Now I Know Why Lays Could Succeed In China……
As a child growing up in China, Lay’s potato chips almost became synonymous with snacks for us. In the eyes of the public, Lay’s potato chips have many flavors, beautiful packaging and moderate price. What’s more, the original, refreshing cucumber, Italian chowder and classic tomato flavors all have a loyal following. After I came to the United States, I learned that many potato chip brands are doing well. But overall, Lay’s chips are the leader in the snack industry in most regions, including China.
As we all know, no matter what kind of company in the long period of operation, there will always be some big or small business mistakes, which lead to some “scandals”. And these “scandals” in today’s Internet age may cause some crisis on social media. Although Lay’s has always been strong in food quality supervision and has been performing well, on March 24, 2022, a customer in China ate something resembling hair from Lay’s potato chips. Three days later, the hashtag “Lay’s Potato chips have hair” went viral on popular Chinese social media platforms such as Weibo and Douyin. Public opinion at the time was largely against Lay’s Control.
It was on March 27 that Lay’s immediately got in touch with the person involved. After communication and identification, Lay’s explained that
“the ‘hair’ is the rootstock of the potato, although the texture is not good, but edible”.
The brand also paid 1,000 yuan ($157.1) in compensation under China’s food safety law. However, the proposal unexpectedly became another hot topic, as some saw the compensation as an admission that Lay’s products contained hair.
In response to the situation, the brand posted a statement on Weibo refuting the allegations, emphasizing that they were “false and harmful to the brand’s reputation.” Furthermore, the brand mentioned that the person who made the claims had become aware of the situation and had removed the original video.
Could Lay’s have avoided this ? Who should be blamed?
In my opinion, this crisis could not be avoided in advance, because this incident was a quality control error with minimal probability. As a food company, Lay’s can only continue to improve quality control in the future. But I don’t think its performance is necessarily to blame.
How did Lay’s manage the crisis?
As I mentioned above, the crisis public relations process of Lay’s can be summarized as follows: clarify the truth of the incident in the first time, make compensation in accordance with the law, apologize publicly to the society, and refute all defamation. In my opinion, there are two key links in this process: the first is to stabilize the emotions of the parties; the second is to guide the public opinion positively.
Did the way Lay’s managed the crisis help or hinder the brand image?
Obviously, Lay’s series of crisis public relations operations are very timely to reverse the public opinion. It also saved the brand’s tarnished image. Even in the long run, Lay’s brand image gained some improvement. Lay’s originally had a huge fan base, they are very firmly believe in Lay’s quality control. They also think some rootstock in potato products is understandable. Secondly, Lay’s compensation of 1,000 yuan is considered “generous” by many consumers. So we can think that Lay’s crisis management is very successful.
Now when I think back, when I was a kid there were Pringles, Corbique and other brands in the Chinese market. They were all equal to Lay’s. However, most of them have been forced to launch into the Chinese market for a variety of reasons, including poor management of crisis management, loss of core competitiveness, and political factors during their long business careers. I’m not saying that the ability to deal with crisis and public relations is the only factor for Lay’s success in China, but I firmly believe that Lay’s attention to its reputation will definitely make it better and better.
