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It's not widely known, but Apple is engaged in a battle for survival in China—the world's largest, fastest-growing smartphone market.
Apple's adversary: Chinese state-owned media.
Apple's approach to the local media’s repeated attacks has been measured, disciplined and highly effective. It's a sterling example to any company faced with a public-relations (PR) crisis.
Apple’s China Syndrome
For some time now, the Chinese state-owned media has been out to get Apple. It appears intent on wrecking the company’s reputation.
But why? There are three schools of thought...
1. Apple technology may be seen as a threat to national security and public order—i.e., a threat to the one-party political monopoly of the Chinese Communist Party. The company makes extremely secure consumer products, which probably can’t be cracked or accessed by the Chinese government.
2. Apple may be seen as one of the barriers to future dominance of the global smartphone market by Chinese brands like Lenovo, Huawei and ZTE—which the Chinese government would very much like to happen.
3. Apple is an iconic American technology brand. As such, it’s a convenient whipping boy that China can punish when the U.S. government does things with technology the Chinese government disapproves of—such as accusing the Chinese military of cyber industrial espionage and building NSA backdoors into computer hardware shipped to China.
A Tale of Two Smear Campaigns
The most recent attack happened last week. China’s state-owned TV giant, China Central Television (CCTV), ran a news story saying that iPhones are a threat to Chinese national security.
The reason, according to CCTV, is that iPhone location tracking could somehow be monitored by China’s enemies, who could thereby gain state secrets by learning the movements and locations of the Chinese population. On the face of it, an absurd claim.
Last year, CCTV attacked Apple for discriminating against Chinese customers, providing them with inferior replacement policies and warranties. The purpose of the attack was to paint Apple as “anti-Chinese,” to damage its reputation.
This attack was accompanied by a clumsy, orchestrated campaign that got Chinese celebrities to bash the iPhone (the campaign was outed when one celebrity accidentally posted the instructions he received). China’s People’s Daily piled on with an article headlined, “Defeat Apple’s Incomparable Arrogance,” which again said that Apple was mistreating Chinese people specifically. (The paper is also owned by the Chinese government and has a circulation of nearly 4 million.) Other media took their cue and began a two-week campaign of bad press for Apple in China.
Chanting In The Springtime
In the case of each and every attack on Apple’s reputation in China, the company has responded with classic Wing Chun—a Chinese martial art that uses an opponent’s momentum against him. The key is to simultaneously attack and defend.
Apple responded to the claim that the iPhone is a threat to national security by saying that it doesn’t track users or share locations with anyone. Apple went on to explain the benefits of the location feature on an iPhone.
Importantly, Apple responded to CCTV’s ludicrous accusation with respect and consideration, rather than the scorn and ridicule it may have justified. Apple said, “We appreciate CCTV’s effort to help educate customers on a topic we think is very important.”
Apple’s statement also made a big deal about Apple’s commitment to privacy. It was essentially an Apple ad, hawking the benefits of privacy—the very issue under attack.
In short, the CCTV attacked Apple over location privacy, and Apple responded with, “That’s a very important issue. So if you want great location privacy, you should buy an iPhone.” (I’m paraphrasing.)
After last year’s attack, Apple responded with a similar approach: CEO Tim Cook formally apologized to Chinese consumers. He characterized the massive smear campaign against Apple’s reputation as “feedback.” He said Apple had a lot to learn about doing business in China, and that the company was strongly committed to providing the best customer service possible for Chinese consumers.
The Bottom Line
This is a powerful and concerted effort by China’s state-owned media to damage Apple’s reputation in China.
The masterful aspect of Apple’s response is this: Instead of fighting back, disagreeing with critics, pointing out errors in the claims of critics—all the things people do when their reputations are attacked—Apple re-framed the conversation:
- Instead of disagreeing with critics, Apple agreed.
- Instead of expressing disdain for criticism, Apple thanked critics for raising issues that Apple believes in, and for helping Apple learn to serve customers better.
- Instead of going on the defensive, Apple made sure the outcomes critics called for were exactly the outcomes Apple delivers—and delivers better than anyone else.
In all cases, PR disasters were turned into PR victories. In the end, Apple looked better than it had before.
That’s how you do PR.
[Read more: Social Media Crisis? 4 Ways To Exploit The Opportunity]
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Image credit: Shi Deru a.k.a. Shawn Xiangyang Liu (cc:by-sa)
