Fear of controversy is not conducive to effective PR. In the new era, it is no longer feasible for PR leaders to hide in the background.

Author | Cindy

Editor | Yang Ming

The new energy automobile industry never lacks traffic and topics.

Recently, Xu Jiye, the PR head of Jiyue Auto, publicly criticized Xiaomi Motors and Lei Jun for "dumping" cars on his WeChat Moments, causing an uproar and trending on social media. This also pushed Xu Jiye and Jiyue Auto to the forefront.

There have been heated discussions in the automobile, technology, and even corporate PR circles, with both supportive and opposing voices. The debates mainly focused on two aspects: first, whether Xu Jiye's confrontational remarks as the PR head were appropriate; second, whether Xiaomi Motors was indeed "dumping" cars at a loss of 60,000 yuan per unit.

Regarding the first controversy, Jiyue CEO Xia Yiping has issued two consecutive disciplinary notices through internal letters and Weibo videos, expressing the company's official stance. As for the second controversy, although Lei Jun addressed the reasons for the losses, there is still no definitive conclusion on whether Xiaomi is engaging in "dumping."

PR is an art. With the drastic changes in the media environment, increased competition, and anxiety over traffic, it is well-known that PR is not easy. In recent years, PR professionals have frequently become the center of public opinion, subject to misunderstandings, insults, gossip, and even scandals.

As the storm surrounding Xu Jiye's criticism of Lei Jun gradually subsides, a calm review and analysis from an observer's perspective reveals that this was actually a classic case study of a hardcore PR master worth delving into.

01

PR Leaders Cannot Hide in the Background Forever

Many people are puzzled as to why Xu Jiye, as the head of Jiyue Auto's PR, chose to voice his opinions publicly on WeChat Moments rather than remaining in the background.

This may be a necessary move in response to the dramatic changes in the communication environment.

For a long time, PR professionals, especially those in leadership positions, often choose to remain in the background in China's complex public opinion landscape, playing the role of a "stage setter" or "invisible man" and avoiding speaking out. This allows them to better fulfill their job functions, avoid influencing the brand, and protect themselves.

This is also the biggest criticism leveled at Xu Jiye: as a PR professional, he should remain silent.

In essence, this reflects a fear of controversy, akin to an "ostrich mentality." However, in the history of PR, its three founding fathers – Barnum, Ivy Lee, and Edward Bernays, all regarded as the "Fathers of PR" – were all controversial figures.

“Father of PR” Ivy Lee

Especially notable is Ivy Lee, who in 1906 outlined the basic principles of "the public must be promptly informed" and "tell the truth to the public" in his "Principles of Public Relations." As a pioneer of PR as a profession, Lee was always at the forefront, unafraid of so-called "controversies and criticisms."

Fear of controversy is not conducive to effective PR. More importantly, in the new era, it is no longer feasible for PR leaders to hide in the background.

The rapid development of mobile internet, social media, and short video platforms has made all relationships transparent, personalized, and interactive. PR is no exception, and its definition is even evolving. Professor Hu Baijing of Renmin University defines public relations in his book "Public Relations" as "dialogue to shape identity and achieve community." In simple terms, dialogue forms the basis of PR.

This direct expression and communication are so crucial that every company must participate. From Lei Jun, Zhou Hongyi, and Xia Yiping engaging in live streams to promote their personal brands, to Wei Jianjun, Chairman of Great Wall Motor Company, who has recently become more vocal, all illustrate a simple fact: in today's grounded and popular communication era, every boss is striving to do PR.

Can PR leaders afford to remain in the background? The observable trend is that in recent years, more and more PR leaders are stepping into the spotlight, such as Tencent's PR General Manager Zhang Jun and Xiaomi's PR General Manager Wang Hua, who are both prominent figures on social platforms.

Judging from Xu Jiye's resume, before becoming the head of Jiyue Auto's PR, he had years of experience as a financial journalist, senior executive at internet companies, and a PR career, as well as entrepreneurial experience in the tech industry. To suggest that he lacks PR skills or failed to anticipate the risks of his remarks would be unfair to those who do not fully understand the intricacies of PR.

Xu Jiye is well aware that regardless of his personal preferences, companies, PR professionals, and practitioners have entered a new communication environment where they must actively engage with the public, speak out, initiate actions, and create topics, unafraid of controversies.

In the automotive sector, with the infusion of internet thinking, marketing models have undergone significant changes. Verbal battles between automakers, executives, and even automakers and the media have become commonplace. The list of automakers engaging in such battles, including Great Wall, Xiaomi, Toyota, NIO, Lixiang One, XPeng, AITO, and Kia, continues to grow, leading some to conclude that the effectiveness of automotive PR can be gauged by the willingness to engage in such debates.

