Conversations in a WhatsApp group, revealed this week, involved executives from brands such as Mormaii, Coco Bambu, Havan, Tecnisa, among others.
An article published this week by the website Metrpoles showed excerpts from conversations between businessmen, who defended a rupture if former president Luiz Incio Lula da Silva wins the October elections. The statements were made in a WhatsApp group called ‘Entrepreneurs and Politics’.
I prefer a coup than the return of PT. A million times. And certainly no one will stop doing business with Brazil. As they do with several dictatorships around the world, wrote Jos Koury, owner of the Barra World mall.
In addition to Koury, Marco Aurlio Raymundo, from Mormaii, Afrnio Barreira, from Coco Bambu, would also be in the group; Andr Tissot, from Sierra Mveis; Luciano Hang, from Havana; Jos Isaac Peres, from the Multiplan shopping network; Ivan Wrobel, from Construtora W3; and Meyer Nigri, from Tecnisa.
The matter, however, gained even more repercussion after the outbreak of a search and seizure operation by the Federal Police, with authorization from the Federal Supreme Court (STF).
On social networks, the public questioned the statements and demanded positions from the companies. The answer, however, did not come in the form of an official statement on the platforms, but limiting, deleting or closing the comments, in the case of Instagram.
The strategy is an attempt by brands to separate the legal entity from the individual, taking advantage of the fact that some of the entrepreneurs do not have such strong ties with the brand to consumers. The exception is Luciano Hang, from Havana, known for having a more personal attitude.
From the list of entrepreneurs involved, few are associated with the brands of their companies by customers and consumers. Now, brands that have been associated with their owners should tread carefully. If they keep posting, they should be very careful in responding to customers and consumers. Certainly, they will be pressured, but they must act with balance and common sense, recommends Isabel Rodrigues, professor of the public relations course at Faap.
According to the expert, the impact for brands exists because their owners are associated with them. The press makes this association even to show who these businessmen are who attack democracy, she explains.
For Alan Kuhar, a marketing professor at ESPM, the impact on the company’s image will depend a lot on the field in which it operates. Construction company or mall owner, for example, has reduced damage.
Someone who chooses the property to buy, in their list of priorities, organization and management, must be down there, far from giving up the purchase of a property that you studied and organized by location, price, plant, infrastructure because it is there businessman involved in some confusion, explains.
The scenario is different for a consumer goods company, in Kuhar’s view. In companies like Mormaii and Sierra Mveis, which fall into this group, people may choose not to buy as a way of not financing such thinking.
Despite this, he believes, the number of people who are unaware of the relationship between the CNPJ and the majority CPF. Here we are talking about services and retails and the bond in service is much stronger, the practicality of being close to your home, for example, right? This creates much more bonding than knowing that one of the executives of these companies is involved in a controversial case, he adds.
Among the brands with executives involved in the controversy, Tecnisa sent a note informing that “it is a non-partisan company, which defends democratic values and whose institutional positions are restricted to its business activities”.
Other brands such as Havan, Multiplan and Mormaii did not respond. The report was unable to contact the shopping mall Barra World, Coco Bambu, Sierra Mveis and Construtora W3.
(Image credit: Element5 Digital on Unsplash)
