Looking for a challenging yet fun job in a field related to the luxuries of life? Then, you might want to think about getting a degree in luxury brand management.
Apart from being highly competitive, the luxury industry is growing at a breakneck pace. With a degree in luxury brand management, you can learn about, as the name states, brand management along with trend forecasting, retail management, and brand marketing.
Once you get your degree, you have the chance to choose from a range of roles including PR specialist and brand manager. Some other appealing posts also include retail buyer and luxury goods product manager.
Luxury brand manager
As a luxury brand manager, you'll work closely with all the departments, and primarily, you'll be required to focus on developing such an effective marketing strategy that can help attract a specific kind of target audience. You'll be responsible for creating a message along with an image for the brand you are working for. Both things should be recognizable and must leave an impression on the required audience.
Your primary duties include but aren't limited to conducting marketing research for all the future products that are to be promoted. You'll organize as well as manage different advertising campaigns along with proposing and analyzing budgets for the campaigns.
Moreover, you will also be responsible for consulting with company executives and promotional agencies, collaborate with different creators and designers and supervise the manufacturing, production, and the marketing staff.
Luxury goods product manager
As a product manager, you will be responsible for the planning and the execution of the product throughout all the stages. Primarily, you'll have to conduct market research to figure out the products customer want.
Whether you are hired by a luxury clothing, footwear, or automobile company, you'll be responsible for overseeing the whole production and development process and ensure that the products adhere to what the customers need.
Product managers also communicate with the marketing, sales, quality assurance, and product design teams while managing the production process with the factories as well.
Luxury retail buyer
Just as the job title suggests, a retail buyer is responsible for deciding the type of products that a luxury brand should sell. You'll need to ensure that the products hit the stores at the correct time and that there are enough units to satisfy the demands of the customers.
As a retail buyer, you have a bunch of tasks. You are required to analyze the public's buying pattern and predict the future trends. You must also examine different performance indicators like discount levels and sales, and manage the plans for stocks. Additionally, you must also maintain contact with suppliers and negotiate with them the terms of the contract.
Merchandising manager
As a merchandising manager, you'll be responsible for choosing the products that'll be selling at retail stores. Moreover, you'll also oversee staff, plan marketing strategies, prepare budgets, and conduct recruitments. Since the luxury industry must attract the right customers, the merchandising manager must ensure that he or she secures high-quality products and goods for the store at the minimum cost.
Visual Merchandiser
If you're someone who happens to be searching for a profession that involves the retail part of luxury brand management but keeps you away from the sales, then the ideal position can be of a visual merchandiser.
Your job as a visual merchandiser will be to develop floor plans and improve the aesthetics of the store in such a way that it engages, attracts, and converts visitors into customers. Trivial things including light, scent, display, and music have a significant impact on the buying choice of the customer.
As a visual merchandiser, you must make sure that these factors work in a way that the target audience prefers buying your brand's products over the products of your competitors.
PR specialist
Luxury brands aren't advertised in a typical manner; with ads or billboards because the customer base of the luxury brands is not interested in ads or billboards. The word about products from luxury brands gets out with the help of PR – public relations. PR is a fast-paced yet exciting field in which you need to stay updated with the industry.
As a PR worker, you get the chance to interact with some of the biggest names in the luxury industry. Your job will be to create a network with all the big names in the country, make sure that your brand's name stays appealing and keep the clients and the media happy.
Don’t hesitate to enter the luxury industry
The luxury industry is such an industry that has an expansive scope. Luxury consists of diversified fields including services, jewelry, fashion, chocolates, wines, watches, cars, etc. Therefore, careers in this field are plenty. Of course, to thrive, you need to be passionate about luxury management; however, a bachelor's or a master's degree can help speed up your success.
Your career options aren't just limited to the ones mentioned above. In fact, you can get numerous other opportunities such as becoming a sales consultant or a customer sales representative for a luxury brand.
Of course, in a majority of such cases, you won't be able to begin as a product manager or a brand manager for your starting job. First, you'll have to experiment and gain experience with a few lower level jobs before you can make your way up to the management positions. With a little perseverance and proving that you’re excellent at what you do you can quickly create a name in the ever-growing luxury industry.