The luxury market in India is experiencing a like never seen Boom than before! Experts at Robb Report have valued the luxury market in India, at over $5 billion dollars (appx ₹ 500 crores) and is expected to grow by 10% in the next 5 years. (Givens, D, 2022, Robb Report).
Hence, it becomes obvious that with this unprecedented growth India is the go-to place for luxury job seekers and aspirants.
With that being underlined, let’s move forward to presenting some exciting and notable career picks within the sector of luxury brand management.
Smita Jain |
1. Creative Director / Design Director
A creative director is an individual who has the brand’s navigation in their hands. It is one of the most elite and senior positions of work in the luxury sector, globally speaking. They are in-charge of shaping and establishing the brand’s vision and mission, from fashion shows, retail shows to marketing and overall management. They spearhead all collaborations and any other tie-ups and marketing, or PR activities done by the brand. Also, any controversies and crisis must be faced by them. They serve as public faces of the label, unlike celebrity ambassadors, they are like the guardians of the brand in the business sense, not just a pretty face. For luxury aspirants, as a fresher, a career of nearly 20 plus years would get you at a level of Creative Director for a global luxury brand.
2. Luxury Brand Manager
Working in luxury brand management field requires immense patience and a variety of skills, especially when we talk about brand management, there are several areas of specializationwhere a brand manager must have advanced skills and capabilities to resolve day to day brand activities and manage all brand personnel that fall under their leadership. Developing the necessary skills are important, such as communication and content creation, strategy and project management, personnel management and adaptability to various situations.
3. Luxury Consultant
A Luxury Consultants support international and home-grown established brands to advised them on both short-term and long term growth strategies for the brand. A consultant looks at a spectrum of areas for a brand such as communication, product revitalization to even retail touch points be it the brand’s own or via 3rd party retailers.
Usually luxury consultants are favoured by brands as they know more about certain local markets which the brand personnel may not due to their cultural barriers. For example, If the brand is well established in New Delhi, they may go for a consultant to grow their business in West Bengal, a market which they know little of. The same formula applied for international brands, who look for consultants with PAN India marketing knowledge and strengths.
A luxury consultant becomes sort of an advisor for the brand, and they work closely in building and maintaining a brand’s identity in the market.
4. Country Head / Regional Head:
A country manager works in a luxury brand with a mindset if growing that brand within that region. All operations including recruitment of personnel, budgets, planning and submitting reports to all marketing and sales related activities fall under the purview.
Country managers might also require special skill sets and industry related knowledge. As a country manager it is not only vital that one must know their own market, but an up to date know how of international markets and competitive brands is crucial. Especially in the day and age of social media, when even some luxury brands have become readily accessible online to their consumers and localized on content to a certain extent, country managers may also take decisions based on glocalizing a brand to suit the needs of the local clientele that they cater to.
5. Buyer
Buyers in luxury brands are responsible for purchasing finished goods and services for the regions specific to their leadership. So as an example, within a luxury brand, there could be multiple region or country specific buyers just as there are country managers. Buyers need to have extensive research oriented skills, they must be extremely futuristic and intuitive in understanding consumers needs before the consumers themselves. Usually buyers are people who are always travelling for work, they need to have an open mind and sensitivity towards other cultures and traditions, such learnings also help them in their choices as a buyer for regional markets. Apart from having the knowledge of product categories, types and specificities, buyers must be quality conscious, especially in the luxrury market, quality comes before price. So detail orientation, quality, choice and knowhow of colours, and expertise of product is essential as a buyer.
The author is Director - MGLUXM, SP Jain School of Global Management.
