The MA in Luxury Brand Management equips you with the management, entrepreneurial, marketing and professional skills to work in the luxury goods and experiential luxury industry.
The luxury brands sector encompasses the fashion and retail industry, as well as sectors such as tourism, hospitality, food and beverage, film, digital media, dance, music and theatre. This MA debates the concept of luxury in a historical and cross cultural context, and offers a strong academic underpinning on theories of luxury and consumption. You will explore the role of luxury in conserving traditional arts, especially with regard to Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.
The programme combines formal teaching with dissertation research, underpinned with visits to key luxury brand enterprises in London and elsewhere, and draws on Goldsmiths’ alumni for inspirational talks. This programme offers practice based assignments and voluntary intern opportunities in various cultural organisations and luxury corporations that have established links with Goldsmiths.
Core Modules
You will take the following core modules:
Option Modules
Students can make up the remaining credits with the modules below:
This programme has a strong critical and theoretical underpinning, enabling you to write a dissertation that could serve as a stepping stone to a higher level academic study and/or careers within research or academia.
This MA will provide you with the management, entrepreneurial marketing and professional skills required to pursue a career in the luxury brand field.
This sector covers a wide range of creative industries and the combination of core and optional modules will allow you to develop specific knowledge and skills, to enhance your career prospects and succeed in relevant career/professional paths.
Today the Brand Manager represents a key figure of the company, and should be a connoisseur of the brand, an innovator prepared and competent and a skilled tactician. The Master in Brand Management and Communication forms professionals able to create, develop and manage a brand awareness through all the tools of marketing and communication.
Students learn the secrets of brand strategy (tangible values of quality and performance and intangibles values related to the image, reputation, visibility and reputation) in order to ensure the success of a product, create business and develop business capital. The Master is organized in two editions, the first in November in Italian, the second in February, in English.
Career opportunities - At the end of the Master, the student can work in companies as a Brand Manager, Marketing Manager, Product Manager, and for Consultancies as Project Manager, Client Manager, Strategist, Brand Consultant. Other opportunities are advertising and communication agencies as Strategic Planner, Account Manager.
The Master is organized in partnership with Landor
Our MBA Luxury Brand Management builds on GCU London's expertise in the luxury industry. We developed this innovative programme to meet the growing demand for experienced managers who really understand luxury brand management.
Through this programme, you'll master the tools and strategies of the global luxury market, launching your successful career in this fascinating industry. Luxury markets are becoming more competitive, more complex and more polarised; with the relevant, up-to-date industry knowledge you'll acquire in this programme, you'll be ready to meet those challenges head-on.
The curriculum emphasises data analysis to support evidence-based decision-making.
In the MBA Luxury Brand Management, you will explore key brand concepts such as authenticity, exclusivity and craftsmanship, balanced with brand access and immediacy. Then you'll develop your understanding of how these issues intersect with digital technology and contemporary culture.
At GCU, you'll join a welcoming and career-focused community of learners, professors and professionals. You'll find personal support as you work hard to achieve the successful career that's right for you.
Our well-established links with industry together with current thinking and research has shaped the structure of the programme, which consists of 7 modules, plus a dissertation.
Luxury Perspectives and Practice
Designed to critically assess the complexities of the luxury concept and the evolution of the global luxury sector. Students will analyse how perceptions of luxury value evolve across different product/market contexts and will investigate how individual consumers’ characteristics, social dynamics and brand related factors affect decisions to purchase luxury products and services.
Finance and Wealth Management
Develops a critical awareness of modern wealth management and builds on students' previous exposure to the financial management principles and techniques. The module will focus on all three major aspects of wealth management, which would be: wealth creation, wealth preservation and wealth transfer.
Luxury Distribution and Retail
Provides a critical analysis of management trends and developments with respect to the retailing and distribution of luxury goods and services. The dimensions of the luxury retail experience are considered - with a particular emphasis upon the creation of differential advantage through store image creation and customer service.
Strategy Leadership and Social Responsibility
Enables students to critically analyse the roles that managers play in formulating, implementing and evaluating strategy within organisations in the luxury sector. Students are encouraged reflect upon the importance of leadership in developing, protecting and exploiting strategic capabilities within organisations. The module is designed to help students take on a significant leadership role in their future careers in the luxury sector.
