Car Industry Trolls Need to Be Addressed

On the afternoon of June 19th, BYD's General Manager of Brand and Public Relations, Li Yunfei, posted that a certain car company was using dark public relations tactics to defame and maliciously denigrate BYD's brand and products. In response to the above and past situations, BYD is collecting effective clues and evidence of dark public relations from the public and all sectors of society. After verification, the providers of valid clues and evidence will be rewarded with 200,000 to 5 million yuan, and the personal information of the providers will be strictly kept confidential.

In the Internet era, car companies have increasingly realized that public opinion can make a company or destroy it. Therefore, before the storm intensifies, car companies have already started to take measures.

From "Internet Praise" to "Internet Black"

This is not the first time that car companies have faced "Internet Black" and have raised the weapon to maintain their reputation.

Last May, new forces such as NIO, XPeng, and Leap Motor successively opened official accounts of the legal department on social platforms, announcing the launch of the legal department in a high-profile manner, officially opening the prelude to the struggle with "Internet Black".

According to insiders, there are too many "water armies" in the market now, and almost all brands will place advertisements and buy reading or click volume. In the fiercely competitive car market with many brands, it has obviously become a concentration place for "water armies".

In April, Ideal Automobile and XPeng Automobile encountered such a "water army" war, which can be described as a draw. The cause was that Ideal MEGA was attacked by three or four "water armies" as soon as it was listed, mainly targeting its unique shape, and many spoof photos and videos were spread. Subsequently, some people revealed that XPeng Automobile was involved.

After the police intervened in the investigation, a middle-level employee of XPeng Automobile was taken away for investigation.

After the news came out, both companies couldn't sit still. Ideal Automobile Chairman Li Xiang posted in the circle of friends: "For the organized illegal and criminal acts in the event, we are already dealing with them through legal means." He Xiaopeng also expressed in the comments: "Fight back with the light, support! At the end of last year, we also experienced a huge lesson, for the first time I understood what the business is like a battlefield, and for the first time I knew the meaning of 'national defense capability'."

An insider from XPeng Automobile said that since the launch of XPeng X9, it has also been widely attacked by the Internet "water army", and there are as many as more than 5,000 related negative reports. He said: "In response to such 'water army' attacks, XPeng Automobile has collected evidence and reported to the public security organs, which have been accepted. If there is any updated information, we will also disclose it to the public in a timely manner." XPeng Automobile also released the case receipt.

It can be said that there are no winners in the "water army" war. Ideal Automobile, which was attacked, needless to say, and XPeng Automobile is even more bitter. No matter whether the "water army" attacking Ideal Automobile this time really came from XPeng Automobile, it is inseparable from it in the eyes of netizens. "Pi skin black" is more insidious than the simple "water army".

In addition, the earlier public opinion war between SAIC Zhiji L6 and Xiaomi Automobile also attracted a lot of attention. SAIC Zhiji caused a lot of attention on the Internet due to the wrong marking of Xiaomi SU7 parameters at the press conference. SAIC Zhiji has issued a public apology letter for the relevant errors and apologized to Xiaomi Automobile. However, SAIC Zhiji later posted on Weibo, saying that it was attacked and smeared by many Internet "water armies", and also listed relevant evidence. For a while, SAIC Zhiji and Xiaomi Automobile were also pushed to the forefront, especially Zhiji, whose sales were greatly affected.

Deformed Communication Ecology

"Now there are 'water armies' in all walks of life, where there is money to be made, there will be 'water armies'." According to an industry insider who has been a network "water army", "Almost all new energy automobile brands have deployed 'water armies', even brands that never advertise will also have a very powerful water army team, and there is no direct relationship between whether new energy automobile brands advertise or not and whether they hire 'water armies' or not."

From the description of the above industry insiders, network "water armies" are just the lowest level in this black communication chain. What is seen on the surface is the "water army" manipulating public opinion, but behind the "water army" may involve more stakeholders, which may be car companies, public relations companies, self-media, or even stockholders of car companies, in the final analysis, it is a party that can profit.

Now, the competition between car companies is no longer a simple product competition, but also a "water army" competition in the public opinion field. In the era of traffic as the king, the rise of network "water armies", by maliciously smearing others on the surface to secretly improve the industry status of their own customers, consumers can't tell, and even if they have different opinions, they dare not easily express them under the one-sided discourse, which further encourages the arrogance of the network "water army".

In the view of You Tianyu, Dean of Kaiyuan Capital Research Institute, under the fierce competitive situation, the actions of car companies have been deformed, the competition is cruel, the involution is fierce, and many people have to be forced to be involved in the "water army" track.

For any company, reputation is undoubtedly the "lifeline". Once a problem occurs, whether it can be properly resolved will directly determine whether the company can survive. In the past, the common practice of companies was to actively solve problems and appease user emotions to achieve the purpose of calming down the incident. But I don't know when it started, car companies are no longer timid, but have started to "gang up", facing public opinion, and fighting the "water army".

For car companies, the time and economic costs of maintaining reputation are too high. Instead of waiting for things to happen and then making up for them, it is better to nip the risk in the bud from the start. "Car companies actually don't want to make things big, but now the entire industry ecology has changed, products are not as good as traffic, saying their own good is not as good as saying others are bad. Faced with malicious denigration, car companies can't turn a blind eye, but pursuing it to the end may also have little effect, we are also very distressed." A car company's publicity person helplessly said, "From a marketing perspective, everyone will invest in communication, but in the past, it was mainly to promote themselves, I don't know when the marketing direction has changed, compared with unilaterally praising their own technology new, products good, the negative information of peers is more likely to set off their own advantages."

From the perspective of news communication, this kind of propaganda method is indeed more effective. Zhao Yishuo, a news practitioner, said that there is a very typical "Hovland Persuasion Theory" in communication studies, which proposes that the identity and method of the persuader can affect the attitude of the public. Specifically, "water armies" hide among netizens, pretending to be ordinary consumers, this identity is closer to consumers, and their views are more likely to be trusted; on the other hand, "two-sided words" are more persuasive than "one-sided words", many "reasonable guests" are persuaded in this seemingly objective propaganda, and car companies have achieved the propaganda effect.

On the Brink of Eruption in Silence

Under the background of the highly developed network public opinion