Schools that Offer Courses in Luxury Brand Management.
 

From http://education.guardian.co.uk/high...691460,00.html

Monte Carlo or bust

MBA and postgraduate studies For those with an eye for the finer things in life, an MSc in luxury goods management is this year's must-have item, says Ian Wylie

Saturday January 21, 2006
The Guardian

Flat plates and sugar were the luxury goods of Elizabethan times. A hundred years later it was pepper. Today? The super-rich wouldn't be photographed dead without their Aston Martin, private jet, Bahamian holiday home and diamond-encrusted mobile phone.
It may seem like a parallel universe to most of us, but with the number of multimillionaires in the UK rising by 8% a year, demand for luxury goods has rarely been higher. Seven-figure City bonuses have returned and the "ultra-high net worth" set now has its own quarterly magazine. The first issue of Spear's Wealth Management Survey includes advice on Swiss banks, the benefits of pre-nuptial agreements and how to hire a private investigator.

Many business school graduates find employment with luxury goods companies, but now course leaders are waking up to the potential of programmes dedicated to the luxury business.

The principality of Monaco, playground of the rich and famous, is also home to the International University of Monaco (IUM), where an MBA programme offers four specialist electives that focus on the luxury sector. From the autumn, the school will also begin an MSc in the management of luxury goods and services.

The one-year programme will cover a wide range of areas, including managerial and marketing skills such as product development, legal issues such as patents and licensing, and core functions such as finance, production and human resources. As part of the programme, students will complete an internship in a luxury boutique to get a practical, hands-on feel for the industry.

According to Sandrine Ricard, the school's vice president and an alumnus of Aston Business School in Birmingham, the university of Monaco is able to draw on the expertise of locally-based cosmetic companies such as Lancaster; fashion outfits including Bettina; Société des Bains de Mer, the luxury hotel consortium; and luxury cruise company Silversea. Professors for the new course have been recruited from Chanel and L'Oréal.

While the Monaco MBA requires students to have gained least three years of working experience, the MSc course will accept students who have just completed their first degree, which doesn't have to be an economics or business degree. Ricard says Monaco is one of Europe's most international business schools - the 36 students currently on its MBA course come from 26 different countries.

There are 15 places on the new MSc, which will be taught in English and costs €12,000 (£8,250). Students can look forward to 300 days of sunshine each year, but with one of the highest GNPs per capita in the world and 30,000 residents squeezed onto a tiny two-square kilometre strip of land, isn't Monaco a prohibitively expensive place to be a student?

"Monaco is less expensive to live than London," reckons Ricard. "Flat prices here are around €1,500 a month, though most students choose to live in nearby towns and villages in France, where flats are just €500 a month."

Monaco is not the first business school to spot the potential in luxury goods courses. ESCP-EAP in Paris has been running an MBA specialising in luxury brand management since 1995, and its 30 students enjoy studentships at Beiersdorf, Estée Lauder, Hermès, L'Oréal and LVMH.

Other schools may cash in, too, as luxury goods firms seek postgraduates with up-to-date knowledge of the latest business ideas. Research by consulting firm Bain & Co, for example, suggests that the leading luxury firms are investing heavily in customer relationship management systems to uncover customer preferences and buying habits.

In the past, luxury brands had a pretty good idea of who their typical customers were: the wealthy. Now it's not so clear. In cosmetics, for example, there is now little correlation between a customer's wealth and the likelihood they will buy luxury products. Many luxury brands, such as Hermès, Cartier and Armani, are now offering "entry-level" goods. Others are taken with the trend towards "fast fashion", rotating their collections several times during a season.

For Ricard, the fast-changing nature of the luxury goods sector means specialist training is essential. "It's such a complex industry, and access to it has traditionally been restricted," she says.

However, at most schools, luxury isn't viewed as a separate field so much as simply one type of niche marketing. "I don't think a specialist course or elective is necessarily the answer for supply chain management in the luxury goods sector," says Richard Brunt, who did a part-time postgraduate diploma in management studies in 2000 at Nottingham Business School and is now responsible for the worldwide supply of Bulgari accessories from the company's global operations in Switzerland. "Essentially, my job is getting the right product in the right place at the right time. The overall business process is common within most sectors. It's a mix of the same theories and concepts."

However, Brunt believes marketing luxury brands requires a particular skill set. "People in marketing roles within this sector need to be programmed with the concept of high-end products, selling the dream of a brand history, selling the craftsmanship, quality and the 'need to have' factor of a fashion product," he says.

"Brands sell dreams, and that's the main difference between the luxury goods sector and other retail businesses. You may have a product which costs €50 to produce, but can retail at €700. The customer who buys the product is acutely aware of that fact, but the power of the brand is the overriding factor that makes that client part with their cash.

"I try not to think too much about the value and costs of products. All I need to work is a product code, a forecast, a lead-time, a cost, a supplier - and plenty of energy. I leave the beauty and prestige of a product up to my marketing and product development colleagues," says Brunt.