Strategic Brand Management
Explores the nature and role of the product from the perspective of brand delivery and experience across a range of luxury sectors. It highlights the importance of effective brand management in the luxury goods and services sector through a detailed consideration of the relative literature, supported by contextual examples.
Legal Aspects of Brand Management
Focuses on and contextualises niche aspects of law so as to be accessible to those without prior legal study of intellectual property law or regulation. It provides foundations for critical, analytical and legally creative thinking while exploring legal issues related to trademarks, domain names, passing off, design rights, patent rights, copyright, and issues relating to advertising standards.
Research Project: Design and Methods
Introduces students to research approaches and time management skills essential for their research project. The module provides essential knowledge of research design across key areas and adopts a critical perspective in comparing and contrasting alternative research models.
Dissertation
The final element of the programme is the dissertation, which provides you with an opportunity to design and undertake a piece of original research in a selective area of Luxury Brand Marketing. As part of the research, students have the opportunity to apply theories, concepts, theories and frameworks introduced in the modules that were previously taught.
The dissertation can assume one of 3 forms: An Applied Research Project, an Inquiry Project or a Business Consultancy Project.
Students studying the MBA Luxury Brand Management will be part of a small and focused class, a mix of local and international students sharing management expertise and benefiting from teaching by world-class professors, with research and professional experience as well as close links to industry.
The diversity and experience brought to the class by each individual is one of the primary strengths of the MBA Luxury Brand Management in GCU London. The programme is designed to promote informal peer support and knowledge sharing networks, helping them to become effective, independent, lifelong learners.
International academics from France, Spain, Italy, Taiwan, China and the USA have visited GCU London to gain insight into our teaching.
A number of assessment methods are used in the programme, which vary between modules, and include: group work, case studies, written coursework, group presentations, projects and a research-based dissertation.
GCU's MBA Luxury Brand Management produces graduates who are successful leaders and responsible global citizens, with the relevant, practical skillsets that employers value. The programme will help you build on your managerial experience with an in-demand specialisation so you can advance in your career.
The MSc Marketing and Brand Management focuses on planning and applying brand management strategies. You will learn about the importance of brand management within an overall framework of marketing and business management.
If you begin your course in September you have the choice to apply for an 8 month paid work placement in a marketing role instead of completing either a dissertation or client project. By gaining this professional experience you will be well prepared for your future career.
You will develop a strong foundation in marketing theory and practice, combined with a specialist perspective on brand management, including brand values and a wide range of related communication channels.
This course will prepare you to work for a branding or marketing agency or for a marketing, branding or communications department within an organisation. With practical case studies and live scenarios, you will apply brand management theory and analyse and critique what makes a successful brand. You will enhance your employment and future career prospects, through developing your knowledge of marketing and brand management theory and how it is applied in practice.
Compulsory Modules
You will study eight compulsory modules and a module which helps develop your professional and academic skills. In addition, you will choose two optional modules and you also have the opportunity to apply for an 8 month paid work placement in a marketing role, or you can complete either a dissertation or client project. If you choose not to take a work placement, the course lasts 12 months. If you start in September and take the work placement the course last 17 months. Please see the September entry and January entry course structure charts.
Please also refer to the course structure chart for January entry.
Please also refer to the course structure chart for September entry.
Optional Modules
You must choose one of the following:
Much of the teaching on the course takes the form of interactive workshops, but there are also lectures from staff and visiting speakers. Lectures, discussions, role-play exercises and seminars are linked with selected case studies and assessments to strengthen your practical analysis and decision-making skills. You will develop your skills in working as part of a team through structured group assignments and an online group-based marketing simulation.
You will gain practical experience and put your knowledge of marketing approaches and theory into practice during live research projects for an organisation. Teaching staff at the Business School are engaged in academic research and/or come from an industry background with in-depth practical experience of marketing and brand management issues. Visiting speakers from the world of marketing and branding, consultancies and research bodies augment the programme through leading edge discussions and specialist events.
We're investing over £30m to create a modern teaching and learning facilities and creating a new home at Headington for the Oxford Brookes Business School.
