Luxury Brand Management

Being a part of the YouTube and Instagram generation, you are constantly exposed to influencers and content creators and their lavish lifestyles. Living in a consumerist society that focuses a lot on brand names and value, there is constant pressure on brands to create a certain image for themselves, one that resonates with their goals. Luxury brands like Hermès, Cartier, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Prada, to name a few are unceasingly attempting to create an image of exclusivity and trying to create memorable experiences for their customers. This has led to the emergence of Luxury Brand Management, which has opened the doors to a lot of lucrative Brand Management courses and career prospects. Through this blog, let us help you get the answer to questions around Luxury Brand Management.

What is Luxury Brand Management?

Luxury Brand Management is all about analysing the brand’s relationship with the customer and applying the innovation, product design and creativity to attract and retaining consumers. In short, it is how well you create memorable experiences. Students pursuing a career in Luxury Brand Management often end up becoming professionals in critical decision making around a brand. They are also able to identify the weaker products in a lot. This allows the brand to develop a better brand strategy.

• With the advent of social media, communication has revolutionalised with brands using creative platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram to build strong networks across the world. As per the current trends, the luxury industry has undergone a tremendous change with emerging brands looking for marketing experts.

• When we talk about “Luxury” brand, it is not just consuming a brand but the excellence, story and heritage that comes along with it. Companies aim to offer intangible values and greater meaning to their consumers through quality products and services. As a result, there is an increasing demand for professionals in Luxury Brand Management.

Why Pursue a Career in Luxury Brand Management?

A Luxury Brand Management course will help you develop business acumen, marketing skills, along with other career skills required to gain a better understanding of analyzing brand strategies. This field is an evolving and vibrant industry with unique opportunities and experiences. 

• Luxury Brand Management course also helps one analyze the market demand, consumer behaviour, and understand the target audience better.
• It will also enable you to develop important skills like merchandising, sourcing, brand development, distribution and pricing, all crucial aspects unique to the luxury brand management industry.
• It also helps you hone your media marketing and communication skills that include content creation and developing relationships with brands online. 

Eligibility to become Luxury Brand Manager

To be eligible for becoming a Luxury Brand Manager, you need to have the following qualifications:

Education

You must at least have a bachelor’s degree in luxury brand management. However, top brands prefer MBA graduates in similar fields

Work Experience

You must have atleast 4-5 years of experience to apply for a Brand Manager position in luxury brands. However, the required work experience can shift from companies.

Skills

You must have:

• Good Communication Skills
• Leadership skills
• Motivation towards team building
• Passion for luxury items
• Knowledge of the luxury market
• Ability to perform under pressure
• Attention to detail

Is it a Right Career Path for You?

With Luxury Brand Management course being a fairly unconventional field and one that has only gained ground in the 21^st century, it is natural to have doubts and confusion about picking up a course in this field and about the work of a Luxury Brand Manager executes on a daily basis. Let us now go through the pros and cons of this industry.

How to Become a Luxury Brand Manager?

After discussing the pros and cons of this industry, here is a step by step guide on how to become a Luxury Brand Manager.

STEP 1: Pursue a Bachelors Course

Since Luxury Brand Management courses are generally offered at the masters level, from the Science stream to Arts stream subjects, you can choose any course to kickstart your career.

STEP 2: Enroll in a Postgraduation Course

At postgraduate level, MBA in Luxury Brand Management, MBA in Fashion and Luxury Goods, or even a Master of Fashion Management, Experience & Design Management can help you establish a career in this domain. Though these programs, you will be taught ways to manage the business along with creativity for luxury brands. You have the opportunity to take a closer look at how branding involves a blend of emotions, art, science, and logic. What else do you get to learn?

• Recognise social patterns and individual behaviours.
• Develop strong connections and values to boost consumers’ experience.
• Opportunity to work with exclusive luxury brands to analyse how the luxury industry works.

STEP 3: Gain Experience

The final lag of establishing a flourishing career in Luxury Brand Management is to gain professional experience through industrial training or full-time employment.

