Pain Points in the PR Event Industry: Price Wars and Client Demands

In China, the prosperous coastal economy has spawned a large number of PR companies. In Shenzhen alone, there may be over a thousand, ranging from exhibition booth builders, florists, imaging equipment providers, to event planners. It is undeniable that the entry barrier for the PR industry is relatively low. Most event planning can be done by imitation, and there are plenty of ready-made plans online, making it relatively easy to find work.

Not to mention that for small companies, most lack the ability to truly integrate comprehensive corporate resources. They only do superficial work, lack long-term partnerships, and focus only on immediate gains. As long as the price is low, they copy a plan and get to work. If that doesn't work, they simply tell the client, "Give me your plan, and I'll do it at a lower price than the other guy."

"Small Profits, Quick Turnover"

Do you still remember "small profits, quick turnover"? By 2019, this marketing tactic is no longer mentioned; now everyone talks about "cost-effectiveness."

In the past, there were often idle customers who would chat in your shop, smoking free cigarettes, and say earnestly, "Xiao Wang, I think if you want to do well in business, you must sell things cheaper than others. Only by being cheaper can you attract repeat customers, and your business will get better and better."

You were often instilled with the concept of small profits and quick turnover, and since business was indeed poor at the time, you naturally embarked on the thorny path of price wars.

But you thought that low price was your biggest trump card, allowing you to seize more customer groups and defeat high-priced merchants. As a result, after half a year of hard work, sales went up, but when you counted, you didn't make money, and many customers ran away. Your wife complained that you were busy for nothing. Looking back, the high-priced merchants were still selling well, and their business was still booming!

Price wars have been prevalent for a long time. Low-priced products may sell well for a while, but they are hard to sustain. They even led to the popularity of counterfeit goods, because the cost of fakes is lower, making them both cheap and profitable. In the end, it harmed yourself and cheated consumers, leading to business failure and a tarnished reputation!

For those of us in the PR industry, companies with some history know roughly each other's prices. "Basically no profit, just selling at a loss for publicity." If you lower the price even more to win a project, it feels like clients are unwilling to increase their budgets. For small and medium-sized enterprises, isn't it getting harder and harder?

Moreover, as everyone's overall aesthetic standards have gradually risen, clients have become more professional. This reminds me of a past event:

"So It Was You"

When I just graduated, I came to a relatively small design company. Once, we took on a project to design a handheld massager for the face and hands. The client was Japanese. I had heard that Japanese clients had high demands, but I didn't realize how difficult the project would be until I experienced it. The entire project dragged on for over half a year and still wasn't finished.

At the beginning, we produced many sketches. The first round wasn't satisfactory, and in the second round, mine was selected. That's when the real challenge began. After the sketches were done, we moved on to modeling, rendering, and layout. But the first version wasn't quite satisfactory, so we entered the revision phase. During revisions, the boss gave opinions, and the supervisors under him, eager to show off, also gave opinions. There were too many opinions, and you know how it is—the design became unclear. So I told the company that it was difficult and the workload was too much for one person. Thus, four people in the company worked together to refine the plan.

Later, when we submitted the plan again, the client chose one drawn by a senior colleague. He was good at Photoshop and had more details. Just when we thought the project was progressing smoothly, the client changed the requirements. It turned out that the client had hired a designer who was said to be a senior designer with years of experience at a large design company in Shenzhen. It sounded impressive. Later, we found out that this designer had once come to our company for an interview but wasn't hired, as the boss said she didn't meet his requirements. After that, she was the one handling the project, and she tormented us with countless detailed requirements.

The project dragged on for a long time, stuck on trivial issues that couldn't be resolved. In the end, the boss himself had to talk directly with the client's boss, and only then did the project slowly wrap up.

For the planning and the entire industry, whether it's the increasingly low prices or the increasingly detailed demands from clients, market competition is definitely becoming more intense. The most important advice I can give is:

Improve your own planning and design capabilities, and connect with higher-end suppliers. Win people over with quality.

Moreover, working alone can no longer highlight a company's strengths. Whether you're a show producer, a venue provider, an audio equipment supplier, or even a florist at the door, you need a platform to connect industry resources across the country, facilitating exchange and mutual benefit.