Set to be complete in 2017, you'll see:
Our library provides specialist business resources (both hard copy and via online access) to UK and overseas companies' annual reports, statistics on all aspects of business and management, a wide range of constantly updated key texts, and postgraduate MA, MBA, MSc and PhD theses.
If you are starting your course in September 2017 you are likely to experience all your teaching at the Headington Campus.
We offer an International Business in Practice Study Trip module. The purpose of this study trip is to give postgraduate students a hands-on, intensive experience with the ideas and practices of global business. The programme will include presentations from local management executives and experts. Students will have direct interaction with management executives and practices through site visits to major corporations and agencies.
This study trip is voluntary and all costs associated with the trip will need to be funded by you. It is not linked to university assessments in any way. If you successfully complete this module you will have the following non-credit bearing module recorded on your transcript: P58335 International Business in Practice: Study Trip.
As a student in the MA Advertising, Branding and Communication course at the University of West London, you will become a strategic thinker and communicator to create cutting edge advertising, brand and design campaigns. We build your understanding of brand communication, professional graphic design, advertising strategy and creativity to help prepare you for your future career.
Communication is at the centre of the way we live our lives. Today's communication systems and tools are complex, sophisticated and extremely powerful. However, the usefulness of these systems and tools depends on those who know how best to use them creatively and strategically.
As consumers become more knowledgeable and knowing, we must create the right kind of conversation. Advertising, Branding and Communication is lightning fast - responding to consumer needs, aspirations, and trends, in highly innovative relational and meaningful ways.
This course has a vocational focus, giving you the professional experience required to kick-start your career after graduation.
This course delivers in-depth, real time real-world real-value education. You will:
• work industry hours, at industry pace and on industry projects and internships
• learn to research, apply and present design innovation, brand narrative with mentored design partnerships/teams on industry set briefs
• have the opportunity to collaborate across other post graduate courses delivered in the London School of Film Media and Design and the London School of Music
• gain specialist skills and knowledge in your course
• gain insight and professional practice from working alongside students
• explore a range of evolutionary and revolutionary processes
• build a professional understanding of today's competitive global environments related to design, advertising processes and the management of communication
• develop your own project driven by your new knowledge.
Postgraduate taught courses are taught through a range of:
• Lectures
• Seminars
• industry visits group tutorials.
Upon graduation, you can work as a brand designer, account handler, graphic communication designer or idea strategist, making your creative mark in the demanding worlds of branding or advertising. You will bring your knowledge of contemporary innovation and brand strategy to a range of industry projects.
You may also wish to undertake postgraduate study to specialise in a subject you’ve already studied, or to explore something new.
Click the following link for information on how to apply to this course.
Information about scholarships and bursaries can be found here.
Design Innovation and Brand Management are the commercial powerhouses of all global organisations. These need to be understood and applied to the fast-growing business and luxury markets worldwide. This course will help you become an innovator, attracting design savvy and communication conscious entrepreneurs.
This course will enable you to apply contemporary management and design thinking in a professional context, helping you compete in the growing global markets using your creativity, strategy and management theory.
The key to successful brand development is an understanding of business strategy in relation to design thinking models and a diverse and inquisitive mind as to the relationships involved in incremental or radical innovation. Branding connects to the consumer through a range of tools; identity, experience, advertising and manipulation, while design innovation is more about new thinking processes, new associations/relationships between functionality and aesthetics and new technologies.
Learn about these fascinating contemporary areas and gain relevant professional skills, preparing you for success in your career.
Students study luxury design, design innovation and its relationship to the experience of creative management through brand strategies. This is then applied creatively to a range of live industry projects. Through carefully designed modules you will explore a range of evolutionary and revolutionary processes that build a professional understanding of current global environments.
As well as this critical industry knowledge, you will also:
• Have the unique opportunity to collaborate across other post graduate courses delivered in the London School of Film Media and Design and the London School of Music
• gain specialist skills and knowledge in your course
• gain insight and professional practice from working alongside students from the other courses, replicating collaborative industry practices
• explore a range of evolutionary and revolutionary processes to build a professional understanding of today's competitive global environments related to design, innovation processes and the management of brands
• develop your own project driven by your new knowledge: the culmination of your Masters experience
• apply management and design thinking to support organisations to compete in the growing global markets combining creativity, strategy and management and visual language as communication powerful tools
• learn to research, apply and present/pitch design innovation and branding campaigns with mentored design partnerships or teams on industry set briefs.
