What skills are required to become a fashion industry manager?

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If you want to do fashion and business, then the fashion management path is for you. Fashion marketing managers are an exciting task, such as overseeing the branding, advertising, and consumer reaction to a marketing campaign as well as fashion products. Doing business out of fashion goes beyond passion. It all needs high level of acuity, patience, development, strategy, and vision.

Apart from doing masters in fashion management, you need the following ingredients to succeed in the fashion world –

1) Brand strategy: What is a brand strategy? You may have noticed Nike’s swoosh, Starbucks mermaid, Coke’s white wave, McDonald’s golden arches, these are what successful brand strategy looks like. It is where the brand tells a story through its logo or a sound. Brand strategy is about storytelling through the product and its packaging. A brand must communicate what it is, stands for, and why you want it in the flash of the eye. A brand strategy delivers message consistently and timelessly as quickly and desirable way possible.

2) Marketing and communication: Excellent communication is the key to any profession, and so is it crucial in the fashion industry. Designers and merchandisers need to master the art of pitch which requires a combination of precision, confidence, and succinctness. Fashion designers need to communicate with suppliers and their terms concerning timelines, costs, etc. Negotiation skills are another must in this world of fashion communication. You must know how to think, write, and speak. Only then can you get what you want. You learn these skills through designing courses.

3) Business development: Fashion goes beyond product. There is a process which takes your idea to the showroom floor. If you aspire to become a fashion manager, be it boutique or mass production, you need to know how to operate a business. The first on the list is the budget. Your business cannot run without a budget in place. If you need a clear budget, you need to have a proper strategy in place. How can you develop these business skills? It begins with an entrepreneurial vision.

4) Entrepreneurial vision: Want to create a brand? You need a clear picture of how you want the brand to look like. You must also decide the target audience. Hence, the vision should be clear, developed, detailed, and definite. It should also be simple. However, everything is easier said than done. If you consider the previous examples such as Starbucks, Nike, and McDonald’s, they have stuck to the same policy. Regardless of what you think, someone at the top needs to have clarity and follow through the same.

5) A place to learn it all: Where can you learn all these facets? From a design school. When it comes to a master’s degree in fashion, the top places to get them are Italy, Milan, Paris, and even Mumbai, since it is known as the fashion capital of India. The master’s degree aims at those who have completed undergraduate courses in economics, communication, fashion design, or styling.

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