‘Lore’ used to belong to fantasy novels and video games. Gen Z has rebranded it: the word now covers the random, defining details of a life — odd childhood memories, family feuds, past phases — shared on social media as ‘lore drops.’ Youth researcher YPulse traces the term’s rise on TikTok from late 2022 into a full trend, with creators using personal lore to bond with audiences. Marketers are following: consultants now sell ‘brand lore audits,’ pointing to cases like Telfar, whose bag the internet itself nicknamed the ‘Bushwick Birkin’ — a name the brand happily let ride.
What is interesting is where the story comes from. Lore is not the brand’s polished origin tale; it is the nicknames, jokes and recurring details an audience invents and retells. The asset is half-owned by the crowd — and the discipline becomes noticing and naming what already circulates, rather than scripting something new.
So…:
What do your customers already say, tag or nickname about you — that you have never named?
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Solen Feyissa / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)