Trend is greater than clothes—it’s a manner for individuals to discover and specific their id and values. Subcultures and the communities inside them are created and supported by the alternatives individuals make about what they determine to put on and the place and the way they purchase their garments.
Neil Barrie, CEO of TwentyFirstCenturyBrand, and Jumoke Adekunle, world model advertising and marketing lead at Depop, joined Adweek throughout Social Media Week Europe to debate constructing communities with genuine human connection on the heart.
Revolutionizing vogue by way of group
In response to Adekunle, Depop is on a mission to revolutionize how the world consumes vogue by making secondhand clothes enjoyable, accessible and one thing that individuals are desirous to get entangled in.
“The second a part of our mission is that we’re a community-powered ecosystem that’s kinder to the planet and kinder to individuals—that’s actually about who we’re,” she stated. “Our group is before everything in our mission. It’s what drives us, what powers us, what offers us our power. Group is on the coronary heart of what we do. Range, constructing, collaboration, development is de facto constructed into the work we do proper on the heart.”
On the subject of defining group, Adekunle stated that it typically will get overcomplicated and overwhelming, nevertheless it’s actually fairly easy.
“I feel one of many issues about group is [that] it’s simply individuals who have shared curiosity, whether or not it’s about circularity, tradition, connection,” she stated. “Phrases like tradition and group have grow to be a bit scary to individuals, and we’ve actually made it extra tangible in that it simply means individuals who need to join by way of totally different points as nicely.”
Placing human connection entrance and heart
When attempting to construct a profitable group technique, Adekunle stated all of it comes all the way down to human connection.
“You may’t faux that. It must be community-centric work you do, and it must be genuine,” she stated. “The opposite factor for us is we’re supporting individuals to develop their companies—it doesn’t matter what kind of vendor they’re. It’s about individuals supporting individuals. I feel on the coronary heart of Depop, what makes it so particular is that it’s individuals shopping for from different individuals. 75% of sellers on our platform are additionally patrons, so it’s encouraging that sort of ongoing relationship. Anyone on this room might arrange a Depop store, and in that store you’ll discover your personal types, the way you need to characterize your self, who the individuals are that you simply need to speak to and you’ll be capable to discover your personal group.”
Adekunle stated social media is a strong software to assist harness the facility of human connection.
“We use our social platforms to inform model tales, to indicate totally different developments and types,” she stated. “We additionally use it for promotion—how are we creating visibility for our sellers and driving fairness for them? We do that by way of Sellers to Watch, a Day within the Lifetime of a Depop Vendor, and different activations that drive mutual worth fairly than one-way worth extraction.”
