“Daughter-in-law, Father was right about you. You have the foresight and the ability to fight your way out of the Japanese siege.”
In the 1980s, you could make money by doing OEM. In the 1990s, electrical appliances became the world of Japanese capital, and small factories lost their competitiveness. Not to mention China, a country that had just opened up; even the European and American markets were occupied by them. Either they were swallowed up by them, or they were controlled and killed. In short, they only kept their own, and they wanted to control the market.
Li Xia took the tea from the old man with a smile and said respectfully, “Dad, you are really too kind. I am just a blind cat that met a dead mouse.”
“Don’t underestimate yourself.” The old man pays close attention to current affairs and knows that it’s not easy for her. “Fight hard when you encounter difficulties, and don’t be afraid if you fall. We are all your solid supporters.”
Li Xia smiled at her father-in-law and raised her teacup to him. “With your words, I will do my best.”
“Don’t be afraid.” Family and friends all said, “We all support you.”
Li Xia smiled and drank tea. In fact, in the 1990s, as the factory became larger and larger and the number of workers increased, she was under great pressure. So many people followed her to make a living. In the 1990s, fierce competition led to the reduction or even merger and closure of many factories, and a wave of layoffs began to come.
She herself was facing pressure from the Japanese capital, and if she wanted to be safe, she had to sell the products. The money she earned over the years could not be spent in several lifetimes. But what about the workers? And it was not easy for her to get to where she is now, and she would move forward despite the pressure. She thought along the way and found a way out for the workers.
The adults were talking in the main room, and the three children were all gathered in front of the TV. Recently, a Taiwanese martial arts film was being broadcast, and the three children were all very fascinated by it.
The fighting scenes during this period were well-filmed, and when one episode ended, Yiyi raised his hands and reached out to Shen Hui, imitating what he saw on TV, and the two began to fight.
The news was interrupted in the middle of the TV series. Huihua was watching the two brothers play around, but when the two key words came out in the news, the three children all looked at the TV.
They ran to the main room to tell their mother the news as soon as possible.
“A family used an electric heater to keep warm, and their home caught fire. That heater was our brand.”
Yiyi was running in the front, panting heavily while talking. Huihua and Shen Hui also looked nervous; their children were grown up and knew what this meant to their factory.
“Mom, what should we do? It’s all on the news now.”
The four adults all stood up nervously, and Li Xia asked, “Are there any casualties?”
Huihua was confused and couldn’t remember the incident. Yiyi replied, “A grandmother seemed to be injured and was sent to the hospital. The three of them went to my grandmother’s house and found the house on fire.”
As they were talking, the phone rang. It was Xiao Liu, who had also seen the news. Then it was Fang Long from the R&D department, her third brother… In short, everyone who had seen the news called, and she was so nervous that she felt like she was on fire.
“How about we go back to the factory and hold a meeting to discuss this?” Han Jun saw that no one was talking, so he spoke tentatively. For such a big matter, everyone should brainstorm.
Li Xia waved her hand and said, “Let’s go. We will set off to the scene immediately and try to control the situation as soon as possible.”
After saying that, she turned around and smiled to comfort her father-in-law: “Don’t worry, I will take care of it.”
The old man waved his hand and said, “Go and do your thing.”
This may not have much impact on old brands or foreign companies. But their heaters are only in their second year, and their reputation has not been established. Once public opinion is overwhelmingly positive that the new product has quality problems, the entire brand may collapse.
If someone spreads the word that it is a quality problem, consumers will immediately think that domestic products are inferior to imported ones. The wind is not in their favor. If they want to gain a foothold in joint ventures and imports, they cannot make even the slightest mistake. Otherwise, once the factory goes bankrupt, it will be difficult to revive it.
Han Jun nodded. “Give me the car keys; I’ll go with you.”
Shen Haiyang held his wife and said, “I have some friendship with the police chief of City Z. I’ll call him. When you get there, go find him and ask him to help investigate and calm public opinion as soon as possible.”
“Um.”
Product quality issues are a big hat that no one can avoid. Especially now that they are in competition, once our competitors take advantage of it and amplify it to create public opinion, the consequences will be disastrous.
Before they set out, they contacted Fang Long, who was in charge of technology, to see what was going on on the spot. Then they contacted the local salesperson, as it would be more convenient to work with a local boss.
Li Xia , Han Jun, and Fang Long rushed to City Z and found that the other party had been transferred to another hospital. The doctor said that the injury was not serious, but they insisted on transferring to another hospital after treating the wound. The specific situation is unknown.
Han Jun guessed: “Could it be that the enemy is ahead of us?”
