How can intelligent connected car companies strengthen the construction of "digital reputation"? | Compliance Observation Room

Public opinion on consumer complaints about smart cars has risen

Upgrade the need for digital security compliance governance

According to the CITIC Securities and McKinsey research report, global and Chinese new energy passenger car sales will be 5.96 million and 3.32 million units in 2021, respectively, and the penetration rate is expected to increase to 32% and 42% by 2025. Among them, the economic scale of the intelligent networked vehicle (Note 1) industrial ecological chain may reach 1.9 trillion US dollars in 2025. At the same time, the prosperity of new industries has also made smart cars a new hot spot for consumer complaints. The China Consumer Association recently reminded in its "2021 National Consumer Association Organization Acceptance of Complaints" that it is necessary to strengthen the data security and network security of intelligent and connected vehicles, strengthen the risk notification and quality control of auxiliary automatic driving, and ensure the safety of consumers' personal and property. It is necessary to protect consumers' right to know data, and not to exaggerate or falsely publicize it.

Under the new situation, it is necessary for the intelligent and connected automobile industry to strengthen network security and data compliance governance as follows:

At the level of public opinion concern, this topic is related to personal information security and national security, and has triggered many public opinion discussions in the past year. At the upcoming 2022 National Two Sessions, it is expected to receive more attention from deputies and members.

At the policy and regulatory level, whether it is the revised version of the "Network Security Review Measures" that began to be implemented recently, or the more than ten departmental regulations issued by the relevant state departments led by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in 2021, it is not difficult to see that in terms of national security and industry security, the network security and data security compliance supervision of smart cars is becoming stricter.

At the capital market level, the new version of the "Network Security Review Measures" stipulates that "network platform operators who have more than 1 million users' personal information must declare to the Network Security Review Office for listing abroad". Although according to the average annual sales volume of intelligent car companies, it seems far from "1 million users", it cannot be ignored that the compliance costs of enterprises going abroad to list in the future will increase, and data security will become an important factor. Even if it does not consider whether to list and where to list, smart car companies timely and comprehensively implement the classification and grading requirements of industry-sensitive data, and put safety risks in front, which can not only hedge for public opinion and reputation, but also help increase market confidence.

How to strengthen the construction of "digital reputation" of smart car companies and industries under the new situation

In the future, under the influence of the continuous promotion of the "double carbon" national strategy and the rapid development of the Internet of Vehicles technology, there will be more brands in the intelligent networked automotive industry to "compete on the same stage". From the perspective of public opinion and reputation risk management, smart car companies need to fully understand the key role of "digital reputation" construction to enhance the soft power of enterprise brands. The so-called "digital reputation" construction may be understood as a new skill for the survival of enterprises in the digital age, that is, on the basis of the original concept of "reputation risk management" (Note 2), the mechanism construction and capacity building related to digital security and contributing to the prevention, management and repair of corporate reputation risks are specially added. Taking the smart automotive industry as an example, this article will explore how enterprises, industries and consumers can jointly strengthen the construction of "digital reputation" from six aspects.

1

Pay attention to the cognitive management construction related to the "digital reputation" of enterprise executives, and the construction of high-level mechanisms is the key to success or failure

From a management perspective, "cognitive management" is increasingly considered to be an important factor influencing the success of major strategies and transformations. For smart car companies, especially brands with listing dreams, on the one hand, enterprises themselves should be fully aware of the market influence and brand influence of "digital reputation risk", learn from head enterprises, establish special agencies such as data security governance or compliance committees, and improve the reporting and management level; on the other hand, pay attention to social evaluation and big data analysis such as reference data compliance risk classification and grading, so as to help the hidden danger investigation and mechanism construction of enterprise digital reputation risk before IPO and after the release of financial reports. Stabilize investor sentiment and boost market confidence.

