Purpose
“Purpose” is the last pillar of the fashion industry. Purpose connects the brand’s culture with people’s most primitive desires. This pillar mainly revolves around happiness. What is wellbeing? Simply put, it’s about ‘how we’re doing’ as individuals, communities and as a nation, and how sustainable that is for the future. It is sometimes referred to as social welfare or social value.
Wellbeing is personal and subjective, but also universally relevant.
Wellbeing encompasses the environmental factors that affect us, and the experiences we have throughout our lives. These can fall into traditional policy areas of economy, health, education and so on. But wellbeing also crucially recognises the aspects of our lives that we determine ourselves: through our own capabilities as individuals; how we feel about ourselves; the quality of the relationships that we have with other people; and our sense of purpose.
These psychological needs are an important part of what makes us human, along with our ability to feel positive and negative emotions. It matters how often, and for how long, we experience positive emotions – such as pleasure and a sense of purpose – or potentially negative emotions, like anxiety.
If we accept that some aspects of wellbeing are subjective, we can better understand the interactions and trade-offs between different experiences. We can also take into account the longer-term effects and the different importance of these things to different people. Part of the value of wellbeing as a concept is that wherever you are and whatever your cultural background or personal circumstances, people intuitively understand the value of happiness and wellbeing. But this universality that adapts to so many different contexts and perspectives, can sometimes make it difficult to share a common understanding of what exactly wellbeing is.（What works wellbeing, 2022）
The most iconic and most loved brands in the world all share a common characteristic. They’re all abundantly clear “who they are” and are obsessive in shaping their audience’s perception so they are seen and experienced in that light. These characteristics point to self-assured brands that have a clear understanding of the role they play in the lives of their audience and why they play that role in that way. This understanding of self all plays a role in a brand’s philosophy, which can be described in the following way. A brand philosophy is not something that’s commonly placed on a website or within a brand’s collateral as many of the other traditional brand element statements cover much of the brand’s philosophy. That said, a well-developed philosophy can become a powerful internal tool that the brand representatives can come together on and get behind. If you develop every suggested brand statement, you won’t have a shortage of statements your brand can use as a mantra. （What Is Brand Philosophy, 2022） Gen Z was eschewing traditional social media for “digital campfires,” more intimate online destinations where they private message or connect either in micro-communities or larger shared experiences. In 2020, activity on these platforms exploded, and digital campfires became a force defining not only how Gen Z audiences connect, but also how they experience and shape the culture at large. For this reason, marketers can no longer afford to ignore them. Here is a guide to the key digital campfires where Zs are congregating, with examples of creative ways brands are having a presence on these platforms.（Sara Wilson, 2021）
Stephen Houraghan, (No Date), “What Is Brand Philosophy?” Available at: https://brandmasteracademy.com/brand-philosophy/
Sara Wilson, (2021),”Where Brands Are Reaching Gen Z” Available at: https://hbr.org/2021/03/where-brands-are-reaching-gen-z (Accessed: 11/03/2021)