Li Xia speculated: “Could it be that the enemy is playing tricks?”
“So despicable?” Thinking about the methods used in his daily life, Han Jun nodded and agreed with Li Xia’s guess, thinking it was possible.
“If it’s really our rivals who are targeting us, they will never let this go. Public opinion will get bigger and bigger, and the worse the impact on us, the better for them. They will force us to death and then come to acquire us. If it’s really as we think, this strategy is really vicious.”
“Now that we can’t find the victim, what should we do? Should we go to the Public Security Bureau first and ask someone to help investigate what happened? Our electric heaters are absolutely qualified and have leakage protection. They cannot catch fire during normal use.” Fang Long is very confident in the quality of his products.
“We need to contact the fire department and the public security bureau to find out the cause of the fire immediately. If there is no official conclusion, the other party will use this to create public opinion, and we will face unimaginable difficulties.”
“Let’s go find someone.”
He looked at the time and waited for a few minutes until the salesperson arrived. Besides being anxious and angry about the matter, he also wanted to find someone to investigate the truth as soon as possible. The four of them got in the car and set off to the police station together.
“We’ve sold this electric heater for two years. It’s always been working fine. How could it break down now? Hey, do you think they covered the heater with wet clothes or something, causing a short circuit?”
Fang Long explained: “It has leakage protection. If you really do that, it will trigger product protection and will never cause a fire.”
“Oh, so it’s not the matter, I see.”
After a moment of silence, the man suddenly said, “Could it be that the fire was caused by the aging of the wiring? That place is a bungalow, and the wiring has not been changed for many years. If you use a lot of high-power electrical appliances at once, it is easy for the wiring to age and cause a fire. Maybe it’s not a product problem at all, but now everything points to the fire being caused by the use of electric heaters.”
No one could come to a conclusion until the matter was thoroughly investigated. Li Xia found the director of the Public Security Bureau, who knew Shen Haiyang and readily agreed to send someone to investigate.
“I’ll also tell the fire department. Don’t worry, just wait and see how things develop.”
Wait, who can be quiet in this situation? But what else can we do if we don’t calm down? Everything has to wait for the results of the accident investigation to come out; otherwise, it will be useless to say anything.
“Even if the results come out, we don’t know if we can clear ourselves of the charges.” Han Jun sat down in the guesthouse, his face full of worry. Rumors spread quickly, but it’s not easy to suppress them. If this matter is really related to the opponent, they will definitely not be able to clear themselves of the charges so easily.
After washing her face and changing her clothes, Li Xia put on some light makeup, giving her a fresh and neat feeling. Before she could make a move, the provincial TV station’s reporter had already come to her door.
“The reporter came to see you.”
“Okay, I will meet.”
It’s okay not to meet. If you don’t meet, the other party will definitely say that you are guilty. It will be even harder to explain. Li Xia’s factory doesn’t have a dedicated public relations department yet, so she has to deal with it herself. Besides, Han Jun and the salesperson have other things to do, so they have to find the victim as soon as possible. No matter what caused the accident, they have to find the person involved to find a solution.
“Hello, may I ask what you think about the incident in which residents used your factory’s products, which caused a fire?”
“Our products have all passed quality inspections. There will be no problems with normal use. Even if customers do not use it according to the instructions, it has a leakage protection function and will never cause a fire. The matter is still under investigation, and the cause of the cause of the fire has not been determined. I hope everyone will not believe the rumors.”
“But some people say that you are a small private workshop, and your products are all pieced together, and the quality may not be reliable at all. They are three-no products.”
“That’s not true. It’s true that our factory is privately owned, but it’s definitely not a small workshop. Our products are independently developed and have all passed national quality inspections. They are definitely not “three-no” products.”
The reporter’s questions were tricky, and they kept saying that their products were not good. Li Xia suppressed her anger and explained again and again. Now was not the time to be angry, and there was no telling where these reporters could go.
“First of all, I would like to express my sympathy and condolences to the victims. At the same time, I hope they will stop hiding and come out as soon as possible. If there is any problem, we can solve it face-to-face. The fire department is already investigating the accident scene, and the cause of the accident will soon be known.”
After sending the two reporters away, Li Xia paced back and forth in the guesthouse. Her eyelids felt sleepy, but she couldn’t fall asleep. She was about to break through the siege and usher in a new life, but now it was almost the New Year, and something like this happened. If this matter is not handled properly, it will be a huge disaster.
She was so anxious that she didn’t eat lunch and only had one bite of dinner. When Han Jun came back, she knew from his face that work was not going well.
