PURPOSE
The purpose of a brand includes both internal and external factors and evolves around wellbeing. Wellbeing according to the American Psychological Association, wellbeing is a state of happiness with low levels of distress (APA, n.d).There are two types of wellbeing: eudaimonic and hedonistic where eudaimonic well being tries to focus on the brands ‘do good’ factor which in turn makes them and their customers feel good about associating with that brand name. For example, tentree aims to plant 10 trees upon any item in their product being purchased making the consumer feel confident having participated in helping the planet.
Brand philosophy is unique to the brand itself and is what makes up the brand; essentially it is a brand’s core belief system. A mission statement declares the purpose of the brand to their customers; every brand has a mission statement. For example, Asos’ mission statement is “to inspire young people to break down barriers and, ultimately, to achieve amazing things” whilst also having their 2030 vision/strategy of sustainability, however, as a brand, Asos have not done well in working towards their 2030 vision as they are a fast fashion unsustainable brand that produces lots of waste. A unique perspective on brand philosophy is Katie Ledgers proposed ‘Shed Me Project’ (fig6) which looks at the brands purpose of sustainability and the wear re using the garment in more than one way (Gwilt, 2014)
Brands can communicate their purpose with Gen Z in many ways, most importantly who the brand chooses to associate themselves with (people) or movements they stand behind as these align with Gen Z’s beliefs. A brand that has a purpose for equality and focuses on consumers feeling valued and happy within themselves e.g ‘Savage X Fenty’ can choose to show their stand to the Black Lives Matter campaign as the core belief of this movement is equality showing Gen Z their true purpose and choosing to stick with it.
REFERENCES
APA (n.d) – APA Dictionary of Psychology
https://dictionary.apa.org/well-being
Gwilt, A (2020) – A Practical Guide to Sustainable Fashion
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ual/reader.action?docID=6234061