2

Establish a "troika" working mechanism for data compliance consulting, and skillfully use the "external brain" to reduce their own risks

In view of the news release caliber and crisis public relations strategy of the relevant public opinion events of smart car companies, as well as the key nodes of the public disclosure of major related strategic information, if the enterprise can fully absorb the professional wisdom of cross-field experts, it will be able to comprehensively reduce the subsequent digital reputation risk. Specifically, industry professionals in the automotive industry, finance and public opinion can be invited to take the pulse of enterprises from different dimensions. Industry experts are familiar with the advantages and disadvantages of products and services, financial personnel can provide advice from the perspective of capital expectations, while public opinion personnel analyze the pros and cons from the aspects of social sentiment, consumer psychology, and regulatory policies. It is suggested that smart car companies can establish a normalized data compliance consulting external brain working mechanism, so that when responding to unexpected needs, the "troika" runs fast and accurately, and improves the level of enterprise risk decision-making.

3

Circle marketing "water can carry boats can also cover boats", smart car company APP is an important distribution center for "data rights protection" public opinion risks

Undoubtedly, for smart car companies, especially the new car-making forces, the self-built public opinion ecosystem of car companies' APP has become an accelerant for "precision marketing" and "secondary marketing". However, smart car companies still need to dialectically look at the "double-edged sword" role of community marketing. The data shows that the consumer population of new energy vehicles is getting younger and younger, car owners under 20 years old have begun to appear, and the proportion of young people aged 20-30 has increased, and the potential car owners in this range will increase by 10% in the future. The change in the age profile of the (potential) consumer group indicates that enterprises need to grasp the generational differences in brand marketing strategies synchronously, and realize that excessive "symbol consumption" is likely to bring about brand anti-phagocytic effects.

As a product deeply bound to the algorithmic computing power and data security, the relevant "spit" of smart car APP users can easily become the fuse of public opinion of the group "anti-water", especially when the owner opinion leader takes the lead in safeguarding rights, under the influence of the existing circle layer, the doubt and disappointment of the brand will accelerate the contagion in the community communication, and promote the spillover and escalation of public opinion risk in cross-platform communication, and similar communication paths have appeared in the past public opinion practice. In a word, as a new media marketing and network mobilization method, the community can not only empower brand marketing and publicity, but also a new carrier for the diffusion of public opinion and the self-organization and protection of rights on the Internet, which is the so-called "water can carry the boat and can overturn the boat".

4

How does brand marketing in the new era of smart car companies reflect "digital justice"

For a long time, "national brand" has been an important driving force for the consumption of domestic smart car brands. However, in the future, it will be increasingly difficult to shake the rational consumption based on "digital security" based on "national brand". The return from value consumption to rational consumption is not only an important trend of new digital consumption, but also in line with the research changes of corporate reputation risk management "from meaning transmission (storytelling) to fact transmission (the premise of storytelling is that there are facts)".

From the perspective of consumer psychology, when more post-90s gradually join the consumer army of smart cars, even if they have a high degree of trust in independent innovation technologies such as the Internet of Vehicles, and they also have a consumption drive of patriotic feelings for the new consumption of the national tide, but when they want to take out real money and silver, they will also "shop around" with higher information literacy, and "safety" is always a must. In the face of the vital interests related to driving safety and privacy protection, products and services can have hard-core persuasiveness in rational consumption.

In the future, only by using iteratively upgraded products and services to break the hidden worries of "digital prison", abandoning the "sense of routine" in the brand promotion of automotive data security and personal information security protection, creating a sense of digital security, and fulfilling "digital justice" is the narrative path of long-term "new consumption" that can more impress people's hearts. Whether in the normalization of corporate brand promotion or in the stage of reputation repair after sudden public opinion, enhancing trust in corporate products and services can be described as a high-level task of digital reputation construction. For the intelligent automotive industry, chips are regarded as a key factor affecting driving performance and safety, and major product innovations or industrial cooperation trends should not be just blunt introductions in the "product update manual", but ideas and ways to enhance the effectiveness of new media brand promotion through marketing discourse and form innovation that car owners can understand and professionally, so as to achieve long-term achievements in digital reputation construction.

