Chapter 713 Murder

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

   "After the second re-examination by the General Administration of Inspection and Quarantine, among the samples taken from the 16 provinces before, the content of Sudan Red in a variety of spicy fast food from KFC and McDonald's was seriously exceeded..."

  Prompted by preparation, this "Sudan Red" incident has become a hot spot in the whole society at an ultra-fast speed. After collecting a lot of irrefutable evidence, the relevant news officially jumped the queue and appeared on a set of "Focus Interview" programs.

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

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

   But putting it behind the results confirmed by the General Administration of Inspection and Quarantine, it 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 unannounced visits by reporters to Burger King was also broadcast. Burger King's strict self-testing standards and highly specialized testing laboratories were presented to the audience one by one.

   The good and the bad are all contrasted.

   As the three major western fast food chain brands in the Chinese market, Burger King stands in stark contrast to KFC and McDonald's.

   After watching this issue of "Focus Interview", Geng Hongju's face is very serious. In recent days, she has been under too much pressure. She has been busy putting out fires everywhere, and her eye bags are drooping.

   One step at a time, one step at a time, KFC and McDonald's are quite passive.

  KFC has done enough crisis public relations, for example, all stores immediately stopped selling fast food categories containing Sudan Red, such as passing the responsibility to the supplier, holding the supplier accountable, such as mobilizing the media to create new hot spots to divert public attention, etc.

   These have some effect, but it is not obvious.

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

   If all three big western fast food brands go wrong, the PR job is actually easier.

   But Burger King did not have an accident. You said that no matter how much more you do, the media reporter asked the previous question, why can Burger King do it? Much of the effort immediately went to waste.

   Not to mention, Burger King and Lu's Catering in the back will not waste such a good opportunity to further the brand, and have united a large number of media, including one set.

   "Focus" is over, and before the prime-time drama begins, there's a new commercial for Burger King.

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

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

   In normal times, such advertisements are average, but 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 is also here.

KFC's position in China's western-style fast food industry can hardly be shaken by Chinese companies. The market's recognition and advanced operation methods have kept its share in China high. But now there is the Sudan Red issue, although it will not bring KFC's demise. , but it is worth considering that the security crisis may bring about a change in the status of the industry.

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

  If the operation is improper, it is not impossible for the brand image of Burger King to surpass KFC.

  Once the brand image is dominant, it will be a matter of time to achieve the surpass in scale and revenue with the advantages of Chinese companies fighting locally, coupled with the company's strict management.

   Geng Hongju flipped through the latest information, this time KFC encountered the biggest crisis since entering the Chinese market, but the reason was incomprehensible.

According to the summary of the police and the Quality Supervision Bureau, Ge Shiying, the chairman of Gas Logistics, deliberately wanted to take revenge on Lu's restaurant because of the conflict between his nephew and Lu's restaurant. , Who knew that his suit didn't get the Burger King, but dragged KFC and McDonald's into the quagmire.

   Lu's restaurant has a keen sense of smell, and as soon as he finds the situation, he immediately pushes the incident to develop in a direction that is beneficial to him.

  In the shopping mall, if you don't take the initiative to seize such an opportunity, it means that the managers of Lu's Catering are inferior to pigs.

   The information was transmitted to the Magic Capital Headquarters, and before too many meetings, 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 you think of, what kind of relationship you initiate, you must let him sit in jail!"

   Anyone with discernment can see that that person is the initiator.

   Geng Hongju said, "I will try my best!"

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

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

   This press conference was prepared by the host, Geng Hongju, with the participation of several senior executives from Yum China Headquarters, and carefully formulated a public relations strategy.

   There are hundreds of media reporters from all over the country!

   But Yum's PR, like most of the big American and European companies for the next decade or so, is full of big multinational arrogance.

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

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

After the    press conference started, a KFC executive came on stage and read a well-prepared PR article.

   comes up to apologize, bowing sincerely in front of the camera to apologize.

   This is a strong request from Geng Hongju, who participated in the formulation of the PR plan. Some people from Yum! did not agree to do so.

   If it wasn't for the National Inspection and Quarantine Bureau to verify the test results in various places, it would even want to deny that KFC is involved in Sudan Red.

Maybe these people are not very clear, only Lu Dong in Qingzhao knows that once 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 it finally had no other way, did it bite the bullet and take other measures. .

   In essence, it is no different from some later companies.

  Yumm has the arrogance of a large multinational corporation, but it is not stupid. After a public apology, it immediately shirks responsibility and diverts attention.

"We are investigating the responsibility of the illegal supplier, and once it is implemented, it will be severely punished!" The executive of Yum! was talking in front of many media reporters: "The head office of Yum China has called the police and is assisting the police to track down Sudan. The raw materials of the red flavoring agent, 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 company's products and found that Sudan red was used in its 88 types of products. …”

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

Xu Qin is in the media and public relations, and has researched on this: "This is to divert the media and the public's attention to KFC and Sudan Red, to the source of Sudan Red, to direct the public's attention to the company in eastern Guangdong, The strategy of sight... Fortunately, we are prepared."

   Then, the executive of Yum said: "KFC has removed all the fast food categories that have problems, and for consumers, the public health alarm has been lifted..."

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

A reporter from the Taidong Evening News secretly stabbed the knife at the first question: "We feel the sincerity of KFC and Yum's apology. Is this problem a problem with the supplier? ?"

Hearing this question, the executive felt that his work was not in vain, and the reporter was also very good, and immediately said: "Individual illegal suppliers 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 the impression that "KFC is also a victim".

"Supplier problem? I don't quite understand why Burger King can detect the faulty products in time, but KFC can't?" You advertise the specification, clarity and quality of the production procedures, so you don’t have a safety mechanism for re-sampling and testing the products of your suppliers?”

  He murdered: "There are clear reports that Burger King established a complete internal inspection mechanism when there were only a few stores, and its internal standards were even higher than the EU standards."

   This person looked at his colleagues around him: "We have reason to question KFC's quality and safety system and exaggerate!"

   Shortly after KFC had a problem, the mainstream media quickly unified and became KFC's helper to tide over 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, which is unavoidable, after all, money has an increasing influence on public opinion.

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

   For example, with 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 fallen. The effect of this press conference can be imagined.

At the end of the press conference, the representative from the Consumers Association also put forward a request: "You just apologize? Just an apology can make up for the harm to consumers? How many families and children in China have eaten your food containing carcinogens? Shouldn't you be compensated?"

   (end of this chapter)