Abstract
The objective of this paper is to explore how luxury brand managers can identify and construct brand purpose to balance the tensions between heritage and the rising societal expectations for sustainable and ethical branding. We conceptualize purpose formation in luxury as a sensemaking process and examine how managers (1) identify and interpret potential sources of purpose, (2) formulate these insights into distinct purpose architectures, and (3) assess emerging purpose statements through criteria related to legitimacy, authenticity, and brand coherence.