If you’re interested in pursuing a commercial or business career within the dynamic, fast-moving fashion industry, this course is tailor-made for you. Merunisha Moonilal tells you that Fashion Marketing and Management is a qualification which teaches you the best possible measures to be a successful marketer and manager
You can be the best designer, you may have the best product but if you can’t sell it or cannot make it look appealing to your target audience then no one is going to know you. As important as it is to make a good product or design most appropriate fashion garment or accessory, the same is to market it well and learn to manage it the best way. Fashion Marketing and Management is one such educational qualification which teaches you the best possible measures to be a successful Fashion Marketer and Manager.
Fashion Marketing and Management projects you as the wholesome package who can deal in being a buying agent for a company sensitively, analysing the space for the product in the market, then promote and market it for you by finding interested target customer or vice versa, get you the right price for it and then offers ideas for post-sale customer support.
One will get to study the varied professional disciplines within fashion, from retailing, store management and operations to consumer behaviour, fashion buying and merchandising. A student will learn how fashion products are designed, created, branded, developed and produced for today’s business and retail environments, and get to know the specific challenges along the journey, from conception to high street sale.
One will also get to study the marketing and communications strategies used to promote events, designers and collections, and have the option to get practical hands-on experience with a third-year work-based placement.
Instead of being creatively involved in the design industry these professionals are more involved in the business area. This does not mean that you do not have to be creative but you are required to use your creativity but in a different way. One uses creativity in strategising business plans creatively understanding the target market. Anyone who is pursuing Fashion Marketing and Management has wide range of opportunities.
The import and export industry, the retail industry, marketing for domestic and international brands, styling for clients, magazines, television, fashion journalism, all these are open for the student. The pre-requisites that would help a student definitely in being a successful professional is to have a business acumen. This is not impossible to learn but always an advantage if you already possess it. This profession requires you to be efficient enough to make a product viable to be sold.
According to us, a deep desire to excel and passion for the fashion world is the most important quality that anyone who pursues this course must have. It is only the love for your goal that will sail you through. One needs to understand to the core of what is going on behind the creative mind, so that you are more confident in convincing the customer.
Your job may require you to be in the front lines or behind the scene. Personality development is always encouraged. Public speaking is an asset. A pleasing warm personality will always help you.
The most important benefits of learning Fashion Marketing and Management are:
Know your business:
The students get to know the business, and know it right. It is different to hear from a professional but to know and understand it with experience is all together a different thing.
While studying case studies, the development of all big brands, it gives you an idea of what the industry is like, what can go wrong, how to mend it and what can be your strengths and how to develop these. One will not be completely novice. This exposure here reduces the business failure rate.
Soft skills
This profession teaches you to be ready for a cut throat competition and on the other hand, it teaches you to be polite and have soft skills that help you win trust of your customer.
Increasing demand
The demand of fashion accessories, designer clothes, and luxury brands will never end. Everyone needs clothes, recession or no recession. But if you have learnt the art well, it does not affect the business. You creatively find out other ways and means to get business.
Retail therapy
We all know how an experience of shopping of what you need and at times what you do not need, helps you to get over the stress.
Retail therapy is what the market is cashing on at the moment. You learn to use customers’ weaknesses as your strengths.
Public speaking
The biggest advantage is building up the confidence required to sell your product. If you speak well, you sell well.
(The writer is lecturer at Raffles Millennium International Delhi)