“Didn’t find anyone?”
Han Jun nodded. “We asked around the hospital, the family’s relatives, colleagues at work, close friends, and everywhere we could find them. But it was as if the family had disappeared.”
At this point, it is impossible to say that there is no one causing trouble. “What benefits did the other party get, and what will they do next?”
Han Jun sat down and drank some water, his thoughts following hers. “If it is really the other party who is causing trouble, the next step should be to get the victim out after the accident is determined. If the accident is determined to be caused by other reasons, then it is time for them to come out and confuse right and wrong.”
Li Xia also thought of this, but how to solve it?
Consumers are not concerned about the truth, or they subconsciously feel that it is difficult to distinguish between the truth and the false. The reflection in the market is that they will not buy your products, no matter whether they are good or bad. As long as they don’t buy your products, you can’t harm them. It is so difficult to establish a brand, but to destroy a brand, it may only take an opportunity—a verbal battle.
What they should do now is not argue about who is right or wrong or who is responsible, but to calm the situation down as soon as possible. However, the other party did not show up at all.
Before going to bed at night, Shen Haiyang called to ask about the progress of the matter.
There is no particularly good solution. This is not a lawsuit where you lose or win. What they are fighting now is a war of public opinion. This kind of thing needs to be suppressed quickly. It cannot be allowed to continue to ferment. Otherwise, people will feel that something has happened to this brand, and they should not buy it.
“I’ll call Lao Xu again and ask him to find someone as soon as possible. It will be easy to deal with once we find that person. No matter what the reason is, we need to spend money to suppress the matter as soon as possible.”
After a sleepless night, the accident investigation results came out the next day. The authorities gave a certificate, and after everyone left, Fang Long explained the investigation results in detail.
“The fire started at the power strip. The inferior power strip could not bear the power of the heater and caused the fire. But… our products were tampered with, and the protection inside was removed. They probably wanted to catch fire in the electric heater, but it was the inferior power strip and wiring in the house that caught fire first.”
As a technical geek, Fang Long could also keenly sense that there was a mastermind behind this. However, the mastermind did not expect that the heater would be removed to protect the organization, and the plug board and the line caught fire first.
“Where’s the heater? Can it still be used as evidence?”
Fang Long nodded. “It was discovered in time, and only the top was burned. It’s fine as evidence. We can prove that this was man-made.”
The firefighters had some connections with Han Jun, and Shen Haiyang knew the police chief, so the matter was resolved so quickly.
With the official results, Li Xia and Han Jun quickly contacted reporters and tried to get the news out tonight, while at the same time calling on the parties involved to contact her as soon as possible.
“Out of humanitarianism, our factory is willing to do its part in the treatment of the elderly.”
After a long discussion, the two decided to take the humanitarian route. It turned out that their products were not substandard, but as a manufacturer, they could only compensate out of humanitarianism; otherwise, the people at that time would think they were bullying. Because of their concepts, this was the only way to deal with it.
While calling on the other party to come out on TV, the Public Security Bureau also helped to find them. Li Xia asked the dealer to find someone to help her that day. Everyone stayed in the place where the person might appear, trying to find them as soon as possible.
The person involved went out at this time and secretly met with the reporter of the Provincial Evening News. “We don’t understand either. I just heard my mother say that she saw the heater on fire. Everything was normal at home before. It was only this year that this happened after the old woman bought this heater because he was afraid of the cold.”
The evening paper and the TV news come out at about the same time. When the TV news and the newspaper come out together, this matter will be pushed to the forefront again.
The man said something ambiguous to the reporter as planned and tried to hide again after leaving here. However, he was caught in the alley by the police, who had been monitoring the area. Then he called Li Xia to inform her.
“Why are you running away? Damn it, when something went wrong, you secretly said that there was a problem with the product, but you didn’t contact the product manufacturer. Tell me clearly: What are you planning? Did you secretly modify our product and try to blackmail us?”
“No, I didn’t.”
Han Jun exerted force on his hand, and there was a sound of “crack.” The man screamed in pain, as if his arm had been removed by Han Jun. “It hurts, it hurts, ah, it hurts.”
“Tell me or not? If you don’t, I’ll break your arm and make you a cripple for the rest of your life.”
“I……”
Li Xia arrived at this time and remained silent. Han Jun had already controlled the other party and wanted to see if he could get some useful information from him.
“explain,”
“Ah!” the man screamed again, trembling in pain. He didn’t expect to meet such a person who would attack him without saying a word. He was so frightened that he forgot that he should deny it.
“Let go, I’ll tell you.”
