The Digital Challenge

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From the course by Università Bocconi

Management of Fashion and Luxury Companies

1607 ratings

Università Bocconi

Management of Fashion and Luxury Companies

1607 ratings

Learn how fashion and luxury companies work and understand their brands, products, retail, and communication strategies. Travel through business models, international development, and product categories with industry influent experts. Adopting a case-study approach, the course presents strategic brand management in luxury and fashion companies as a balancing act: tradition vs. innovation, expertise vs. experimentation, casual vs. stylish; in order to increase the brand value by nurturing the brand heritage and at the same time staying fresh, relevant, and contemporary in the global marketplace. Topics such as the impact of new retail channels, new media channels, and new business declinations for the brand and emerging markets will be discussed in the course.

From the lesson

Image Identity and the Communication Process: Key Activities, Decision Makers, the Challenge of Creating Digital Contents for Fashion and Luxury Brands

Week 4 will cover another very crucial topic: Communication. Communication per se is an extremely rich and broad topic and the fashion and luxury industry requires a specific and dedicated chapter as it encompasses unique aspects that need to be correctly addressed and understood.

The Digital Challenge4:20

Meet the Instructors

Erica Corbellini
Director
MAFED - Master in Fashion, Experience and Design Management
Stefania Saviolo
Director
Luxury & Fashion Knowledge Center - SDA Bocconi

Thanks to our students we understood that engagement is key.

The former CEO of Burberry said that you need mind share if you want market share,

and in order to have mind share, you need to engage.

Fashion companies have to play with the magic.

They have to make people dream, but

they cannot leave themselves anymore to a nice advertising company.

They have to develop original and relevant content.

They have to speak about the product, but as well about the music,

the art, the lifestyle that goes with product itself.

They need to understand that the virtual world is not virtual anymore.

On the contrary it’s also part of our physical experience.

The more they use in-store technology in the physical points of sale,

the more they're able to create a direct connection with

a brand ambassador on social media,

and the more they will convert all of this passion that so

many people have for fashion brands into real sales.

Last but not least,

fashion companies need to understand that one size doesn't fit all.

We have different social media, different tools,

we have different geographies as the ones represented in the focus group,

and therefore companies need to be able to convey a strong and

consistent message, but at same time localize

the strategy as far as PR and digital approach is concerned.

Keeping all the above in mind,

companies should aim at creating a transmedia storytelling.

By a transmedia storytelling I

mean a story that unfolds across multiple platforms.

Each medium contributing to unfold a piece of the story and

that sees the listener of the story, the consumer, as an active participant.

It's not just about describing who you are, but

letting the customer being part of this story,

playing an active role.

In the fashion and luxury industry we have some amazing examples of

companies that were able to create such a kind of engagement.

I think that the point of reference for everyone is Burberry.

Burberry is a company that was able to transform itself into a true

social media enterprise.

There is a very inspiring video in which the CEO

speaks about this evolution and how the brand has been able

to touch the customer at every single point with the same message:

from the physical fashion show to the tweet walk, from the store to on-line

e-commerce. It somehow creates the same seamless experience;

from the official website to new platforms such as

in which the story of the Burberry’s iconic product is told

with pictures of people wearing the trench coat and giving their own interpretation,

to Burberry acoustic, in which the companies develop other

areas then fashion by sponsoring emerging talent in British music.

Let's now take a couple of minutes and watch a video that

perfectly describes what it means to be a social media enterprise.

Angela Ahrendts, former CEO of Burberry is speaking.

Could you listen?

You have to be totally connected.

If you don't do that, I won’t know what your business model is in five years.

Fashion is about innovation and digital is a journey that companies need to take.

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