Question 1. How did you contribute to the group discussions?

The group tutor first placed us in random pairs through which my partner and me tried to brainstorm a couple of ideas for fashion garments, accessories, services or new concepts with a USP that has an ethical point of view. I came up with a couple of ideas, one of which was zero waste pattern cutting that is implemented in a clothing brand where none of their designs produce fabric waste. Adding on to that idea, I thought of using fabric waste as the filling for puffer jackets and even quilted clothing. One more idea that I contributed was a clothing company through which a customer would be able to send in their old clothes and the company uses only that to create something that is trendier and sends it back to the customer. When we moved on from the brainstorm session to a bigger group where we had to choose one idea and develop on that, I contributed by leading the group in the sense of putting everyone’s thoughts on to paper and trying to get each and every one of to chime in on what they think.

Question 2. What did you do if your team didn’t want to implement your ideas?

During the group discussion, I suggested we take a vote after listening to each member’s ideas. When it came to my turn, I tried to explain my idea best I could by emphasizing the positive social impact of it. When the vote started, we were allowed to vote for one idea other than our own. In the end, my idea wasn’t chosen as the final one but I wasn’t too unhappy about it. As soon as the vote got over, I quickly started trying to elaborate on the idea chosen with my teammates because we only had a short amount of time, which I actually prefer as it helps with diving headfirst with your idea, trusting your instinct and not fixating on one thing for a long time. All in all, I think group activities like this help me fight for what I think and if that doesn’t work out, listen to other people’s thoughts and reasons even if they are not the same as mine.

Question 3.  What do you want to know more about? How do you think you will go about finding this information?

After class today, I started thinking more about the unique selling point of brands I like, and what actually makes them appealing to me. I wanted to learn more about marketing strategies that brands use and what makes them successful. It was interesting to see how marketing the unique selling point plays a big role in getting brand recognition and essentially how even if the brand itself is not very unique or sustainable it can rise up to the top if that is done right. I want to look a little deeper into marketing strategies by looking into campaigns, collaborations as well as the history of some brands. ‘What was the turning point of a brand that made them rise to success? How would I implement that for my brand?’, These are some of the questions I want to ask myself when I do research so that I can better my knowledge and work towards creating a successful brand.