What are the advantages of pursuing an MBA in fashion management?

Key takeaways:

• Pursuing an MBA in fashion management helps individuals steer their brands in the right way amid changing times, ensuring a long-term existence in the marketplace.

• A fashion manager’s role is to design innovative and creative marketing techniques to boost the demand for products and services among potential audiences.

• If one wants to set a strong foot in the industry and excel in leadership roles, he/she should enrol in the best fashion business management course. 

According to a recent survey, the fashion industry is waiting to be explored post-pandemic. The global clothing and accessories market is expected to reach a value of 1549.68 billion by 2025. This ever-expanding dynamic density is certainly in need of creative and talented professionals who can also run and drive the brand with strategic and tactical skills. Here’s how fashion management courses come into play.

Pursuing MBA in fashion management in India equips students with the critical skill set required to build high-end brands. Fashion management ensures that the product or service related to the fashion industry is available to the buyers at the right time in the right place to get the most out of business. In short, the course encompasses the perfect amalgamation of product development, merchandising, pre-post sales, service, buying, and planning.

Advantages to considering MBA in fashion management

Excel as a leader

Experiential learning for better exposure

Equip with essential skills

Agility and multitasking

Besides being an influential business sector, fashion business and management focus on innovative approaches to tackle global and local–level complex issues. If you are one of those young aspirants seeking to join the fast-growing industry, here we have listed the top 5 advantages of enrolling in an MBA in fashion and luxury brand management.

• Excel in industry

Enrolling in a fashion business management course will help you hone your leadership and analytic skills, following the modern fashion industry. The comprehensive curriculum will be the perfect source to obtain hands-on managerial insights, enable management concepts, and acquire valuable market knowledge.

• Experiential learning

Fashion management courses especially focus on experiential learning, helping the individual to gain knowledge with the perfect blend of projects, seminars, and case studies. It also allows students to have meaningful interactions with world-class experts and professionals. Overall, this kind of experiential learning will allow them to examine the fashion industry’s view beyond the traditional academic atmosphere.

• Equip with essential skills

MBA in fashion and luxury brand management allows students to get well-versed in the latest tools and technologies used to solve challenging problems in the fashion industry. The programme aims at upskilling professionals with the latest in-demand skills and developments in the field of fashion management. 

• Agility and multi-tasking

Due to the comprehensive curriculum, fashion business management offers students a broad set of soft and hard skills, enabling them to enter the design framework as potential brand managers. Moreover, it offers various career prospects relevant to fashion PR, events, promotions, and retail management, solving real-life challenges with an innovative and analytical approach.

Career scope after completing an MBA in fashion management

The fashion industry has existed for decades and is now evolving rapidly, giving rise to various responsible roles. While fashion designers and models are a crucial part of the predominant fashion industry, the other side is important for management people who perform various tasks to manage the business related to fashion brands. Simply put, they are responsible for the smooth running of a business. 

There are several career options to explore after completing an MBA in fashion management. Here are some options in the fashion and apparel industry.

• Fashion and luxury PR specialist

Fashion and luxury PR specialists must build positive relations with clients, endorsers, and media. Their responsibilities include ensuring good press relations, arranging media interviews, managing celebrity relationships, event management, organisation gifts for leaders and VIP clients, and more. They will focus on keeping up the brand’s image, assuring the perfect alignment of brand messages. Persons in the field should have excellent written, communication, and interpersonal skills.

• Merchandising manager  

Merchandising manager is a first-level manager role responsible for making pivot decisions on stock, prices, purchases, and marketing by analysing the behaviour of consumers and the latest trends in the market. Their profile includes maintaining the visual appearance of the store, coordinating sales promotions, examining inventory levels, and monitoring the retail price for competitors.

• Fashion retail buyer

Fashion retail buying is another excellent career opportunity where professionals are responsible for deciding fashion goods present in the store. They have to analyse the latest trends, forecast sales in the future, manage stock levels, negotiate prices, and even schedule goods transportation. 

Overall, they should ensure the sales outlets are stocked with proper price tags. Hence, fashion retail buyers should be excellent negotiators, with a deep understanding of supply chain customer knowledge and fashion trends as a key to succeed in the industry.

• E-Commerce entrepreneurs

Fashion entrepreneurs are the ones who build their fashion enterprise or venture with a perfect endeavour to drive the global fashion industry forward with innovative ideas. Be it building a brand from scratch or launching a tech business related to fashion, the area of fashion entrepreneurs is growing rapidly.

• Chief merchandising officer

Effective fashion brand management depends on the strong role of the chief merchandising officer, who ensures that the needs and demands of the customer are met by employing tailormade measures. In the position, you will be responsible for allocating merchandise, creating product assortment plans, and implementing business analytics to enhance the sales level.

• Fashion marketing consultant

A job as a fashion marketing consultant is for those who have great attention to detail and can employ aesthetic sensibilities for every decision, from balancing the frame of the picture to the overall creativity of the outlook. The responsibility of the fashion marketing consultant is to examine the current marketing efforts and make recommendations to improve, design, and implement social media marketing tactics and campaigns. 

• Stylist operations manager

The role of stylist operations managers is to use their expertise to structure daily activities, optimise business operations, conduct periodic audits, improve output whilst reducing input, and comply with legal and corporate laws.

MAHE MBA in fashion management

Manipal Academy and Higher Education (MAHE) offers a brilliant MBA in fashion management programme for aspiring individuals who are seeking to take up managerial positions in the fashion and retail sector. 

The course is designed to offer students an advanced knowledge and practice in the management and economics in the fashion area. It shapes the students to analyse and solve the requirements of the customers even before they arise. 

Course structure

MBA in Fashion management course is structured to provide in-depth knowledge of the fashion industry. In response to the increasing demand for flexible and entrepreneurial business professionals, the course is designed to foster the skills needed to build a successful career in the international fashion business area. In short, it emphasises the following aspects-

• Building a healthy brand image
• Marketing and advertising management
• Merchandising management
• Management of fashion services and products
• Development and promotion of fashion brand
• Design development
• Expertise in the dynamics of e-Commerce
• Knowledge of global merchandising strategies

Eligibility criteria

The best part of pursuing an MBA in fashion management at MAHE is you don’t need to have an academic background specific to art, design, and passion. Below are the eligibility criteria to enrol in the MBA in fashion management.

Academic qualification	Any graduate (10+2+3) in any relevant discipline from recognized colleges, universities, or any equivalent qualification recognized by the Association of Indian Universities with a minimum of 50% of marks or equivalent grade.
Professional experience	At least one year of professional work experience in a relevant field or any reputed organisation.

After successful completion of the MAHE’s MBA in fashion management, students will have a wide array of career options and opportunities to explore. Possessed with an international mindset, multicultural awareness, and innovative thinking, the graduates will be considered ideal candidates for reputable positions at well-established multinational companies or will be ready to start their businesses.

Bottom line 

The fashion industry is not only about fashion shows, designers, and their distinct designs. There is a lot that goes on behind the screen since fashion is also a business, and it will be incomplete without management. An expert professional is required to manage various aspects of the fashion business, from building to marketing a brand and beyond. An MBA in fashion management will help you have a better understanding of business and operation management in the field of fashion.

Ever dreamt of being a part of the fashion industry at least once in your life? Enrol in the best MBA in fashion management programme in India to gain valuable hands-on experience in the heart of your fashion industry. 

Furthermore, the vibrant curriculum and facilities will enable you to exchange creative ideas, allowing you to work with different business models. At the end of the course, you will be prepared with knowledge and confidence to face the dynamic fashion industry.