Whether it's Borrowing traffic (riding on someone else's popularity) or stirring up trouble, the results matter. If a company has superior autonomous driving technology and user experience compared to its competitors, why not take action and initiate a battle?

Entering the battlefield with a strong personal style is crucial. The key lies in how PR leaders choose their battlegrounds and what weapons they use to win. This is what differentiates true PR masters.

02

Choosing the Right Battleground and Using Effective Tactics

PR leaders must choose their battlegrounds wisely when actively voicing their opinions.

Xu Jiye chose WeChat Moments as his platform for expressing his views, rather than public domains like Weibo or Douyin. WeChat Moments is a unique channel for information dissemination, with content that can be both public and private, serious or casual. Although the composition of friends may be complex, they are all actively selected, making the credibility of information reception and the possibility of breaking through circles higher.

By choosing this battlefield, Xu Jiye benefits in two ways: first, he can claim that his remarks are personal opinions and do not represent the company's stance, allowing him to separate his personal views from the company's actions. Second, he avoids being attacked by fan groups or trolls, who can be particularly fierce in the automotive industry.

Xu Jiye, Head of PR at Jiyue Auto

WeChat Moments has become the "first battlefield of PR" to some extent, with many verbal battles between executives and owners of internet and automotive companies taking place there. However, as these battles become more frequent, people tend to lose interest.

This requires the ability to pinpoint topics with precision.

Despite his confrontational tone, Xu Jiye quickly seized upon the core topic of "dumping cars at a loss of 60,000 yuan per unit" after Xiaomi released its financial report. His sensitivity to news topics far exceeded that of typical financial journalists and seasoned PR professionals, making his remarks a key factor in driving the topic to trending status.

This topic resonated deeply with users, the industry, and capital markets because it addressed several sensitive issues. First, Lei Jun's attempt to transplant Xiaomi's successful smartphone strategies directly into automobile manufacturing has been met with skepticism, with some netizens jokingly referring to the Xiaomi SU7 as a "Porsche-style Mi." This jest belies dissatisfaction with the perceived high investment and lack of innovation. Second, the "price war" has made it difficult to sustain the "financing-loss" growth narrative in the automotive industry. While Xiaomi, with its vast resources, can afford to expand its market share through losses, other automakers may not have the same luxury.

Impactful topics are easily spread in public opinion. However, it is also worth noting that without Xu Jiye's identity as the head of Jiyue Auto's PR and his extensive network of corporate, PR, and media contacts, his WeChat Moments posts would not have broken through circles and trended so quickly. While many have criticized Xiaomi and Lei Jun, Xu Jiye is the first to achieve such widespread media coverage as a result of his remarks.

It is also worth mentioning that Xu Jiye's success is attributed to his ability in "agenda setting." After firing the first shot at Lei Jun on WeChat Moments, he ignited public interest in the topic and clarified to the media that his remarks were personal opinions. In his second post, he "played the victim" and begged Xiaomi to let him off the hook. In the third post, he disclosed the company's disciplinary action against him and pledged to learn from his mistakes, effectively separating himself and the company from the controversy while further minimizing its impact.

Through a series of interconnected moves, Xu Jiye transformed a small-scale discussion on WeChat Moments into a wide-ranging public debate, stirring up widespread dissatisfaction with money-losing sales and industry competition. In essence, Xu Jiye and Jiyue Auto achieved viral popularity without spending a penny on marketing, and each step of the process was documented and shared by the media, objectively boosting their communication influence.

03

PR Masters Should Bring Value to the Industry

Some netizens believe that Xu Jiye's criticism was merely an attempt to "ride on Xiaomi and Lei Jun's popularity." While there may be some truth to this, as companies often "ride on each other's popularity" in verbal battles, a narrow interpretation would be foolish, as this behavior ultimately stems from the underlying logic of PR driving marketing.

According to Baidu Index, from July 26 to August 25, Jiyue Auto's daily average search volume was 67,367, on par with GAC Aion and exceeding NIO's 52,368. From the trend curve, Jiyue surpassed NIO almost every day. It is noteworthy that in July's new energy vehicle retail sales rankings, NIO ranked in the top 10 with 22,000 units sold, while Xiaomi sold only 13,000 units.

In terms of year-on-year and month-on-month growth, Jiyue experienced a staggering increase of 1,221,187% year-on-year and 81.95% month-on-month. In particular, there were two surges in search volume during August 3-8 and August 21-25.