Popular Universities

Below discussed are some of the prominent international institutions recognised for offering excellent courses in Luxury Brand Management:

1. ESSEC Business School

ESSEC Business School in France offers an MBA in International Luxury Brand Management, which intends to create individuals who have the ability to enhance and manage the luxury product and its associated brand. Students are taught the cultural foundations of Luxury Consumption and Consumer Behaviour, Financial Management and Accounting, Retail Management, Strategic Management, Digital Disruption, Operations Management, and Managerial Accounting. The school recognizes the importance of practical knowledge and hence offers a boutique internship to students in the final semester and has a Capstone Consulting Field project in the summers.

2. Columbia University

The Columbia Business School of the university offers an MBA in Retail and Luxury Goods; the college boasts of providing 30+ internships and job postings every semester. The University also has strong and long-lasting relationships with some of the best brands in the industry like – Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Coach, Salvatore Ferragamo, Victoria Secret’s and J. Crew to name a few, this relationship transcends to good networking opportunities for students as well as a possibility to intern with them.

3. SDA Bocconi School of Management

This management school in Italy offers a one-year full-time Master Program in Fashion, Experience & Design Management (MAFED) to students across the world. It boasts of being home to 79% international students from over 23 countries and having 83% female students. Located in the fashion capital of the world, Milan, the school encourages students to build a strong network for their future careers. This is facilitated through online and offline-meetings and events where students get the chance to interact with alumni, directors, staff, and faculty.

4. NYU – Stern School of Business

Another place to consider for building a career in Luxury Brand Management is the NYU – Stern School of Business, located in New York City. It offers an incredibly unique one-year MBA in Fashion and Luxury that combines classroom teaching with an experiential learning experience. The course is divided into 51 credit points. Also, the university has the NYU Stern Fashion and Luxury lab that is aimed at providing students opportunities for networking and working on built-in industry projects with some of the best names in the fashion industry.

5. Neoma Business School

The Neoma Business School offers a full-time International Master in Luxury Management, a double-degree with MIP Politecnico di Milano in partnership with Champagne Taittinger and the PRADA Group. The course aims to provide students with the skills of managerial background and knowledge around the fundamentals of operations of Luxury Brand Management. It hopes at creating a learning experience which helps students develop a keen interest and awareness about the responsibilities and varied tasks that are unique to the luxury brands industry.

6. University of Lincoln

If you want to build a career in Marketing with specialisation in Luxury Brands, the University of Lincoln‘s MSc Marketing and Luxury Brand is an ideal choice for you. Apart from understanding various facets of the Fashion industry, you will also learn about Consumer Behaviour, Research Methods, Digital Marketing, Brand Management, etc in this 1-year long program.

Top Indian Institutes for Luxury Brand Management Courses 

If you wish to pursue studies in luxury brand management in India, here are some of the prominent Indian institutes you can target-

• Mundra Institute of Communication and Advertising (MICA)
• SP Jain School of Global Management
• Indian Institute of Management
• Luxury Connect Business School
• FAD International
• Lifestyle & Luxury Management Institute
• Athena School of Management
• Pearl Academy 
• Jain University
• Luxury Connect Business School

Job Responsibilities of a Luxury Brand Manager

A Luxury Brand Manager has several responsibilities that they need to take care of:

• Perform market research to identify spending patterns and need of the target market
• Monitor customer reactions and their feedback
• Work in the marketing of the product and oversee creatives for brand product
• Arrange events for product launch and create hype around the product
• Connect with different departments of the team to ensure that the brand image stays intact as per the company requirements

Career Prospects in Luxury Brand Management

There was a time when Luxury Brand Management did not exist at all, at least not so apparently. But now it offers exciting career opportunities for those wanting to implement management practices to businesses offering premium services. Let us take a look at some of the popular career choices in the market for students:

1. Luxury Brand Manager

The most popular job that students take after completing a course in Luxury Brand Management is that of a Luxury Brand Manager. The role of a manager is to conduct market research for all the target products so that the brand can potentially grow. You will have to innovatively organize promotional campaigns, collaborate with other trending designers, creators, and brands, analyze the budgets required for marketing, and also supervise the production process. Let us now, through the infographic given below, understand what a Luxury Brand Manager does along with the major roles and responsibilities.

2. Product Marketing Manager

Involved in the development and production phase of the product, product marketing managers use their expertise to conduct surveys to analyze the demands of customers and get a better idea of what the consumer wants. Product development and execution is one of the most crucial aspects of the field.

