Purpose.
Why do brands operate the way they do? What is the purpose of their practices? A brands purpose is the motivation behind their support, it’s why they are deemed competitive. “They’re looking beyond tangible products and actually trying to understand what is it that makes the company tick. What’s its mission? What’s its purpose? And what is it actually trying to build for us as a society?” (Finneman, 2020). Here, Finneman was discussing what Generation Z are looking for in companies and how they consider more than just the product they are trying to market.
One of the most crucial aspects of an association is its philosophy. It’s defined in the dictionary as ‘the rational investigation of the truths and principles of being, knowledge, or conduct.’ (Dictionary, 2012). A key word here is ’truth’ and as mentioned above, that is what consumers want, the company’s truth. As a customer, you want to support a company with clear goals and ambitions that is honest with its practices.
A brand with a particularly valuable example of this is ASOS. In 2021, they released a progress update for their ‘Fashion with Integrity’ mission. In order to create and update their goals to be more relevant to their customer they had the report carried out by an external source. Which was able to focus on what was relevant for the company relating to particular world developments and trends.
This will communicate well to Gen Z as ASOS are displaying that they take their goals and in turn their company seriously. As ASOS’ main consumer is Gen Z, they will appreciate the company showing they care about their customers and their futures.
’”I also have means by which I can access influencers and experts that have points of view in this space that might align with mine.”’ (Finneman, 2020). Finneman was speaking about Gen Z having the most access to social media compared to that of other generations. Companies can use this to their advantage to communicate their brand’s purpose. If they can strongly research what exactly Gen Z’s views are, they can potentially start to base their business plan around this to capture the attention of a wider market. Which circles back to what ASOS managed to do well.
Bibliography:
Finneman, B. Spagnuolo, E. And Rahilly, L. (2020.) McKinsey&Company, Meet Generation Z: Shaping the future of shopping. (Podcast Script). Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/our-insights/meet-generation-z-shaping-the-future-of-shopping