Recently, so-called “aggressive marketing” has been the target of much speculation. The companies that benefited from this “tactic” saw their pages explode in likes, comments, and shares from the most diverse places, even gaining space in newspapers, forums, and discussions among professionals in the field. A lot of people talked about how the person spoke and how they didn’t like other people.
Mass communication vehicles are responsible for talking to all social classes, levels of education, ideologies, opinions, etc. They can shape some opinions and make others explicit, present previously unthinkable concepts, and innovate in the way of talking to the public in the most diverse facets. And there is a very clear and undeniable trace of influence in these niches that need to be explored.
That’s where the problem lies.
The way you choose to communicate, from planning, market studies, personas, languages, to the final product, is extremely important and should be treated with caution. When we think how much our work reflects on the construction of opinions and their influence (how many campaigns have not already viralized and become the subject of assiduous debates? ), we need to be aware that our actions will, directly or indirectly, generate a consequence. For these reasons and others, the popularization of these “aggressivenesses” displayed with such pride is worrying.
There is a difference between what is aggressive and what is offensive. And it is closely linked to the choice (and understanding) of vocabulary.
Aggressive marketing is, so to speak, that adopted by big stores and chains such as Casas Bahia, Magazine Luiza, Burger King, McDonald’s, among others. It is to be present everywhere and communicate effectively with your public; invest in marketing and brand presence. Not allowing yourself to be forgotten. Aggressiveness is purely and simply in the name, in the fact of being aggressive in actions and not in the vocabulary. This has another meaning.
No speech is impartial. That is a fact. Great language scholars have already explained in more and more analyses that our opinions and experiences are present in the construction of any sentence, whether written or spoken. And when we make use of expressions that attack other people, exploiting sarcasm, irony, and, in more serious cases, attacks with first and last names, this has already stopped being marketing (if it ever was) to become an offense.
The line between a joke and an offense is quite thin, and anyone who works in communication has this in mind. That is why the planning of a brand must be done carefully, and the texts, especially, must be written in a way that respects the public because it is the public that makes the company grow.
The concept of selling at any cost does not work, much less when it means reaching others for nothing. Being aggressive is one thing; being offensive is another. And the two are quite different.