It was precisely this sustained surge in market index that led to an increase in Jiyue's sales. According to the latest weekly sales rankings (August 12-18), Jiyue debuted in the top 10 of the brand sales rankings in the over-200,000-yuan pure electric vehicle market, with sales on par with AITO and close to Audi and BMW. For Jiyue, which had relatively weak branding and marketing efforts before May this year, this small milestone is undoubtedly linked to its recent marketing and index growth.

Undoubtedly, for the current Jiyue 01 and the upcoming Jiyue 07, expanding the brand's imagination space is crucial. Judging from market trends, Xu Jiye's "leveraging a small force to overcome a great one" strategy on WeChat Moments has gained significant visibility and attention, which is likely to propel Jiyue Auto's sales to new heights.

Some PR researchers believe that the core of modern PR is meaning production. So, do you still think Xu Jiye's "battle on WeChat Moments" only brought "infamy" to Jiyue?

On the other hand, as The Art of War states, "War is deception." Humans have basic desires and emotions. Since ancient times, verbal battles have been one of the most sophisticated tactics. Taking Zhuge Liang as an example, he first insulted Zhou Yu by saying, "Zhou Yu's clever plan was meant to secure the world, but instead, he lost his wife and his army." Later, during the Northern Expedition, he insulted and enraged the 76-year-old Sima Lang to death and wrote a letter that angered Wei's general Cao Zhen to the point of death. This shows that as long as the insults are reasonable, they can give one the upper hand and dictate the course of the battle.

The same is true in this case. Xiaomi, which is known for its verbal battles, did not directly respond or counterattack Jiyue and Xiaomi from a PR or official level, indicating a clear intention to "put out the fire."

This is unusual. After all, when IM Motors mistakenly compared its configurations with Xiaomi SU7, Xiaomi took a more aggressive stance, using "a magnifying glass" and issuing a series of questions from its official spokesperson, seemingly intent on fanning the flames.

This can only prove that Xiaomi Motors may have been hit hard by Xu Jiye's criticism, preventing them from adopting their usual aggressive PR tactics.

While Lei Jun and Xiaomi's CFO, Lin Shiwei, addressed the claim that Xiaomi loses 60,000 yuan on every car sold, Xu Jiye's criticism is driving the public and media to delve deeper into the issue. According to a Caijing magazine report titled "Is Xiaomi Dumping?", Xiaomi has not disclosed its cost data, making it difficult for third parties to accurately estimate its cost price. Whether Xiaomi is "dumping" products below cost to exclude competitors or monopolize the market remains inconclusive.

Even if Xiaomi Automobile does not "dump" its cars, Lei Jun's statement that "Xiaomi Automobile loses 60,000 yuan for every car sold" in fact further drags new energy vehicles into the vortex of "low-price internal competition" – simply put, with the industry status of "legendary" Lei Jun and Xiaomi Automobile, this official stance on "price wars" is a very irresponsible remark towards consumers, the capital market, and industry development.

Currently, the price wars in China's automotive market are becoming increasingly fierce, but consumers and investors are paying increasing attention to automakers' profitability. Consumers worry that long-term low prices will lead automakers to withdraw from the market, which is also inconsistent with the capital market's emphasis on profitability. Similarly, the healthy development of any industry in the future requires a long-term perspective, product quality, and service capabilities, rather than price wars.

For automobiles, which are related to life safety, there are no winners in the "internal competition" of vicious competition. Although price wars can attract consumers in the short term, they will damage a company's profitability and product quality in the long term. At the end of July this year, the central government set the tone by emphasizing the need to strengthen industry self-discipline and prevent vicious internal competition.

How can the industry escape the hated price wars? This requires starting with the "big brother" companies. Hu Runfeng, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of TMTPost, expressed a particularly apt view in an article: Say goodbye to "internal competition," and let the big brothers lead the way. Being a big brother requires vision and responsibility. It's not enough to be strong and prosperous; one must lead the industry's brothers, upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, to develop together, rather than struggling in the quagmire of price wars with peers.

This almost directly names Lei Jun – at the beginning of August, Lei Jun ambitiously announced that Xiaomi Automobile aims to enter the top five in global vehicle sales within the next three to five years.

"The power of public relations is greater than a million soldiers." Judging from Xu Jiye's "bombarding" results, this is precisely the manifestation of the view in the book "Weak Communication – The Philosophy of the World of Public Opinion." It is uncertain whether Xu Jiye has read this book, but in terms of communication content, form, channels, and results, it has achieved a multi-dimensional breakthrough effect. In the current domestic public relations industry, perhaps few public relations practitioners can achieve this, which is also a point worth reviewing for the public relations and marketing industries.

END

Producer: Huang Qiangqiang