However, he has a warning for students attracted to the glitz and glamour of a career in luxury goods. "You should bear in mind that the sector is extremely sensitive to any political or social changes."

It is a cyclical sector and its fortunes ebb and flow with the wider economy. Take note: job security in this business is something of a luxury.

i am a journalism student and i think this article is well written up

MBA in Luxury Brand Management.
 

Does anyone know anything about this program? It sounds REALLY amazing, and is exactly what I want to do. Its at ESSEC outside of Paris.

The website says: "The overall objectives of ESSEC MBA International Luxury Brand Management cover several areas, including approaching problems from global perspectives, as well as being involved in matter-of-fact realities of daily management of a company. Developing theory and concepts, yet knowing how to build individual or team commitment. Being close to innovation and creation, two major components of development and success in luxury brands. Leadership skills for the luxury and prestige industry, creating value, managing change. Our MBA participants use their theoretical knowledge during the field trip, the boutique internship and the global field project. Career services are provided."

Check it out here: http://mba.essec.edu/business-school...gement/program

I have a friend in the ESSEC, though at the "normal" MBA which you can attend after two years of *VERY* intensive preparation in the french "classes préparatoires" (two years of no going out no friends no nothing *err not for everyone though*).
From what I know you have to have worked a lot for attending the luxury MBA. I remembe rit's somthing like 25 000 EUR per year (less than a year actually, just my memory)
I'll tell you more if you want

^^ yes please! Do you know anything about how respected the program/school is? How does your friend like it?

Is the ESSEC the really big famous foreign policy school in paris? Like basically all English MP's or at least the majority of prime minister's have gone there. Not sure if thats it though....

I want to do this after law school. It looks like a small program but this definetly interests me. I wonder if I would have the qualifications to be a part of it.

Surely the really big famous school is Sciences Po. I didn't know English politicians were trained there though...

I have looked into the program and though I am sure it is extremely immersive and highly specific with a spectacular image - surely you must be able to tailor any MBA into something with a luxury brand focus?!

Somehow I would have to think that those behind the branding of this program are extremely well versed in the branding of their own program. If you got it, you got it, you don't need to spend €25,000 a year.

Back to the topic, sorry for not having answered before

Two words on the french high education system

Basically, once you have passed you final exam (the "baccalauréat" which is more or less a A level I assume) you can either go to the university (which, in France whether it is very prestigious or not - and it can be: eg. Sorbonne (literature, philosophy), Assas (law) is free, or at least not expensive at all), or you choose to go to the Grandes Ecoles (think the Ivy League, I think you can compare them). But, in France, there is an exam which a number of students accepted, no more, and you have to prepare it VERY hardly, because even if the french schools' reputation is not as good as, say, Harvard, enter in one of them is MORE difficult to be accepted in Harvard (which is strange and probably stupid, but that's it! think some schools only accept 8 students per year when more than 3000 are preparing the exam). Bla bla bla. After those two years, you attend the exam. In france we have two very prestigious Business Schools: HEC and ESSEC, HEC being a little bit more prestigious but that's not important. And whereas in most of the countries, even if you're not from a very very brillant school, you can manage to get on the top of the top, it's nearly impossible in France: almost every CEO or high executives are from these two schools (+ some prestigous engeneerer schools - "Polytechnique") so...

So yes, this is very trustable. Note the HEC also does something in the luxury management http://www.hec.fr/hec/eng/fashion-luxury/ (it's mainly aimed to the people who wants to work in Asia I think...)

Also, these two MBA are not the traditionnal ones, the ones you can attend after the exam. I assume you have to work a lot in the luxury industry before... Not sure though. Anyway yes, this is very trustable (+ France has the strongest reputation concerning luxury industry - it's the only one haha so it's important :lol: )

Just a work concerning politicians. No, almost none of them are from business schools (exept socialist Dominique Strauss-Khan which is from HEC). Traditionnal good politician's curriculum vitae is: Sciences Po (first "grande école) and then, after 5 years of intensive training, you can pass the exam of the ENA which is the most exclusive school in France. Almost every french presidents are from there, that's why the french system was highly criticized, when you know that only 7 per cent of the people which are accepted in those schools are not from the upper class (let's not talk about the ENA: from what I know, only one student per year is from the lower-class)

I never thought of that ... my gateway to a five-figure salary at LV :heart:

Yeah, but does France have the market... Also, considering how difficult it is to get into France's elite schools, in some cases you might as well just screw it and apply to Wharton.

That does make sense... ;)

Any college in the States or Europe offering Luxury Fashion Management Course?
 

Hi all,

I try to look through the forum in hope to find anything about Luxury Fashion Management Course in either the States or Europe, however I couldnt find any.

Anyone knows anything about this kinda of courses?

Best Regards

hey, what position in luxury fashion you aiming for firstly?

and where exactly are you based? :D