Befree: Communication Theory

The brand’s positioning rests on a simple idea: youth is a matter of mindset, not age. Befree describes itself as a brand «for everyone who loves youth fashion, regardless of age.» The notion of freedom is built into both its name (be free) and its slogan, «It’s always fashionable to be free.» Befree positions itself less as a shop and more as a community that shapes fashion together with its customers.

At its core lies the idea of inclusivity — the belief that everyone is beautiful and unique. The brand is guided by five values: humanity, freedom, intelligence and innovation, creativity, and a focus on the future. Befree deliberately avoids dictating fashion from the top down, preferring instead to co-create it with creative people across Russia.

Participation is therefore embedded directly into Befree’s business model. The brand has grown a community known as #BefreeCommunity, and since 2021 it has run the Befree Co: Create project, releasing at least one collection each month in collaboration with artists, influencers, charitable foundations and its own followers. «Creating fashion together» is a genuine working process for Befree, supported by regular monthly releases. The following sections examine the theories behind this approach: the active audience as described by Uses & Gratifications theory, and two-way symmetrical communication as described by Dialogic Theory.

The brand runs several platforms, and they are all interconnected: the website befree.ru, a mobile app, a VKontakte community, a brand channel on Telegram, a dedicated Telegram bot for order enquiries, and a channel on the new social network MAX. The channel description already states the brand’s main guidelines: it calls itself «a Russian brand of women’s and men’s clothing» whose promoted values are «accessibility and inclusivity,» and it adds the hashtag #ВсегдаМодноБытьСвободным («It’s always fashionable to be free»). How close this communication is can be seen from the statistics of a single community channel: 14,012 photos, 995 videos, 2,811 links, 217 polls, and 51 voice messages. The polls are especially telling, since they show that the brand does not only publish content but also gathers responses from its audience.

Befree responds constantly in the comments: it thanks users for their feedback, explains the terms of promotions, announces contest results (for example, «Co: Create HUB TEKST: DROP»), and speaks with subscribers as equals, not as a distant brand. The discussions make it clear that a real person stands behind the account and reacts to specific comments. Because of this, the feed functions as a space for dialogue and not as a one-way showcase.

A separate strand is the #BEFREECOMMUNITY rubric and the Befree Stylists Community (for example, a post with Lisa Barashek). Here the brand photographs real people from its audience, including bloggers, creatives, and ordinary subscribers, instead of professional «brand-face» models, and it tells their personal stories: a shoot with a hero at home, a video diary from a trip, a story about a «grandfather’s T-shirt.» The subscriber becomes a hero of the brand and a co-author of its content. In this way Befree gives people a platform for self-expression and creates the feeling that they belong to a shared community.

Befree builds its paid promotion on influencer marketing through the Perfluence platform, using a CPA model. The brand works with a large number of small bloggers and pays for results, that is, for sales instead of reach. This fits the general logic of Befree: anyone can feel part of the brand and act as a micro-influencer without having to be popular.

Befree’s flagship PR campaign is the value-driven project «It’s Always Fashionable to Be Free.» At its centre is a video manifesto featuring eleven different characters: a plus-size model, a person with a hearing impairment, a dancer, and several brand founders. The video is built around freedom of choice and diversity, not around specific clothes. The campaign has its own microsite, a video on YouTube, and a manifesto book produced together with Seans magazine, with all proceeds from sales going to the «Anton Tut Ryadom» («Anton’s Right Here») foundation. In effect, the brand promotes its values (freedom, inclusivity, and charity) more than any single product, and it draws both the media and the audience into the message.

Personal relationships Through Co: Create, contests, and the Stylists Community, users transition from passive viewing to community membership, which corresponds to the belonging level in Maslow’s hierarchy. The «Cultural Code 2.0» contest demonstrates the scale of this belonging: it brings together participants from Samara, Irkutsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Tver, and other cities on the brand’s platform, creating a shared identity for them.

Surveillance Home videos, video diaries, and personal stories of the characters provide insights into the private lives of real people and satisfy the curiosity about others' daily routines. The brand actively features these stories in the #BefreeCommunity section, for example, a video diary from a trip, a shoot with a hero at home, or a story about a «grandfather’s T-shirt» open a window onto a real person’s life.

In Befree, UGC works as a tool for self-actualisation. Through Co: Create and contests allow subscribers to become co-creators of collections and heroes of publications, receiving both creative fulfillment and public recognition according to Maslow. For example, the «Always Fashionable to Be Free» contest gave the winners 50,000 rubles for shopping, and the collaboration with the «Seans» magazine turned their stories into a printed manifesto book, with proceeds going to the «Anton Tut Ryadom» («Anton’s right here») foundation. Thus, Befree integrates this mechanism into its business model, where the winner of a contest can receive recognition from the community.

Empathy Dialogic theory describes empathy as a supportive climate in which different voices are welcomed. The «Always Fashionable to Be Free» campaign is built on this principle: its manifesto features a plus-size model, a person with a hearing impairment, a dancer, and several brand founders, treating their differences as something to be accepted. The collaboration with the «Anton’s Right Here» foundation and the incl

Risk The CPA model with micro-influencers means that the brand entrusts its narrative to thousands of people without control over each post. In the theory, risk refers to a willingness to embrace the vulnerability of spontaneous communication. The scale is visible in the numbers: about 22 000 influencers for 2024, an audience of 272 million users, and a ROMI of 882%. The unpredictability of this approach becomes a working tool for the campaign.

Commitment Co: Create has been ongoing since 2021, and the Stylists Community is built on long-term relationships. Commitment in the theory refers to a focus on mutual understanding and shared benefits. According to Shmakova, collaborations with artists have evolved into a «single hub» over time, transforming befree from a clothing store into a platform for the community.

The analysis shows that Befree’s communication is effective on both axes examined. Through the lens of Uses and Gratifications theory, the brand’s content covers all four types of use and reaches the level of self-actualisation, since Co: Create and its contests let followers become co-authors of collections and heroes of publications. Through the lens of Dialogic theory, all five features of genuine dialogue are present as regular formats with measurable results, which places Befree closer to the two-way symmetrical model than most fashion brands. The strategy works because participation is built into the business model rather than added as a campaign.

Several limitations temper this assessment:

• The dialogue is strongest on social platforms (VKontakte and Telegram), while the website and app, where purchases actually happen, close the dialogic loop less fully.

• The brand’s reach depends heavily on a small set of channels, which concentrates risk.

• The CPA model hands the brand narrative to thousands of micro-influencers, so consistency of message is harder to maintain.