Exclusive Interview with Senior Public Relations and Brand Expert WU Meng: Emotional Narrative and Long-term Trust Building in Corporate Public Relations in the Era of Emotional Communication

Public relations expert Wu Meng

In the current era when the media - oriented society is evolving deeply and social media is reconstructing the communication ecosystem, emotional communication has become a core feature of the current public opinion field. The traditional public relations paradigm centered on facts is starting to develop in the direction of "emphasizing both facts and emotions". In the era of emotional communication, how can corporate public relations reconstruct emotional narratives, build bridges of emotional resonance with the public, and achieve the long - term construction of brand trust? With these questions, we conducted an exclusive interview with senior public relations and brand expert Wu Meng.

Wu Meng has rich experience in public relations and brand management. He has successively held senior management positions in Lenovo Group, BlueFocus, and JD.com Group. During this period, he personally experienced and led the formulation of brand communication strategies and public relations consulting projects for many well - known enterprises in different fields such as FMCG, Internet, and finance, and formed a profound understanding of the public relations communication laws of multiple industries. Based on long - term industry practice, Wu Meng has a high professional sensitivity to the generation, transmission, and evolution of public emotions. He is good at accurately capturing emotional points in the public opinion field and carrying out communication practices.

Wu Meng is a member of the Page Society, the most authoritative industry association organization in the global public relations and communication field. As an internationally recognized top - tier corporate communication leadership association, the Page Society has extremely high membership thresholds. It only admits top - tier communication managers with senior qualifications, excellent practices, and industry influence, representing the highest professional level in the corporate communication industry and having great influence in the global public relations and brand management fields.

In the exclusive interview, Wu Meng systematically explained his insights and thoughts on corporate public relations practices in the era of emotional communication. At the same time, he emphasized that public relations is the external manifestation and extension of corporate values. There is a difference between "the way" and "the technique" between emotional communication and corporate values. No matter how the communication environment iterates, conducting sincere communication based on objective facts and building a trust bridge between enterprises and the public has always been the core essence of public relations work, and this has never changed.

Reporter: What is the core connotation of "emotional communication", which is highly concerned by the academic and industrial circles at present? What is the biggest difference from the traditional rational information communication paradigm?

Wu Meng: From the perspective of communication studies, emotional communication is a communication process in which individuals or groups complete emotional expression, emotional infection, and emotional aggregation through specific media. The most fundamental difference between it and the traditional communication paradigm is that the traditional communication takes objective facts as the only anchor point, and the public completes the value judgment of enterprises based on factual information. In the context of emotional communication, emotions and feelings have become important screening criteria for the public to receive information, and the public's judgment logic of enterprises has shifted from "right or wrong of facts" to "emphasizing both emotions and facts".

For example, in traditional communication, when an enterprise releases a product quality inspection report, people will first verify the authenticity of the report and then decide their attitude towards the brand. However, in the context of emotional communication, emotions and feelings have become an important threshold for the public to receive information. In addition to paying attention to facts, people will also consider whether this matter "meets my wishes and touches my emotions". Both are equally important for the communication effect.

Reporter: What typical characteristics does emotional communication present in the current public opinion field?

Wu Meng: There are four very distinct core characteristics:

First, the speed of emotional communication is very fast. Unverified emotional expressions often have much stronger communication power than rigorous factual statements. For example, several years ago, in the public opinion event of a certain automobile company's "brake failure", at the beginning, a user's complaining video spread much faster than the professional technical inspection report subsequently released by the automobile company. The core reason is that it touched the public's anxiety about "driving safety".

Second, there is a phenomenon of emotional clustering and viral spread in circles. Emotions have strong infectivity and trust endorsement attributes within the same circle, which can easily trigger cross - circle public opinion waves.

Third, emotions can in turn define corporate behaviors. The collective emotions of the public can push enterprises to make behavioral changes, thus realizing the self - fulfillment of the goals of emotional communication.

Fourth, the public wants equal dialogue, not one - way notification. In the past, enterprises issued press releases and statements, which were just one - way communication. Now, people want brands to hear their demands and respond to their emotions.

Reporter: What changes have these communication characteristics brought to the communication environment of traditional corporate public relations?

Wu Meng: It is reconstructing the public opinion environment and communication logic of corporate public relations. There are three core changes:

First, the traditional public relations paradigm centered on facts is starting to develop in the direction of "emphasizing both facts and emotions". Public relations need to do "fact clarification" and also "emotional communication". In the past, when an enterprise had a problem, presenting evidence and stating facts was effective. Now, it is necessary to soothe emotions first and then present the facts.

