The Era of Hard Work

"Today, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China conducted a re-inspection of the illegal chemical additive Sudan Red in KFC and McDonald's fast food announced by several provinces a few days ago, and officially announced the results."

"After the second review by the General Administration of Inspection and Quarantine, among the samples taken in the previous 16 provinces, the content of Sudan red in many spicy fast foods of KFC and McDonald's seriously exceeded the standard..."

Driven by preparations, the "Sudan Red" incident became a hot topic in the whole society at an ultra-fast speed. After collecting a lot of hard evidence, the relevant news officially jumped in the queue and appeared on a set of "Focus Interview".

This program not only reported the serious food safety incidents of KFC and McDonald's, but also a large number of unannounced interview footage.

During the unannounced visits, KFC and McDonald's store staff repeatedly emphasized the safety and hygiene of their fast food.

But putting it behind the results confirmed by the State Administration of Inspection and Quarantine makes people feel that these foreign companies are talking nonsense with their eyes wide open.

In the last few minutes of the program, a set of reporters' unannounced visits to Burger King was broadcast. Burger King's strict self-testing standards and highly specialized testing laboratories were presented to the audience one by one.

Good and bad are contrasted.

As the top three Western-style fast food chain brands in the Chinese market, Burger King is in stark contrast to KFC and McDonald's.

After watching this issue of "Focus Interview", Geng Hongju's face is very serious. The pressure has been too much in the past few days, and she is busy putting out fires, and the bags under her eyes are drooping.

Slow step by step, slow step by step, KFC and McDonald's are quite passive.

KFC has done a good job in crisis public relations, such as immediately stopping the sale of fast food products containing Sudan red in all stores, shifting the responsibility to the suppliers, holding suppliers accountable, mobilizing the media to create new hot spots to divert public attention, and so on.

Some of this worked, but it wasn't obvious.

Geng Hongju is very clear about the crux of the problem. Burger King, one of the three major brands, not only did not have any accidents, but also won the championship with the results announced by government departments at all levels in a series of sampling tests. Excellent word of mouth and high praise.

The PR job is actually easier if all three big western fast food brands have problems.

But Burger King did not have an accident. You said that you can do more, and the media reporter asked the last question, why Burger King can do it? Most of the effort goes to waste immediately.

What's more, Burger King and Lu's Catering behind it will not waste such a good opportunity to make the brand go further, and have united a large number of media, including one set.

"Spotlight" ended, and before the prime-time drama began, there was a new Burger King commercial again.

At the end of the advertisement shot by Jay Chou, the slogan is particularly targeted.

"Burger King, create a guaranteed new fast food for China!"

In normal times, this kind of advertisement is just ordinary, but at the moment when Sudan Red has become a hot spot in the whole society, this advertisement can be described as murderous!

Geng Hongju sighed and prepared for tomorrow's press conference. The matter originated from Quannan, and one of the key points of public relations was also placed here.

Few Chinese companies can shake KFC’s position in China’s Western-style fast food industry. The recognition of the market and the advancement of its operating methods have kept its share in China high. But now there is the issue of Sudan Red, although it will not bring about the demise of KFC. , but one thing is worth thinking about, the security crisis may bring about changes in the status of the industry.

Geng Hongju has worked in Yum! for many years and has a deep understanding of this industry. Even if KFC handles it properly, in the future, Western-style fast food in China may be dominated by one KFC, and the two will divide the country.

If it is not done properly, it is not impossible for the brand image of Burger King to surpass that of KFC.

Once the brand image is superior, it is a matter of time before the company achieves scale and revenue surpassing with the advantages of Chinese enterprises in local operations and the company's strict management.

Geng Hongju flipped through the latest information. This time KFC encountered the biggest crisis since it entered the Chinese market, but the reason was dumbfounding.

According to the summary of the police and Quality Supervision Bureau, Gai Shiying, the chairman of Gai Shi Logistics, wanted to take revenge on Lu's Catering because of his nephew's conflict with Lu's Catering. , who knew that his trick didn't trap Burger King, but dragged KFC and McDonald's into the quagmire.

Lu's Catering has a keen sense of smell, and as soon as they discover the situation, they immediately promote the development of the incident in a direction that is beneficial to them.

In the mall, if they don't take the initiative to seize this kind of opportunity, it means that the management staff of Lu's Catering are not even as good as pigs.

The information was sent to the headquarters in Shanghai, and within a short meeting, Geng Hongju's phone rang.

The person in charge of the head office said sharply: "Isn't the person who caused this incident arrested by the police? I don't care what method you think of, what kind of relationship you make, you must let him sit in prison!"

