Fashion Brands and Consumer Behavior

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Give student?s sufficient understanding of the different consumer behavior in fashion and luxury business with a strong multicultural approach. We will first focus in Europe key players mainly: France and Italy. On a second stage, we will focus on the new consumers from the Brics (Brazil, Russia, China and India) but also in the USA, the first luxury market in the world.

Understanding cultural differences is key for future managers as the fashion business is one of most international industry and each of these markets has its own and unique characteristics. Luxury and fashion brand are an expression on a national culture. They act as ambassadors of national virtues. We will also focus on some of these new fashion designers from China, Brazil that could play an important role in a near future and influence thus the fashion industry.

To succeed, future sales & marketing & communications managers need to have a multicultural
approach of these markets and its consumer?s habits. This course is for students interested in working in marketing, brands management, ad sales, and sales managers in both retail and B2B in the luxury and fashion industry more and more confronted with customers from diverse cultures.

INSTRUCTIONAL METHODOLOGY :
- The course is interactive, students are requested to participate and play the role of brand managers
- Teacher presents and clarifies how to present and sale luxury fashion brands
- Presentation of practical business cases (success or failure).
- Student groups are requested to work in teams and to present a luxury brands and premium in a competitive environment.
- Student are invited to analyse, suggest managing ideas to implement brands

REQUIRED READINGS
(Teacher will provide reading requirements for the following week at the end of each course)
- Luxury in China, Michel Chevalier
- The luxury market in India: Glyn Atwal et Soumya Jain
- Elite China: Consumer behaviour in China, Pierre Xiao Lu
- The luxury strategy JN Kapferer HEC professor MBA program
- Strategic brand management JN Kapferer
- Luxury Retail Management Michel Chevalier & Michel Gutsatz ESSEC & University Paris Dauphine