Fancy a career in Luxury Management!

A non-existent sector till just a few years ago, luxury brand management now offers exciting career opportunities. It requires an understanding of heritage brands and the ability to network with niche market segments.

Luxury brand management can best be described as an interdisciplinary subject that applies time-tested management practices to businesses that offer premium services. The primary role of a luxury brand manager is to understand the heritage and history of the brand and to associate the Brands’ DNA values with a potential set of clients. This person is chiefly responsible for the sometimes difficult task of keeping the brand popular while retaining its exclusivity, i.e. ensuring that the brand remains a popular and favoured choice amongst both - the  aspirers of luxury  in terms of desire, and the elite in terms of purchase.

Emerging opportunities

The growing number of Indians in the billionaire's club is estimated at around 219,000 ultra-wealthy households in India by 2015-16. This is an encouraging trend for many international luxury giants to queue up to woo the Indian customer. Pulling out all stops on luxury, a spectrum of premium merchandise and services ranging from designer dresses and handmade jewellery to watches and accessories, from custom cars and blue-blood clubs to premium vacation resorts and exotic real estate – is on offer for those who can afford to pay the price. The need for individuals who can manage this upswing in the demand as well the clientele who generate it has led to the creation of new careers in luxury brand management.

Premium segments  

Luxury has permeated several segments including cars, fashion, wines, chocolates, spa services, jewellery, leather accessories, watches, signature pens and more on the Indian shores, creating the need for  “luxury  educated” brand managers.

As per a December 2011 survey report of Luxury Connect, approximately 1.76 million trained manpower will be required by the year 2015 in the Luxury segment. The Indian luxury market, growing at a phenomenal pace maintaining an increase of over 20% yearly, is likely to grow three times and touch $ 14.7 billion by 2015, as per CII-AT Kearney report. 
With luxury brands spreading operations to newer countries, as a brand manager with a large luxury house, you can be the face of the brand in India or at a destination abroad, namely the Asia Pacific region or the Gulf area or managing the company's operations and customer relations in that particular region.  A luxury brand manager also needs to constantly question and redefine the contours of luxury; keeping in mind changing times, perceptions and tastes of the region's public and also often provide design support to country-specific limited edition product lines.

Skills required

A strong business management background coupled with functional experience in management practices is essential to the success of a luxury brand manager.  Since luxury brand management involves a high level of customer interaction, those with a natural flair for networking, especially with the corporate clients and customers and with the ability to build a rapport with key decision makers, will do well for themselves in this industry.

How to enter the field?

A student with any educational background can pursue a career in Luxury Management. Currently there are only few options to study luxury brand management in India. Luxury brand management is offered as an undergraduate elective and as a PG specialisation in a number of European colleges. If you are contemplating going abroad to study the subject, it would make sense to look at countries like UK, France, Switzerland and Italy which are home to  not only core luxury merchandise but also some of the best names in luxury education.

Working professionals aspiring to make a career shift or reinventing their passion to move up in life by joining the luxury segment can look at short-term courses and workshops which are now being conducted in India primarily in the metros.

One can further his/her marketing and management expertise and enter this dynamic and lucrative market segment. An MBA or a master’s degree in Luxury Management is targeted towards graduates wishing to establish a management career in companies dealing with premier and luxury products. These programs help develop marketing, research and strategic management skills required to manage luxury international brands.

Few top institutes offering the programme in India/Abroad:

In India, there are not many options at the undergraduate level in this field. Though at the executive level workshops/ short term courses are now being held which help individuals to make a career shift in Luxury Management or pursue career enhancement in this field.

Luxury brand management is offered as an undergraduate elective and as a PG specialisation in a number of European colleges. The top schools in Europe are :

SDA Bocconi School of Management, Italy

Ecole Internationale De Marketing Du Luxe , Paris ( EIML)

Essec Business School, France

Poli Moda International Institute of Fashion Design and Marketing, Italy

London College of Fashion, London

A typical day of a luxury brand manager at work

A typical day for a luxury brand manager begins with meeting clients – both corporate or individuals. The job involves overseeing store layout, visual merchandising, inventory control, communication about the brand, liason with the store owners, HO or Brand HQ , be an aggressive team leader for the sales force , plotting purchase patterns, mapping competitive brands, running a profit centre, setting customer service standards, etc.

Luxury pays

Trainee and executive brand managers start well and can look forward to sales perks like cash/ gift incentives, company paid travel, vacations, meals at five-star venues and networking with high profile individuals, all of which far outweigh the salary. Experienced professionals with 5 years and 10 years in the career can expect to earn Rs 10 - 18 lakh and Rs 24- 36 lakh, respectively.

(Source: The article is contributed by Luxury Connect, a service service-based organisation focused on luxury, and aiming at 4 verticals: Luxury Training and Education; Consulting; Sourcing; and Luxury E-Commerce.Luxury Connect has linked up with globally reputed educational institutes to provide luxury specific education and training at both executive and student level.)

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