Second, the trigger points of public opinion risks have extended from "factual deviations in corporate behaviors" to "perceptual deviations in public emotions". Even if there are no factual flaws in corporate behaviors, touching emotional sensitive points can still trigger public opinion crises.

Finally, the criteria for judging the quality of public relations are changing. In addition to the information reach efficiency, the core evaluation criteria for the effectiveness of public relations also need to include dimensions of emotional resonance and emotional recognition of the public in emotional communication.

Reporter: In such a communication context, what common dilemmas do current corporate public relations face in practice?

Wu Meng: The industry mainly faces three common dilemmas: First, the emotional insight is lagging. Most enterprises' public opinion monitoring still focuses on negative information at the factual level, lacking the monitoring and prediction of the emotional dimension based on emotional calculation, and missing the golden window period for emotional guidance. Second, there is a dilemma of disconnection between words and deeds. Simply equating emotional communication with rhetoric optimization, emotional commitments are not implemented throughout the entire corporate operation chain. The gap between "saying" and "doing" can easily lead to an irreversible collapse of trust. Third, there is a dilemma of "pseudo - empathy" in a templated way. Emotional narratives are homogeneous and templated, lacking in - depth insight into the real emotional needs of the audience. Empathizing for the sake of empathy can instead arouse public emotional resistance.

Reporter: To build a systematic emotional communication system for corporate public relations in response to these dilemmas, what capabilities should they first possess?

Wu Meng: The first thing to build is a pre - emptive emotional insight and risk early - warning system. This is the premise of all emotional communication actions and the core of turning public relations from "putting out fires after the fact" to "preventing fires before the fact".

Enterprises must break out of the traditional monitoring mode of "searching for negatives by keywords" and build an emotional monitoring system covering the entire network. They should not only look at what users say but also analyze whether the emotions when users speak are positive, negative, or neutral. They need to capture the emotional tendencies, emotional sensitive points, and demand changes of the public in different circles in real - time, identify potential emotional risk points in advance, and provide accurate data support for emotional communication strategies.

Reporter: In daily public relations communication, how should enterprises formulate emotional narrative strategies that adapt to the laws of emotional communication?

Wu Meng: The core is to grasp two key directions: First, create circle - based empathetic narratives. Abandon the centralized model of "one press release for all", and based on Goffman's dramaturgical theory, create differentiated content according to the discourse systems and emotional needs of different circles. Use ways that the audience can understand and empathize with to convey brand values and achieve "in - circle communication". Second, anchor consistent brand emotional values, build a stable and sincere brand personality, and integrate emotional commitments into all business links such as product R & D, user service, and social responsibility. Express in a way that words and deeds are consistent to build long - term emotional expectations of the public for the brand.

Reporter: In the face of sudden public opinion crises driven by emotions, what adjustments need to be made to the response logic of corporate public relations?

Wu Meng: The core is to complete the transformation of the response logic from "fact - first" to "emphasizing both emotions and facts". The traditional model of crisis public relations of "stating facts first and then soothing emotions" can easily intensify the public's emotional opposition. The correct response path is to first accept the public's emotions, respond to the core emotional demands, resolve the emotional opposition barriers, and then complete the fact clarification in an equal - dialogue way. Especially, avoid falling into the "Tacitus trap" and finally achieve emotional repair and trust reconstruction in crisis handling.

Reporter: Finally, could you talk about what new ability requirements the era of emotional communication puts forward for public relations practitioners? What is the future development direction of the industry?

Wu Meng: Practitioners need to upgrade four major capabilities on the basis of adhering to traditional core capabilities such as content creation and crisis handling: First, in - depth emotional insight and empathy ability; second, data - driven emotional analysis ability; third, cross - circle emotional narrative ability; fourth, brand value anchoring and ethical control ability.

From the perspective of industry development, in the future, in addition to media resource integration and crisis handling capabilities, the core competitiveness of corporate public relations will expand in the directions of brand emotional value construction and public emotional communication. The integration of technology and humanities will become an important trend.

It should be emphasized, however, that public relations is the external manifestation and extension of corporate values. There is a dialectical relationship between "the way" and "the technique" between emotional communication and corporate values. Corporate values are the underlying logic and fundamental guideline for public relations practice, while emotional communication is the method and path for public relations practice to adapt to the era's communication ecosystem. No matter how the communication environment iterates, conducting sincere communication based on objective facts and building a trust bridge between enterprises and the public has always been the core essence of public relations work, and this has never changed.