Instead, why not opt for a course on Luxury Brand Management.
India is a big country with one of the largest youth populations in the world; if we tap this youth power effectively, we have the potential to be no less than any developed nation. The potential of India’s retail sector has not been explored fully and the sector offers plenty of lucrative career opportunities. The Luxury retail sector has the highest growth potential brands.
The Luxury sector is a niche space with a limited number of highly placed brands. The Luxury industry today opens up new career avenues for the youth – careers that are recession proof, require easy to acquire skills and offers a huge variety of segments to choose from. Today, luxury has seeped into every aspect of our lifestyle. Automobiles; fashion; travel and tourism; health and wellness; hospitality and fine dining; aviation; medical tourism; watches and jewellery; home and interiors; technology and hybrid – almost everything is impacted by the luxury phenomenon. Further segmentation of the phenomenon has resulted in several sub categories – premium, accessible, aspiration and core luxury – thereby increasing the need gap in the talent pie.
Roles you can look forward to
Like any other consumer business, a luxury product has roles in the front and back end. Managerial roles typically could be in the fields of marketing, communications, research, supply chain & logistics, merchandising, banking & finance, design, manufacturing, etc.
The front-end roles which serve as the customer touch point areas include sales consultants, sales supervisors, store managers etc.
Do you have what it takes?
Some of the must-have skills and personality traits required to succeed in the arena of Luxury Brand Management are:
- You need to be well educated, well groomed, appear pleasing, have the willingness to learn and should have a passion for excellence.
- You need to know and like the products you sell inside out and you should enjoy promoting them too. Advising a potential customer on the utility of the product requires creativity and imagination.
- Good interpersonal skills. Being an avid listener and being customer oriented is the most important ingredient.
- You should also be confident and mentally strong, as you will be dealing with educated customers with strong personalities.
- A good brand needs people with strong ambition, determination and career drive, besides love for their job.
- A strong academic track record is always preferred so do not neglect studies.
The author is Akshay Gupta, COO of Gurgaon based Luxury Connect Business School