Chinese ‘junk’ car industry in need of PR help June 4, 2008
Posted by paulprdixon in : Crisis Communications, Media Focus, PR in the PRC , trackbackIn April Beijing welcomed the world to its international Auto Show; a show where Chinese models - of the breathing kind - drew more admiration from western visitors than what local manufacturers had to offer with four wheels.
The Chinese auto industry’s often charismatic CEOs vociferously state international aspirations to sell cars from Gettysburg to Greenwich, but one has to wonder how they are going to achieve this when its high-end brands, such as Brilliance, spectacularly fail North American and European safety tests. Brilliance’s head-on collision with six feet of concrete was so bad that the video made its way onto YouTube (below) for car aficionados - and potential buyers - to mock. The fact Brilliance aptly names its range as the ‘BS’ series only added to the fodder, proving, if proof were needed, that Chinese companies going global have a lot to learn about branding.
Below: Briliance’s ‘BS’ series spectacularly fails crash test
As far as the perception of Chinese cars goes in the West, the theme du jour is one of safety. Consumers don’t care how cheap a Chinese car branded ‘Great Wall’ is when the name seems to originate from the wall that crumpled it in a crash test. And the western media lap it up, with headlines ranging from Chinese cars not too crash hot to Crash Course in Quality for Chinese Cars.
But Chinese auto brands aren’t only faced with a problem of safety. Its PR and communications strategies seem to be stuck in first gear; long-legged models guarantee photo-shoots and glossy press coverage, but it isn’t going to alleviate safety concerns by western car buyers in the long-term, the biggest hurdle to overcome for international growth. Indeed, the type of headline mentioned above should have any director of communications worth their salt going into crisis management mode.
So what needs to be done? The first point is obvious: Chinese manufacturers must produce cars with safety standards as high as those designed and built by market leaders, such as the Americans, Germans and Japanese.
And the Chinese are more than aware of this; year-on-year cars designed by Chinese manufacturers are meeting higher safety standards, also with designs that could pass as German or Korean, if they were badged that way. In April, Chery’s (ranked fourth in the Chinese passenger car industry) CEO, Yin Tongyao, said: “We are aware that people have concerns…to respond to these concerns, we must overdesign, overtest, and overservice”.
The second point seems to be less obvious, but crucial for any Chinese manufacturer hoping to make inroads into western markets: getting the safety message out to western stakeholders. This doesn’t only mean having the CEO deliver a few quotable-quotes about safety once in a while. What is crucial is to have a sophisticated long-term communications strategy that integrates PR activities from consumers to investor relations, from social media to employee engagement - with safety advancements as the key message.
Five years down the road, perhaps more, perhaps less, the safety of Chinese vehicles will be on a par with Japanese, Korean and other well-known producers. At least one Chinese brand could be sitting safely in the front seat. But if the Chinese auto manufacturers don’t get PR smart from today, it won’t matter if the car is safe - and the crash test proves it - because the negative perception will be entrenched by then.
It’s time the head of communications at Chinese auto makers got in the driver’s seat. Chinese companies with international aspirations need to up their PR game starting from today - only then will tomorrow’s western car buyer seriously consider climbing in a Great Wall or picking a Chery.
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