Researchers estimate that consumers in general prefer answers with a more educational than aggressive content
In recent years, several brands are adhering to different social causes. In this brand activism, comments from consumers dissatisfied with the company having embraced a certain social cause are not rare.
This dissatisfaction often leads to rude, rude and discourteous comments, to which many companies tend to respond assertively or sarcastically. Now, a survey by Fundação Getulio Vargas has investigated how consumers react to these responses, giving recommendations for companies to respond to these comments, in order to embrace the cause without necessarily alienating consumers.
The study, funded by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), analyzed responses from companies to “uncivilized” comments from followers regarding the LGBT+ movement, the fight against sexism, and the fight against racism. Research found that responding assertively is the most appropriate way to handle this type of situation.
“The sarcastic responses, even though they are funny, show aggression. If the brand positions itself in the appropriate way, which according to the participants in this research is the assertive way, the company will be better recognized by those who support the cause and those who do not”, he introduced researcher Lucia Barros, one of the authors of the study.
Barros, who is a professor at the So Paulo School of Business Administration (FGV EAESP), details the type of response from companies that are recommended to be used: “our definition of assertive deals with a form of communication that expresses thoughts, feelings and beliefs, in a direct, respectful and appropriate way. That is the response that will be best received”.
Assertive x Sarcastic
Barros believes that when using an assertive approach, the brand does not fail to position itself, it remains firm in the cause, but in a civilized way, bringing teachings without aggressiveness.
The teacher declares that she has already come across countless brands responding to uncivilized comments, among them, many are ironic, harsh and mocking, and this type of attitude can alienate all consumers, not just the most prejudiced ones who made uncivilized comments.
experimental studies
The project carried out 5 experimental studies in which fictitious posts were created, based on real publications and brands, in which a company made a post about the LGBT+, feminist or racial equality cause and, due to the post, received uncivilized comments from some users. The participant evaluated the uncivilized comment and the type of response from the company, one configured a sarcastic tone, while the other brought a more educational approach.
Barros points out that each participant received only one post with a prejudiced comment and the appropriate reply from the company, so the individual had to rate from 0 to 7 how much he liked the brand’s response. Through this survey, the researchers performed a statistical analysis in order to identify an average of the participants’ evaluation of the response.
The teacher also points out that after evaluating the answers, the participant answered a brief questionnaire about basic and demographic information. From this data, which was collected by the company Toluna, it was possible to measure who was involved with a certain cause, and who was not.
“Basically, everyone preferred the more polite answers, which are what we call assertive in this research. However, tolerance for sarcastic comments increased according to the individual’s degree of involvement with the cause. Those who were more related to the cause, did not care. mattered a lot with this type of aggressive and ironic response, unlike those who had no involvement with the cause, who rejected this type of response much more, which in this research is framed as sarcastic”, he detailed.
Barros says that the fictional brands, in addition to being based on real-life brands, simulate posts made by different sectors, such as the cosmetics industry, which has several companies in Brazil that embrace the LGBT+ cause.
(Image credits: Austin Distel/Unsplash)
