Purpose
The fashion industry is composed of 4 prominent pillars: People, Planet, Profit and Purpose. Within this blog, it will be focused on the Purpose pillar and its importance. What’s the point of having purpose in a brand? Aren’t brands sole mission to generate as much profit as they can? “Profit is not a purpose or goal that brands can achieve, it is a result of their work” (Volkinburg, 2023). Brands are established based on principals and aims of the founder, lacking a purpose would mean that there is no foundation to begin and no goals to be achieved. Purpose allows brands to navigate through a journey of their own and reach a destination as a brand whilst also contributing to their brand identity (Volkinburg, 2023).
A brand philosophy makes the consumers believe that brand view fashion as art and creativity rather than commerce, since they have values and visions in mind, their agenda demonstrates them as more than just profit driven. Companies with only revenue in mind without any goals can give the impression that they lack any empathy to the societal and environmental issues that they contribute towards; making consumers perceive them as malicious and corrupt. During the last few decades, there has been a rise in social responsibility and awareness among consumers (Hethorn and Ulasewicz, 2015). Brands that are not purpose driven may not appeal to consumers anymore, it was reported that 71% of millennials said, “they prefer brands that drive social and environmental change” (Shadpour, 2023). Additionally for business’, this results in brands shifting towards a more sustainable route to reengage their consumers (Hethorn and Ulasewicz, 2015).
The way in which brands have communicated their purpose to Gen Z is the actions that they execute whether that’s the form of a collaboration or donating to a cause. Globally recognised singer, Billie Eilish, had collaborated with Nike to create Air Force 1 shoes in her style using leftover textiles to prevent waste and in a sustainable manner (Nike, 2022). Evidently, demonstrating how Nike is attempting to become more ethical and relevant since Nike would attract Eilish fans. Although some gen z would be content and praise Nike for this, others would investigate deeper and even find out that Nike was sued for greenwashing and marketing products as “green” when more than half were not ethically sourced or produced; resulting in a lawsuit (Ruvo, 2023). The real issue was the false marketisation of Nike’s products since generation Z prefer truthful transparent brands, which Nike has disproven to be. Brands would learn from Nikes mistakes and witness the outrage from generation Z then successfully develop from it.
References:
Firebrand (2019) How to uncover your brand purpose, Firebrand.
Hethorn, J. and Ulasewicz, C. (2015). Sustainable fashion : what’s next? : a conversation about issues, practices and possibilities. New York: Bloomsbury, Fairchild Books, An Imprint Of Bloomsbury Publishing Inc. (Print)
Nike (2022) Nike x Billie Eilish AF1 Low. Available at: https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/nike-x-billie-eilish-af1-low (Accessed: 24 October 2023).
Ruvo, C. (2023) ‘Greenwashing’ lawsuit against nike claims recycled polyester apparel isn’t sustainable, asicentral. Available at: https://members.asicentral.com/news/newsletters/promogram/july-2023/greenwashing-lawsuit-against-nike-claims-recycled-polyester-apparel-isn-t-sustainable/ (Accessed: 24 October 2023).
Shadpour, D. (2023) Council post: the importance of building brands with purpose, Forbes. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2018/10/23/the-importance-of-building-brands-with-purpose/ (Accessed: 25 October 2023).
Volkinburg, N.V. (2023) ‘Intro to… Purpose’. London College of Fashion.