Li Ning, a homegrown Chinese brand, recently caused disturbance when its new military-like hats on the runway resembled those of the Japanese army.
Do consumers really need brands to “educate”them? The disturbance caused by Li Ning’s hat design, in addition to ambiguity caused by the design itself, there is also “arrogance” issue, to the audience (consumers), talking about ‘educating’ them is considered a sign of ‘arrogance’.
Here are what I thought:
1. In fact, the relationship between consumers and brands has undergone essential changes so far. Brands may not be aware that consumers are “partners” of the brand, they are not just “consumers”.
2. The academic definition of “consumer” is “user and buyer”. But today’s consumers are also “designers, evaluators, promoters and marketers”.
All this is due to the fact that social media has changed the relationship between consumers and brands, it also changed the way of communication and influence from the “one-way message delivery ” to “two-way (interactive) communications”. In the era of traditional media, although individual consumers may also feedback and recommend products to the surrounding people, their influence was generally weak.
One cannot do marketing well without the awareness of the change of the relationshipbetween brands and consumers.
3. Then let’s talk about the problem of “education”. In my opinion, if we define “education” as the concept of “There must be one out of three who can be your teacher”. This kind of education prevails anywhere. In other words, even I am a PhD, I do not know how to decorate the house, to see how others paint the wall, to me is a process of educating myself
So, I think brands can and should educate consumers, and consumers can educate the brands too. The relationship is reciprocal. I don’t think the brand is superior than the consumer, neither the consumer is superior the brand.
4. There is, of course, the question of rhetorical strategy too. In fact, in marketing, the concept of “educating” consumers is listed in the textbook. Advertisement, fashion exhibition are part of the educations. One goes to luxury bran’s’ exhibition, is it “education” ?One goes to a store to buy shoes, he/she cannot distinguish what shoes are for what sports and ask sales for help, is it just ‘service’ or it is also “education” processing?
5. But from the perspective of communication strategy, an insensitive word is changed into a sensitive word at such a sensitive moment.
6. Comments about Li Ning’ executive’s message of “educating” consumers are all negative but no one offered a solution, what is the right way to say it?
Here is what I recommend Li Ning to say:
Thank you for your attention and helpful criticism of Li Ning products. The hat’s design was inspired by ……… I hope this explanation can help you understand our products! If you still have any further questions, you are welcomed to leave comments on our web. We will collect and review your feedback and try our all endeavor for preventing the same issue arose again.
Some further details:
In my opinion, this mistake was not caused by the product planner or the designer, looks to me, it was caused by the stylist of the show
Translated by Gu Zhenheng
CHINA FASHION BUSINESS 
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