5

Multi-party efforts to improve digital literacy related to smart car consumption

Jumping out of the category of matter-of-fact, at present, whether it is a foreign brand or a new force in domestic car manufacturing, the daily network security and data compliance governance work is mainly based on "protection", and it is rare to see user services and training mechanisms related to digital literacy "education". If the owner's "how to use the car" is related to the driving safety of intelligent cars, including the probability of background algorithm failure, etc., then improving the digital literacy of car owners should also be included in the construction of data compliance governance of car companies. Through the cooperation between enterprises and consumers, people can truly live a high-quality life in the era of digital consumption, which will invisibly enhance the construction level of corporate digital reputation. From the perspective of social value, this practice is also the embodiment of enterprises practicing the relevant policies of "improving the digital literacy and skills of the whole people" (Note 3).

6

The overall digital reputation of the industry is "one win and one loss", and it is imperative to strengthen industry self-discipline and standardization

In recent years, some well-known smart car companies at home and abroad have successively experienced hot public opinions on data security and user privacy, which has inevitably brought a certain impact on the overall reputation of the industry while forcing the industry to improve the level of network security compliance governance. Observing the relevant public opinion laws, it can be seen that the hot public opinion of individual enterprises is easy to trigger, triggering a chain reaction in the industry and even malicious rights protection. As a new format of opening up to the outside world and the private economy is relatively active, intelligent networked vehicles should further strengthen industry self-discipline and collaboration, firmly grasp the policy pulse and people's aspirations in the digital economy era, and guide more car companies to actively strengthen self-management in network security, so as to enhance the overall digital reputation risk management effect of the industry.

exegesis:

Note 1: According to the "Intelligent Vehicle Innovation Development Strategy" jointly issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and 11 other ministries and commissions in February 2020, intelligent cars are equipped with advanced sensors and other devices, using new technologies such as artificial intelligence, with automatic driving functions, and gradually become a new generation of intelligent mobile spaces and application terminals. Because the Internet of Vehicles is the core technology of intelligent vehicles, many national policy documents are named after "intelligent networked vehicles".

Note 2: Reputation risk management: Initially an important part of risk management for financial institutions, it was first and widely used by financial regulatory authorities. In recent years, the application boundaries of reputation risk assessment, identification and management have gradually broadened to multiple fields and industries.

Note 3: In November 2021, the Central Cyber Security and Informatization Commission issued the Action Plan for Improving Digital Literacy and Skills for all.

Resources:

CITIC Securities: Smart Car Preview: More technology companies are entering the game to prepare for the era of software-defined cars

https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1725421284752308164&wfr=spider&for=pc

Economic Reference News: Intelligent networked vehicle safety has become the focus

https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1693713089454403087&wfr=spider&for=pc

China.com: The National Consumer Association accepts complaints: blind boxes, express delivery, smart cars, etc. have become hot spots for complaints

https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1724255989562425564&wfr=spider&for=pc

Nancai Compliance Weekly Report (Issue 32)

https://www.163.com/dy/article/H0NVC73B05199NPP.html

China New Energy Vehicle Consumption Upgrade Survey - Online Survey Report

https://www.d1ev.com/news/shuju/79527

Action Plan for Improving Digital Literacy and Skills for all people - Office of the Cyber Security and Informatization Commission of the Communist Party of China http://www.cac.gov.cn/2021-11/05/c_1637708867754305.htm

How CSR Practice Affects Corporate Brand and Reputation?—— Evaluation and Prospect of Related Research in the Past Ten Years, Deng Lifeng Tu Shengbin, Modern Communication, No. 5, 2021

Beyond Crisis Management: Goldman Sachs' Reputation Risk Management Experience and Implications, Hongyu Guo, The Banker, May 2021 issue

Author: Liu Cong, Deputy Editor-in-Chief and Chief Public Opinion Analyst of Network Public Opinion Magazine (Intern He Xinlu also contributed to this article)

Editor: Yan Shengfa | Editor-in-charge: Zhu Yuping Xia Yue

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