Purpose
What is our purpose? What are our values? What is the purpose we want to see from our present and future fashion industry? During the overall development of millennials and one of the newest generations, Gen Z, brands have a new sudden burst of purpose, for sustainability, diversity and all together inclusion which communicates well to consumers of this day and age. Meeting the needs of today’s society. Purpose is the story telling of a brand (Kretz, 2010).
Brand philosophy is the idea of what ideals a brand will always stay loyal to and carry out thorough the brands growth overtime. In consideration many brands philosophy includes carrying out the United Nations SDG’s (United Nations, 2023), one brand who carries this as a part of their mission is Stella McCartney (Stella McCartney, n.d.). Brand philosophy is important due to the idea of a new vision of circulatory, most brands are looking into now adding to their value, unlike fast fashion brands who don’t overly share their brand’s philosophy due to them not being ideal in this day and age. A company who shares their vales, helps to know how loyal they are to them, for example “Asos” listed its key purpose; authentic, brave, creative, and disciplined (ASOS plc, n.d.), but do they live up to these?
Brands are beginning to develop an idea of how to entice generation z to their products as well as getting to know them through a story. Giving somewhat feeling of blanket targeting the Gen Z consumers. When trying to communicate their ideas to the market, brands will use an influencer of the time to collaborate with who may share the same beliefs, for example, an upstanding display of wanting sustainability and giving willingness to share the brands “story”. Gen Z statistically are shown to more likely to have bought something if the brand is ethical and upholds their vales which can be seen and not just told (Finneman, Spagnuolo and Rahilly, 2020). The idea of cancel culture is a massive thing in this generation, meaning many brands, such as “Balenciaga” (Balenciaga, 2023) have been “cancelled” within seconds if their purpose is not withheld (Velasco, 2020). Before buying a product gen z are more likely to want to know how a company operates, how is everything made, are the products mass produced? Therefore, brands will use their social media platform to showcase how loyal they may be to their values and purpose as an overall company (Finneman, Spagnuolo and Rahilly, 2020).
Bibliography:
ASOS plc. (n.d.). Our purpose and values. [online] Available at: https://www.asosplc.com/this-is-asos/our-purpose-and-values/#:~:text=Our%20vision%20is%20to%20be#.
Balenciaga (2023). Balenciaga Official Online Boutique GB. [online] www.balenciaga.com. Available at: https://www.balenciaga.com/en-gb.
Finneman, B., Spagnuolo, E. and Rahilly, L. (2020). Meet Generation Z: Shaping the Future of Shopping | McKinsey. [online] McKinsey. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/our-insights/meet-generation-z-shaping-the-future-of-shopping
Kretz, G. and de Valck, K., 2010. “Pixelize me!”: Digital storytelling and the creation of archetypal myths through explicit and implicit self-brand association in fashion and luxury blogs. In Research in consumer behavior (Vol. 12, pp. 313-329). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Stella McCartney (n.d.). Social Sustainability. [online] www.stellamccartney.com. Available at: https://www.stellamccartney.com/gb/en/sustainability/social-sustainability.html.
United Nations (2023). The 17 Sustainable Development Goals. [online] United Nations. Available at: https://sdgs.un.org/goals.
Velasco, J.C., 2020. You are cancelled: Virtual collective consciousness and the emergence of cancel culture as ideological purging. Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, 12(5), pp.1-7
Image Reference:
(Household Design, n.d.) Household Design. (n.d.). ASOS | Brand Identity, Labelling and Packaging Design – Household. [online] Available at: https://www.household-design.com/work/asos/.