Han Jun finally let him go. The man’s arm was hanging down, and it looked like Han Jun had taken it off. He was sweating from the pain, and he was hesitant and unhappy.
“Tell me, what are you dawdling about?”
Han Jun roared, and the other party shuddered. His arm was still hurting, and he finally spoke. “Someone asked me to modify the heater. I saw the house on fire and ran back. My mother’s injuries are not serious.”
“Then what?” Li Xia asked.
“Then we hid first so that no one could touch us. He asked me to come out today and say something to a reporter. ”
“What did you say?”
The man repeated those words, and Li Xia and Han Jun were shocked immediately after hearing them. It was murderous, and he was ambiguous but still pulled the electric heater and refused to let go. Ordinary people didn’t understand so much and just thought that the fire was caused by the electric heater.
Han Jun was so angry that he reached out to hit someone again but was stopped by Li Xia. You beat someone up and injured him, and he will be in the newspaper later. The factory’s substandard products caused a fire, and then the factory manager beat someone up. With this headline, you are not passing a message to the other party.
“How much did they pay you?”
“Thirty thousand.”
The house price here is about 600 yuan, which is cheaper here than in the provincial capital. 30,000 yuan is enough to buy a house. No wonder this family didn’t even care about the old mother’s injury and was willing to become a knife in the hands of the other party.
“What are their demands?”
“We just say those things in the newspapers. Then, if reporters interview us again, we pretend to be very pitiful so that everyone will sympathize with us.”
“Do you know who the other party is?”
“I have no idea.”
Well, he was so elusive that no one could catch him. Even if she wanted to fight back, she had no clear target. Li Xia thought quickly and could not afford to fight back. What she had to do was suppress the matter as soon as possible. She didn’t want people to spread rumors anymore.
“Go find the Evening News reporter right away and find a way to get this replaced.”
She immediately went to the reporter stationed here and explained clearly that the news had to be removed. In a few days, she would be interviewed by the provincial TV station after the commendation, because the fire incident was a good topic to talk about. When she came forward in person, it could actually increase the popularity of their products.
That’s how it is. Unfavorable news can become positive publicity if done well. But the unfavorable news can’t be too big; otherwise, the positive and negative sides will be in opposition, leaving consumers with a feeling of confusion.
The positive news must outweigh the negative news, so at this time, they must control the negative news and not let it increase. As long as they cancel this news and wait for her to appear on the show with the official accident report, the matter will be solved.
“What I said was not true. In fact, when my mother woke up, she saw that the socket was on fire, and it had already ignited the table. The electric heater and board were burned along the burning wires and the surrounding objects.”
Under the threat of the police, the other party did not dare to resist. Although he did not believe Li Xia’s words about giving money, he still told the truth. He thought that this would replace the news that night, but this reporter was surprisingly bold.
“They threatened you, right? Don’t be afraid; tell me, and I will expose them. These rich people don’t treat ordinary people as human beings. When something goes wrong, they don’t admit that there is a problem with their products, but actually threaten consumers.”
“What nonsense are you talking about?” Li Xia shouted angrily.
“What the hell are you talking about? Do you know the truth? Haven’t you heard that the official investigation has shown that the fire started from the socket and wires, not the heater at all?” Han Jun’s eyes widened with anger.
“Who knows the result of how you bought it secretly?”
Han Jun raised his hand angrily and said, “You f*cking …”
“If you dare, try it. Unless you kill me, I will expose your evil deeds.”
The reporter’s forehead was covered with sweat, and his arms were shaking with nervousness. But he couldn’t back down, as he had already received money for the news. If he withdrew it, how would he survive in the future?
“Call right now.” Seeing that time was running out, Han Jun was so anxious that he wanted to beat someone up. But he knew that if he did, the matter would become even more serious.
“News reports should be based on the principles of truth and objectivity. As a journalist, you don’t even have the most basic professional ethics. We will sue you. You will never be able to stay in this industry again if you do this.”
“Scare me? I was raised on fear. This is intimidation. I will definitely expose you. You are using your power to bully others. It is obvious that your products have problems, but you are still threatening consumers.”
This guy must be up to something, and it’s impossible to expect him to take down the news. She was afraid that calling the provincial evening newspaper would not work, and she didn’t know who the other reporter would trust.
If the other party does not change, even if they apologize to you in the newspaper after the report is false, it will be a mess. The loss cannot be recovered by an apology in the newspaper.
Li Xia picked up the phone on his desk and called Shen Haiyang. She called directly to his office, hoping that he was not out today.
“Beep, beep…” Shen Haiyang, answer it quickly. Answer it quickly.
