With the fashion industry gaining a mammoth status in India and abroad, various courses are available for those with a predilection to pursue a career in the La Di Da world of fashion.

Most are myopic in their vision in believing that designing is the prime aspect of the world of fashion. Far from true, the behind the scene operations plays a more pivotal role in deciding the fate of a designer brand or label.

As competition in education toughens, and your ticket to NIITs and NIDs in India appears more and more impossible, students with a proclivity to be in the industry can explore varius options abroad.
Fashion marketing is one of the areas that has come up in a big way.

Fashion marketing relates to laying down marketing strategies for fashion companies including advertising and promoting the right products at the right time and place.

It involves understanding the latest trends and doing case study analysis to use it as the foundation for developing the future plan of action.

Fashion heavyweights like Versace and Armani accredit fashion marketing for their success.

In fact it was Gianni Versace who first introduced the concept of fashion marketing to the fashion industry.

Even the not so prominent fashion companies realize the necessity of this concept.

Masters Courses in the field can be taken up at some top european institutes such as Italy's IED situated in Venice.

Venice is at the centre of Europes biggest concentration of fashion, textile and accessories companies  and offers real time experience to fashion marketing enthusiasts.

Course Objective
- To shape professionals to handle the development of a project’s realization process in the fashion field.
- To mould creativity and sensibility towards the product using analytical capacities inherent to the on going market.
- The annual full-time formula allows one to penetrate in a complete theoretical and practical experience coming in contact with Venice and the surrounding territory.


Programme Areas
Within the programme it is possible to identify 5 macro areas:
1) Trends and Visual culture
2) Marketing Intelligence
3) Brand Management
4) Fashion Buyer
5) Communication.

The aim being to have a global view of the fashion system inside marketing.
Each branch is structured in a theoretical part followed by a concrete project
realization assignment allowing for the application of the acquired instruments and notions. Several projects will be developed in collaboration with local firms (from the briefing to the final presentation).

The lecturer, professionals of the field, coming from different complementary areas, will present case histories relative to their specific line of work.

Titles:
Product Manager: Responsible for the management of a product line. He/she analyses the trends, directs the work of the style office, follows the development and the production, and collaborates with the material research division.

Brand Manager: Responsible for marketing strategies related to the brand.

Fashion Buyer: Responsible for purchasing. Analyses the trends, interprets them and defines the acquisition guidelines for distribution.

License Manager: Responsible for brand use, develops product line on license.

Retail Manager: Responsible for the development of a distribution circuit.
Supervises and directs the work in stores, verifying sale results and the brand image.

Visual Merchandising Manager: Responsible for brand image within retail points. Guarantees the rational organization of the store and optimizes product exposition.

Cool Hunter: Has a 360° view on the contemporary scene, pin points and
elaborates trends to present new views to the style department (materials, colours, volumes).

Didactic Areas

1)Fashion Trends and Visual Culture: The fashion world and the world of image: the origins, the icons and the designers that wrote the history of fashion and the reasons behind the birth of phenomenon that become trends.
2)Fashion History: The analysis and study of history of fashion and contemporary fashion.
3)Visual culture: Movies culture, design, art, exhibition & photography, a global overview of the current visual culture, to understand and feel the continuous changes in the contemporary life.
4)Sociology and trends: Analysis of social phenomena and purchase-related behaviors, with particular attention to lifestyle issues. Analysis of trends in the fashion market.
5)Project: Fashion Trends & Visual Culture
6)Marketing Intelligence: Reading trends in the fashion system, from fashion economy to product specifics (materials, development process).
7)Fashion Economics: A general introduction to the fashion market, by analyzing the pipeline, the professional figures, the competitive system, the fairs.
8)Fashion product: Introduction to the fashion production process, starting from the collection project all the way to the merchandising plan.
9)Technology of materials: Analysis and study of the natural, artificial and man-made fibers and yarns: general features, classifications, typologies and production methods.
10)Fashion marketing: From the definition to the launch of the product, the different steps of the marketing planning, focusing in particular on the specific features of the fashion product.
11)Consumer Intelligence & Consumer Watching: Research results and consumers’ methodologies in the fashion sector (Italy and abroad) from the social-demographic analysis up to the lifestyles.
12)Project: Marketing Intelligence and Brand Management: Creating a world surrounding the product. Focus on the luxury brand phenomenon.
13)Brand Management: The brand’s value: how to position, communicate and strengthen the corporate brand, and create a distinctive brand identity. The concept of brand-extension and brand equity.
14)Licencing: The licensing contract: advantages, risks, critical factors and organizational issues of the different licensing professions.
15)Marketing of Luxury goods: Key luxury markets are studied as are the specificities of luxury goods. Analysis of the mix and key success factors.
17)Fashion buyer and retail management
18)Fashion distribution.
19)Fashion buyer techniques.
20)Management and organization both of retail and virtual stores.
21)Distribution channel  (Franchising): A student learns the commercial franchising system with  its advantages and risks through practical case histories from the fashion sector. The different channels such as multi-brand stores, monobrand store, department stores, outlets and company stores, etc are all understood.
22)Retail Management & E-Retailing
23)Buying techniques: How to draft a proper buying plan, from the interpretation of the consumers’ demand up to the planning of the offer.
24)Communication: Language and strategies in Fashion Communication. Coherence between corporate identity, brand and concept retailing.
25)Communication, advertising & PR: Communication techniques and strategies. Coherence in the positioning of the product, the target group, the message, the media planning and the store concept. Definition of communication goals, investments, creative strategy and media
planning. Role of the press office, the media relations, the organization of events & fashion shows.
26)In store communication: How to enhance the specificity of the brand’s visual and corporate identity on the point of sale. Rational organization of the sales area and optimization of product display.

With the above mentioned know-how and competence, a successful career in the world of fashion eagerly awaits you.

For more information contact: s.duggal@ied-italy.com