Fashion Business:
Fashion Industry is not limited to just designing beautiful apparels, accessories and models. It also encompasses professionals who manage business end of fashion i.e. are responsible for bringing in revenues- handling marketing, sales, creating brand awareness, brand loyalty, ensuring walk-ins at the outlets, talking to people in a language that inspire them to not only buy but purchase their products. The discipline, Fashion Business also comprises of research and analysis to understand demographic and psychographic profile of consumer, their preferences, and their capacity to pay what amount, fashion trends, ongoing economic situations, evolving market conditions etc. and hence identify the audience to be targeted along with developing the strategy for product, segmentation, pricing, distribution and marketing. Furthermore, this analysis also assists in predicting the popularity and thus the success of the fashion line. Besides this Fashion Business managers are also involved in sourcing, retailing, merchandising as well as exporting of the products.
Work Description
- Formulate marketing, brand positioning, pricing, segmentation and distribution strategy for the business.
- Utilizing merchandising, sales and marketing techniques to increase sales
- Finalize media strategy-identify the right target audience, choose the correct media platforms to reach them so as to build brand awareness
- Maximize revenue through increasing sales, enhancing company’s market share and developing apt pricing strategy
- Customizing the product, including development of new product or carrying out product iterations, basis the customer as well as retail channel’s feedback.
- Collaborating with stakeholders as well as varied teams from diverse departments like designers, buyers, merchandisers, retailers and manufacturers
- Stay up to date with fashion trends as well as ensuing styles so as to predict the success of the clothing line
Tips to enhance career in fashion business:
- Nurture Leadership skills: You must develop your problem solving capability. Your colleagues must see you as a person whom they can approach to overcome their roadblocks. This attitude along with your capacity to take fast decisions will endear you in their eyes as a natural leader.
- Evolve to stay relevant: In order to stay relevant, you must continuously evolve, learn new skills, seek global perspective, utilize new platforms to connect with TG and incorporate innovative strategies to gain traction with customer. You must research and understand your customer, old fashion trends and reason for success or failure of a particular fashion line, competitive scenario etc. This will help you in predicting success as well as explore new methods to overcome failure & ensure success in the market.
- Organizational Capabilities: Enhance your organizational capabilities so as to handle varied projects simultaneously while adhering to deadlines. For example you may be handling different TG in varied markets and being organized will ensure that the right product mix as well as media mix is followed to ensure revenue.
- You must be equipped with knowledge of not only the entire production cycle but also the fashion industry cycle. This will facilitate in being prepared for surprises as well as predicting the right product mix that will attract maximum buyers and hence profits
- Fashion business management course: You must do your course from a college that was a pioneer in India in offering education in this specialization. Besides this, it must also be AICTE approved and must equip students with modern technical skills, research methodologies and analysis to gauge customer behaviour, their socio cultural evolution, market trends etc. and formulate customized strategies accordingly