Incident in Shanghai Leishang Cosmetics Ltd Co - Case Study Example

Running Header: MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION Student’s Name Course Title Lecturer Date Summary of the Incident The selected incident is based on Shanghai Leishang Cosmetics Ltd Co., a Chinese company involved in the manufacturing cosmetics and gel-detergent products that are sold locally in the country. The company broadcasted an advert in March 2016 that focused on bleaching product named as Qiaobi. The advert involved a black man wearing a dirty white T-shirt, and a face soiled with paint, and a young Chinese lady washing clothes. The black man winks and whistles at the young Chinese lady. The lady calls over the man and places a packet of detergent into the man’s mouth and push him into a washing machine starting with his head. She then sits on the washing machine’s lid as the man yells. Shortly after, a clean Asian man is seen to appear in clean clothes; white T-shirt, and the lady smiles. The advert was aired locally for Chinese people to demonstrate the effectiveness of the company’s gel bleaching agent branded as Qiaobi (Florencon, 2016). Unfortunately, the company provided a video link for the advert in the internet where the entire world could easily see it. This advert had by May 2016 raised outrageous reaction internationally, where it was highly branded as “raw racist” advert. The advert was also highly compared with an Italian commercial broadcasted years earlier where a Caucasian man was converted into a black man with a saying “coloured is better”. This advert was intensively criticized to a level of being withdrawn. The Chinese advert was also said to carry similar musical beats that the Italian commercial contained and thus, following what happened to the Italian commercial, the public was convinced that the company structured it deliberately to degrade black people in the country and in the world (Aljazeera.com, 2016). How the Company Handled the Incident The Qiaobi advert had only been aired for about two months before it went viral and internationally criticized for its racist aspects. The advert had been watched by over 9 million individuals in the YouTube. This made the company to quickly withdraw its provided video link and to offer an apology to the public, particularly to the black people for the harm the advert could have caused them. According to the company, the ad was over-amplified by the international media, and sensitively analysed to create harm, though this was not the company’s intention. However, the company accepted to take responsibility for the controversy caused by the ad. It stated clearly that it highly condemns and avoids racism, and the ads intention was not to enhance racism as widely believed. The company also requested the international media and the public who still share the videos to withdraw them to prevent more destruction. The apology was given via the Chinese Nationalist newspaper named as The Global Times, by one of the company’s spokesperson (BBC.com, 2016). Communication Failure in the Company Communication plays quite a significant role in building or destroying the image of an organization. Thus effective communication need to be enhanced to ensure that communication is only used to enhance the organization growth. This can be done by ensuring that the message is passed in the right way to the right people, without creating misunderstanding or causing misinterpretation. Advertisement is one way that a company use to communicate the existence of their products to the public. Normally, companies employ advertisements to make potential and current customers aware of the benefits and features of their products. By regular advertisement, a company can reinforce its brand positive image to make its product the first choice when a consumer makes the next purchase. In this regard, most companies struggle to create adverts which replicate the information that consumers feel is essential when selecting a product in an ethical and effective way. Nevertheless, when a company is not careful regarding the adverts they release to the public, they may develop an advert which is wrongly perceived by the intended audience. This can be very harmful to the company’s image (Dean, 2005, p. 434). Communication process normally involves the message sender, communication channel and the message receiver, who is anticipated to give a feedback based on how he or she understood the message. To enhance effective communication, the message sender is required to understand the kind of audience he or she is addressing, and the best channel to use to reach the right audience. Advertisement is classified as a form of mass communication where the targeted audience is the general public (n.a., n.d., p.70). In this regard, it is important for the message sender; the company, to clearly understand the varying perception that would exist among the general public. The company should therefore consider structuring a message in a manner that does not in any way; culturally, religiously, or ethnically create misperception or misinterpretation. This should highly be considered based on the communication channels that the company intends to employ to communicate the message or to advertise their product (n.a., n.d., p.). For instance in this case, the Shanghai Leishang Cosmetics Ltd Co. was targeting local Chinese people. They therefore considered broadcasting their ad first in the television. This did not create much misperception as most local viewers were Chinese who possibly could not see the aspect of racism in the ad. However, the situation got out of hand when they considered employing an international channel of communication to reach on more Chinese buyers. Internet is a global form of communication where the provided message can get to every corner of the world including where the message was not intended. It is important for companies to realize the uncontrollable nature of internet use while considering using it as a channel of communication. In most cases, people can easily and freely download a video and share it in other internet platform. They can easily make their own views regarding a video and attract comments of others in their circle. This continuous sharing can result to uncontrollable broadcasting of a wrong message such that it is considerably hard to reverse the situation, or to solve the problem by just withdrawing the initial post (Cheung & Thadani, 2010, p. 330). The use of internet to advertise the product in Shanghai Leishang Cosmetics Ltd Co case resulted to the access of the advert by individuals from different culture who could not see the change of the clothes from dirty to clean as intended by the company, but the transformation of the person wearing them from black to Asian. This attracted the wide range of criticism from all over. It can therefore be said that the company employed the wrong channel to address locals. Otherwise, the message could have considered the world cultural diversity in its structure, to prevent the misconception it created among the viewers (n.a., n.d., p.12). The message misinterpretation in this case was based on the fact