external special events. A series of self-rescue actions taken, including elimination of influence, restoration of image, etc.

When the crisis comes, it is not enough to rely solely on the company’s own strength. Because of the loss of public trust, no matter how the company excuse, it will be considered as dismissing responsibility and obscuring the facts. Therefore, when an incident occurs, companies should not only avoid or deny it, but should fully cooperate with all parties including government departments, industry associations, peer companies, and news media to jointly respond to the crisis and regain consumers. Trust and public understanding.

The first is the government department. It should be the most authoritative and authoritative organization. The final decision in the “plasticizer storm” was the authoritative conclusion issued by the AQSIQ, the Ministry of Health, and the China Food Safety Risk Assessment Center. It was because of the timely release of this conclusion that the entire incident was finally settled. Therefore, it is also the last line of defense in the crisis.

Followed by the industry associations, its function is to safeguard the interests of the entire industry, when seeing the corporate crisis will expand the damage to the entire industry, the industry association should first stand up and issue a statement, explain the specific circumstances of the matter, and indicate that the company is a special case or The industry has a common vision and at the same time it has come up with a solution to the problem.

Only in this way can the crisis be killed in the "cradle" as soon as possible.

Then there are peer companies. When faced with a crisis involving the entire industry, everyone should work together to clarify relevant facts. In this “plasticizer storm”, old wine companies such as Wuliangye and Luzhou Laojiao also issued statements.

They know that when the problem is exposed, the public's questions will not be confined to only one or two companies, and distrustful eyes will spread everywhere. If you are afraid of getting burned and silent, you may eventually get injured together.

Then there is the media. It is a tool and a double-edged sword, especially the mass media. When it is necessary to issue industry voices, the mass media often fail to make accurate judgments due to lack of in-depth knowledge of the industry or sometimes lose objective position in order to attract eyeballs to win public attention. At this time, professional industry media have more judgment and credibility in the interpretation of events and can reach the depth behind the incident.

In short, when crisis public relations need to unite all the forces that can be united, everyone picks up firewood with high flames. At the same time, you can try a strategy to save the country through curves, and ask more authoritative, more credible third parties to speak for themselves, and ultimately eliminate consumer alertness and achieve good communication results.

Revelation 3: Take the initiative to eliminate hidden dangers of crisis In fact, the highest level of crisis management is prevention. In the face of product quality and safety issues, active attack is better than blind defense. It is precisely because of the existence of loopholes in the body that the opportunity is given to others. If you can take the initiative to make up for these loopholes and deficiencies, no matter what rumors or attacks will be broken, any speculation will become a positive publicity and promotion of the company.

In the “disruption of plasticizers” in the liquor industry, there is actually an opportunity to resolve the problem in advance. As early as May of this year, the relevant food industry broke up similar problems and let the public begin to pay attention to plasticizers, which also provided a wake-up call for the liquor industry. This is a good opportunity to promote self-inspection and active public relations in the industry. Unfortunately, it was not well grasped. Instead, people made an opportunity to stir up an uproar.

Whether it is the liquor industry or the wine industry, product quality is the lifeline of the company. As people's living standards increase, consumers are paying more and more attention to concepts such as physical health and food safety. They need to drink alcohol and drink healthy wine. Therefore, the details that were not noticed in the past are now becoming the focus of public attention. The plasticizer incident is a typical case.

For the domestic wine industry, under the strong impact of imported wines, in order to gain a firm foothold in the fierce market competition, it is more necessary to pay attention to product quality management. First, to increase the level of science and technology in the production process and production process, through technological innovation; second, to strengthen quality management and production testing, to strictly control all aspects from the source, and to strengthen supervision; thirdly, actively and actively Participate in the formulation of relevant national standards, for example, early formulation of pesticides, sulfur dioxide and other residues in wine and other relevant national standards.