The Diversity Fashion Show from the School of Management and Marketing is a yearly event for students to creatively develop ideas introduced in two modules: Developing My Professional Identity and Practice and Leadership in Marketing. This year, the show occurred on 3 April and focused on psychological archetypes in branding.
Developing My Professional Identity and Practice and Leadership in Marketing are sister modules taught on the Business Management (Marketing) BA Honours and Business Management BA Honours courses. These modules prepare students for leadership to address contemporary and current needs in the world of business. The accompanying Diversity Fashion Show is developed over a 12-week period. Students act as interns to design a performance with a set theme. The 2024 theme was the use and misuse of Jungian archetypes in marketing and branding.
Jungian archetypes are a psychological concept that refer to universal themes or images that occur across stories and cultures, from the figure of the trickster to the mother to the shadow. The psychologist Carl Jung believed that there are universal experiences and patterns of thought that are inherent to the human collective unconscious. These primordial images and archetypes can be activated to create strong messages and narratives that speak to people on many levels.
The Diversity Fashion Show argued that these knowledges, originally developed to help support the development of humanity have invariably been exploited for individualistic and personal gain in the business world. Students used fashion and creativity to explore the misuse of psychoanalytic work to promote, deceive and manipulate through branding and marketing. Students also focused on ideas for more sustainable, respectful and collectively healthy marketing solutions.
As students engaged in collaborative activities to put their performance together, Senior Lecturer Naseem Joban and Lecturer Dr Anastasia Alexeeva worked closely with them to help develop their ideas and confidence. They used the fashion show as an opportunity to engage their students with ideas around emotional intelligence and ethical business practices.
Mikael Hussain, a Business Management (Marketing) BA Honours student, participated in the show and designed a Magian and Lover archetypes scenario. He said: “I wanted to be involved with the Diversity Fashion Show because I thought it would be a great experience and I had never done anything like this before. When I came up with my scenario in my head it felt like an explosion. When the ideas came to me, I saw it perfectly in my head. Then I spoke to my friends, who all helped to develop it and became my models. This experience has helped me develop my intercommunication skills and understanding, and team building, and help with the understanding of the inner workings of a fashion show.”
Kosalthanak Neth, a Master of Business Administration (MBA) student, had several roles in the show as a marketing lead, model and through a delivering a presentation on misuse of knowledges in marketing. He said: “Throughout my experience in the Diversity Fashion Show, I feel that I underwent three key areas of growth. Firstly, I developed strong leadership skills by understanding the intricacies of organisational skills, improving communication and resolving conflicts assertively and empathetically through my role as a marketing lead. In the latter I really had to use emotional understanding. I had to research and deliver one of the key themes about the show - namely the misuse of knowledges to further individual gain; I spoke about the work of the first PR guru Edward Bernays and his deceptive marketing tactics.
“Lastly, I learned the value of adaptability and embracing the present moment as well as the significance of authentic expression and embodying the ‘beat’ in performance; this was evident in The Internal Living Room performance by Nova Eden, and ‘Mask-Off’ performances by Matewos Jote Abera and Abdul Sare. These three areas of growth have had a profound impact on my professional perspective and provided me with valuable skills for future endeavours.”
This event directly contributed to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4: Quality Education. Since 2019, the University of Westminster has used the SDGs holistically to frame strategic decisions to help students and colleagues fulfil their potential and contribute to a more sustainable, equitable and healthier society.
Learn more about Marketing courses at the University of Westminster.
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