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that that person is the instigator.

Geng Hongju said: "I will do my best!"

Ge Shiying of Geishi Logistics, she firmly remembered the name.

In mid-December, a heavy snow fell in Quannan, and KFC, which was in the midst of public opinion, held its first press conference since the outbreak of the "Sudan Red Incident" at the Nanjiao Hotel in Quannan.

The press conference was prepared by Geng Hongju, the host, with the participation of several senior executives from Yum!

There were hundreds of media reporters from all over the country present!

But Yum's public relations, like most large companies in the United States and Europe in the next ten years, are full of the arrogance of large multinational companies.

Fang Yan and Xu Qin attended the press conference together, but they kept quiet all the time. If there are some things to do, they don't need to come forward in person, and some of them are rushing forward.

In addition to media reporters, there were also some consumer representatives at the press conference, mainly people from the Quannan Consumer Association.

After the press conference began, a person in charge of KFC came on stage and read a well-prepared public relations article.

Coming up is an apology, sincerely bowing and apologizing in front of the camera.

This was strongly requested by Geng Hongju, who participated in the formulation of the public relations plan. Some people in Yum! originally did not agree to do so.

If it hadn't been for the State Inspection and Quarantine Bureau to verify the test results in various places, it would even deny that KFC was involved in Sudan Red.

Perhaps these people are not very clear, only Lu Dong who is in Qingzhao knows that when the "Sudan Red" incident broke out, KFC's first reaction was to deny it, and it continued to deny it for a long time, until finally there was no other way to bite the bullet and take other measures .

Essentially, no different from some of the later companies.

Although Yum has the arrogance of a large multinational company, it is not stupid. After a public apology, it immediately shirked responsibility and diverted attention.

"We are investigating the responsibilities of illegal suppliers, and once implemented, we will severely punish them!" The executive of Yum! said in front of the cameras of many media reporters: "Yum! The raw materials of the red seasoning, after a preliminary investigation, all the relevant raw materials used by KFC come from a company in eastern Guangdong Province. The local department inspected the products of this company and found that Sudan Red was used in 88 types of products. ..."

Listening to the words above, Fang Yan couldn't help shaking her head, and whispered to Xu Qin: "It's really easy to shirk responsibility."

Xu Qin works in the media and public relations, and has done some research on this: "This is to divert the media and public's attention from KFC and Sudan Red to the source of Sudan Red, to draw public attention to the company in eastern Guangdong, and to divert The line-of-sight strategy . . . fortunately, we are prepared."

Then, the Yum executive said: "KFC has removed all the fast food products that have problems. For consumers, the public health alert has been lifted..."

The attitude of KFC executives seems to be good, but the previous work was almost useless at the beginning of the media reporter's questioning session.

A reporter from the Taidong Evening News stabbed a knife secretly at the first question: "We feel the sincerity of the apology attitude of KFC and Yum! ?”

Hearing this question, the executive felt that the work was not in vain, and the reporter was very honest. He immediately said: "Some unscrupulous suppliers have used problematic raw materials for profit. KFC has cut off the relevant supply chain! And actively Cooperate with government investigations!"

This is very interesting, and it is easy to give people the impression that "KFC is also a victim".

"The problem with the supplier? I don't quite understand why Burger King can detect the problem products in time, but KFC can't?" When the reporter pulled out the knife, it was bright red: "KFC, as a world-class company, has always Advertise the standardization, clarity and quality of the production process, so do you mean that you don’t have a safety mechanism for re-sampling and testing the products of your suppliers?”

He killed his heart: "There are clear reports that Burger King has established a complete internal inspection mechanism when there are only a few stores, and its internal standards are even higher than those of the European Union."

The person looked at the colleagues around him: "We have reason to question the exaggeration of KFC's quality and safety system!"

Soon after KFC had a problem, the mainstream media quickly unified their caliber and became a helper for KFC to overcome the crisis.

Lu's catering was prepared earlier and more fully, and there may be a large number of media speaking from the standpoint of KFC. This is unavoidable, after all, money has an increasing influence on public opinion.

But after all, a considerable number of mainstream media will be influenced by Lu's Catering.

For example, in terms of one set, under the active contact, programs such as "News Investigation" and "Weekly Quality Report" will come to Lu's Catering to shoot programs.

Yum itself is floating in the sky and has not yet landed. The effect of this press conference can be imagined.

At the end of the press conference, a representative from the Consumer Association made a request: "You just apologize? Can just apologizing make up for the harm done to consumers? How many families and children in China have eaten your food containing carcinogens? Shouldn't you be compensated?"