Brand Equity
As a person fixated with the “why” of things but often forget to question my own actions, I am infatuated with brands who uphold righteous philosophy on how they operate, what they support, and their ideal state of the future. Nowadays, quite significant local brands in Indonesia are empowering more wise-consumerism in terms of choosing what to buy and what to own, while understanding that our simple act of endorsing a brand may lead to a vicious cycle of industrialism on the other end.
One of the brand I am fangirling over at the moment is SukkhaCitta, founded by Denica Flesch, a former economist who decided to take things into her own hands to deal with poverty issue by empowering local talents with the local wisdom of art & technology to make things that are made right (one of their campaigns is #MadeRight). While sharing my newest fandom to this brand, I had a discussion with my mentor about building brand equity of yourself through the things you wear. The context, originally, was my surprise in finding how even in the community of hijabi, there are classes on the length or the style of hijab you wear & how that determines the different level of religiousness you may have. I was highlighting the effect of social media & how it really impacted what people think is right and wrong in terms of perceiving religious practice such as the hijab.
My mentor shook off my argument by stating, as much as utopian I’d like it to be, there’s a bitter, cynical truth that even in things that we believe to be fully right, it is all just part of the brand equity we’d like people to perceive us to have. That in the end, how people perceive you will fuel your next decision of endorsing a particular lifestyle or not. Which I cannot deny, maybe true.
That may be, the fact you can afford a righteous piece of clothing, made with just calculation of just living cost to support themselves, without endorsing the value of capitalism & industrialism, is the luxury of equity you’d like to build. That perhaps, you were only trying to say that I am a social justice warrior and it may be costly but hey I can afford all of these.
Which made me questioned my decision why I endorse such a brand. True they’re expensive and knowing people acknowledge its cost may build a self-imagery of a well-funded social justice warrior.
But the more I dig into it, I couldn’t think of any justification other than I don’t really care, really, on how people may perceive if I’m a spoiled young woman who earns enough to afford such lifestyle. I don’t really care if my way of wearing my hijab would let people perceive me as a half-assed Muslim woman who may only be covering some hidden truths about myself instead. I don’t really care if people see me as a fake social justice warrior, because I never ask you to label me as such. I never ask you to label me as a good Muslim woman because it is only Allah SWT who knows if I am or not. I never ask you to label me as sustainable-freak. I do this because it made me feel good, knowing the money I saved or allocated, have a purpose instead of just fueling capitalism and industrialism. It made me feel good knowing what I earn, regardless of the doubts I have with my own profession may be meaningful for ends meet to other people. It made me feel like I am working for a purpose, at least, that I can directly support a cause I know is impactful, not wasted more than half only to gain more customers and markets, but to simply deliver. It’s the same warm feelings watching Naadam makes the same move to help to democratize cashmere. As a person struggling to wake up believing that I have spent my sane hours for the stance I believe in, I am okay with the decision I’ve made regardless of how people perceive.
Because in the end, it is I who live my own life, not them. In the world ecstatics with symbolism and labelling, I need to make amend and live through, in spite of.