that, the company did not pay much attention on its audience. Although China is made up of 56 ethnic groups, none of them is black. However, extensive growth of globalization and migration of people from one country to another, China currently host a number of black people from different parts of Africa and the world at large. Moreover, globalization has open any enclosed nation to global view and thus, the country’s image regarding how it treats people from other origins is highly important in this era. China has experienced previous allegation of discrimination of black people, and such adverts in away confirm the country’s negative perception on blacks, based on who views them. The Qiaobi advert can be regarded as disrespectful to black people and unethical, based on the global ethnical diversity. This extensively tarnished the image of the Shanghai Leishang Cosmetics Ltd Co at the international level. Although the company operates locally, it may experience challenges in its future plans of going global (Henard, 2002, p. 10). Company’s Effectiveness in Handling the Problem The company officials handle the problem by first withdrawing the advert from the provided internet link, apologizing, and calling for others who have shared the link to withdraw it. Although they took responsibility for the harm the ad had caused, they also tried to defend themselves. The company’s moves to handle the situation were considerably sensible. The main intention of the advert was to persuade consumers to purchase their product in large numbers. They aired the ad with intention of demonstrating the effectiveness of their bleaching agent. Nevertheless, the message brought misconception and was extensively analysed to bring negative feelings that would definitely impact consumers who hate racism. Thus, in this case, the best thing to do was to withdraw the advert to prevent more harm, and to apologize to clear doubts regarding the company’s view on racism, and in away reassure those consumers who had developed a negative view toward the company. The company also responded based on the public feedback. Communication entails sending a message where the receiver is anticipated to read the message and send the feedback. Feedback in digital or international forum can easily be received at real time. The company was able to get extensive feedbacks, most of them bearing negative perspective of the advert and criticizing the advert intention. Thus, the company’s officials took their action based on the message feedbacks, and acted for the best interest of the company. The company spokesperson considered using Chinese based international media to offer an apology and the company’s stand regarding racism. This was another sensible move on the company’s part. The advert went viral at international level. The unintended message was highly consumed internationally, an aspect that would result to destruction of the company’s image locally and internationally in the future. In this regard, the company needed to apologize to all individuals who viewed the advert and developed a negative perception of the company. This was not only good for Shanghai Leishang Cosmetics Ltd Co., but also for all Chinese companies that operate globally. The Shanghai Leishang Cosmetics Ltd Co. advert was taken by many as Chinese perception toward black people, and this could have also impacted the Chinese image in the world. Thus, the company can be said to have been effective in selecting the right media and channel to offer their apology and to clarify their stand against racism internationally. The message structuring while offering their apology was considerably poor. Although the company accepted to take responsibility of the harm created by the Qiaobi advert, it blamed international media for sensitising and amplifying the matter. However, the advert clearly used beats of a song that was used by the Italian commercial, which was highly criticized for being racist. This could be an indication that the company was conscious of their act and intention. Advertising a washing detergent using a human body was bound to create different views and perceptions. It was important for the company to understand different interpretations that can be obtained from one visual image or video. While they wanted consumers to see the clothes cleansing ability of the product, the product seems to have made more mazing job on the person wearing the dirty clothes than the clothes. The advert message was poorly structure, and also the company’s explanation was poorly structured. The international media and the public could only interpret what they saw based on what was dominating in the advert message. Their ability to link the beats used to another racial based advert in the past gave them a stronger point to base their criticisms. In such cases, the company could have just accepted their mistake, apologize and promise for future rectification, irrespective of who their targeted audience were. A message targeting general public need to be neutral and to eliminate chances of misconception, despite of who view or read it. Conclusion Communication is very important in the growth, development, and success of any organization. In this regard, companies should consider employing all possible measures to ensure that both internal and external forms of communication are done effectively. In any form of communication, a company needs to consider the message to be communicated and the perception it can create to the targeted audience. It should also consider the right channel to employ to be able to control the spread of the message to the right audience. Any mistake in any of the message communication process can be highly costly to the company and thus, suitable measures ought to be employed at the right time to prevent harm that can be created by ineffective communication management as seen in Qiaobi advert case. References Aljazeera.com, 2016, “China’s Qiaobi detergent ad labelled ‘raw racism’,” [online] Available at< http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/05/china-detergent-commercial-labelled-raw-racism-160527073804671.html> [Accessed on July, 18, 2016] BBC.Com, 2016, “Chinese firm apologises over Qiaobi race-row advert,” [online] Available at< http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-36407651 > [Accessed on July 18, 2016] Cheung, C. M. K & Thadani, D. R, 2010, “The effectiveness of electronic word-of-mouth communication: A literature analysis,” 23rd Bled eConference eTrust: Implications for the Individual, Enterprises and Society, pp. 329-349 Dean, D. H, 2005, "After the unethical ad: A comparison of advertiser response strategies," Business and Society Review, vol. 110, no.4, pp. 433-58. Florencon, B, 2016, “Racist Chinese detergent brand Qiaob ad,” Youtube Video. [online] Available at < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq-I0JRhvt4 > [Accessed on July 18, 2016] n.a., n.d., “Management communication (1st ed),” Faculty of Business, Government & Law, University of Canberra. Henard, D. H, 2002, "Negative publicity: What companies need to know about public reactions." Public Relations Quarterly, vol. 47, no.4, pp. 8-12. Read More