3. Fashion PR Specialist

The PR Specialist helps the brand in maintaining a relationship with media houses so as to ensure that the brand is able to convey what it stands for and is able to maintain the brand image it wants to be associated with. PR personnel engage in networking with the editors and writers of fashion magazines to ensure that no negative narratives about the brand is being disseminated.

4. Fashion Retail Buyer 

As a Fashion Retail Buyer, you will be involved in analyzing the market pattern of buying in order to predict the upcoming trends. You will also be involved in deciding which merchandise to sell and making considerations about how much product should be sent out in the market to meet the consumer demands. Moreover, as a Retail Buyer, you will have to examine the discount and sale performance and maintain a good business relationship with your suppliers. 

5. Visual Merchandiser

Innate management knowledge, creative thinking, and good research skills can make you a competent Visual Merchandiser. Apart from designing in-store visual displays, you will also be responsible for identifying key risks in sales, ideating marketing campaigns, maintaining a database for various products, managing promotional events, etc, as a Visual Merchandiser.

Industry for Luxury Brand Manager

There are several industries that require a luxury brand manager. As several brands move towards creating luxury products, there is only an increase in the scope of a Luxury Brand Manager. The luxury brand industry is predicted to grow from $18.5 Billion to $180 Billion by 2025. Here are some of the industries that hire Luxury Brand Manager:

• Wine and Spirits
• Technology
• Travel
• Automobile
• Jewellery
• Fashion

Average Salary 

Similar to the above-mentioned profiles, here are some of the popular profiles of the field along with their average yearly salary- 

Profiles	Salary
Fashion Retail Manager	8 Lakh
Fashion Good Product Manager	8 Lakh
Brand Manager	7 Lakh
Fashion Marketing Manager	10 Lakh
Visual Merchandiser	9 Lakh

Books to Become Luxury Brand Manager

Here are the books that will help you study the luxury brand market and prepare you for becoming their brand manager:

• The Luxury Strategy: Break The Rules of Marketing To Build Luxury Brands. By Jean-Noel Kapferer & Vincent Bastien
• Kapferer on Luxury: How Luxury Brands Can Grow Yet Remain Rare By Jean-Noel Kapferer
• Luxury Online: Styles, Systems, Strategies by Uche Okonkwo
• Trading Up: Why Consumers Want New Luxury Goods — And How Companies Create Them By Michaels Silverstein, Neil Fiske, and John Butman
• The Management of Luxury: A Practitioner’s Handbook by Benjamin Berghaus, Gunter Muller-Stewens, and Sven Reincke
• Selling Luxury: Connect with Affluent Customers, Create Unique Experiences Through Impeccable Service, and Close the Sale by Robin Lent & Genevieve Tour
• Rethinking Luxury: How to Market Exclusive products in an Ever-Changing Environment. By Martin Wittig, Fabian Sommerrock, and Markus Albers

Films a Potential Luxury Brand Manager Must Watch

Here are the films that you must watch that will inspire you to become a Luxury Brand Manager:

• Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf’s
• Bill Cunningham New York
• Valentino: The Last Emperor
• Marc Jacobs & Louis Vuitton
• Lagerfeld Confidential
• Dior and I
• The September Issue
• Yves Saint Laurent
• Coco Before Chanel

Pros and Cons of Pursuing a Career in Luxury Brand Management 

Now that we have discussed the insights about pursuing a career in luxury brand management, let us take a look at some of the pros and cons. 

Pros-

• Luxury Brand Management is one of the most lucrative job sectors
• Helps one frame a better structure of network 
• It is one of the most attractive career fields

Cons-

• Being updates with the latest trends and changes all the time is a little stressful 
• Due to hectic schedule, having  career in this field can be tedious 
• Sometimes experts are asked to work at odd hours on client’s demand 

With a strong background in Business Management packed with experience in management practices, you can be a successful Luxury Brand Manager. But, you should keep in mind that Luxury Brand Management involves quite a bit of customer interaction. Thus, having strong communication and networking abilities can be truly rewarding. So, are planning to take your Luxury Brand Management degree abroad and need help in turning your dream into reality? Then our experts at Leverage Edu are here to help you identify the right university that fits your budget and prepare your application, visa, and accommodation. Book your 30 minutes free session with us now!