The Professionalisation module is an immersive module that covers the key professional creative and technical skills that anchor industry.
Through seminars and practical workshops you will:
• explore the working life of a professional
• gain a better understanding of industry narratives
• understand historical approaches used within the field of advertising, branding and communications.
The Internship or Industry Mentored Brief is an important module and an integral element of the MA Luxury Design Innovation and Brand Management. This is a module designed to develop the experience of design, branding and communication through experience in industry or doing a professional live mentored brief, with one of our mentors.
The University of West London has its own 'W5 Productions' which will support appropriately-skilled students find relevant work placements or an industry mentored brief in the creative industries.
The MA Luxury Design Innovation and Brand Management develops graduate attributes that prepare you for a range of possible careers, depending on your interests and talents.These include:
• Brand and design managers
• Marketers
• Client account handlers
• Project managers
• Creative directors
• Senior designers
• Design team leaders
• Art directors
• Advertising managers
• Account planners
• Strategic thinkers
• Communication Consultants
• Content creators and managers
• Client account executives
The UK attracts many global brands, setting up flagship stores to attract domestic and overseas visitors to private retail locations. Retailers continue to look to enter new markets in potential higher growth regions, seeking to improve their existing operational performance in these markets to achieve sustained growth. This course has been designed to lead to employment and is targeted towards students whose career developments and interests lie within this field and the growth sector of the Design and Fashion Industries.
Click the following link for information on how to apply to this course.
Information about scholarships and bursaries can be found here.
Marketing communications covers the selection and application of the main communication tools available to an organisation in pursuit of its marketing goals. This work is often carried out by specialist agencies, and involves both strategic thinking and the development of creative solutions. It calls for a blend of research-based knowledge with the practice of high-level, often extremely creative, skills. The course includes a study of the tools that underpin the development of a marcomms strategy and the media platforms to deliver a marcomms campaign.
As part of the course, you will have the opportunity to study digital marketing, which makes up the syllabus for the Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing. This will prepare you to take the Diploma exams after your MA if you so wish.
The course covers the main marketing communication techniques. It provides you with a sufficient foundation in marketing to enable you to work easily with people involved throughout the marketing management process. The ultimate aim of the course is to enhance individual career advancement prospects through knowledge of how to apply academic learning to best marketing communications practice.
A highlight for many students is the residential at a Cambridge college and talks from practitioners and alumni organised throughout the course which provide an opportunity for networking and extending learning in new environments.
The following modules are indicative of what you will study on this course.
Year long module
In semester one you will study the underpinning concepts and strategies for marketing communications.
Semester one modules
In semester two you will study in greater depth the tools and media platforms for marketing communications. The January cohort will begin these modules during the summer school.
Semester two modules
This course is accredited by the Digital Marketing Institute (DMI).
All students on our full-time Business Masters courses can apply to undertake the PG/MBA Internship Programme, which forms part of the Reflective Practitioner Module.
The internship allows you to test drive a career and explore one of your career interests before you complete your Postgraduate studies!
Completing an 8-12 week accredited internship helps students gain invaluable work experience. This fantastic work experience can be taken in addition to option modules. Students are responsible for finding their own internship with the support of the Business Experience Team.
To express an interest in the module, students must submit a completed application form and a copy of their updated CV. This will give students membership a dedicated website that offers exclusive access to internship vacancies, one to-one CV guidance appointments, mock interviews, employability workshops and much more.
Students can apply to London-based organisations and have the flexibility to take their internship in the summer period or alongside their studies.
Every year we receive very positive feedback from both postgraduate students and employers and expect that the internship programme will continue to remain popular amongst our students.
Find out about postgraduate internships
As a Marketing Communications postgraduate, you can look forward to excellent career prospects in both specialist agencies and within in-house marketing departments.
Past students have gone on to successful careers in advertising, public relations, brand management, direct and interactive marketing, sales promotion, market research and data manipulation.
With the MA Marketing Communications, you'll be particularly well-placed to pursue opportunities with organisations that require marketing specialists with the ability to think strategically and develop creative solutions.
The Chartered Institute of Marketing's Introductory Certificate gives you CIM membership during your MA qualification.
