POLIMODA
Istituto Internazionale Fashion Design & Marketing
Villa Strozzi - Via Pisana, 77 - 50143 FIRENZE
Tel. (+39) 0557399628 - Fax (+39) 055700287
E-mail [email protected] - Website www.polimoda.com

Aim. Tom Ford is a self-communicating person-brand, designer and director as well. Diesel customers are a tribe of fans. Ferrari cars are becoming eco-friendly and Porsche is selling mobile phones. Steve Jobs created an uncontested market with the iPod. Karl Lagerfeld and Madonna designed for H&M. What if Benetton one day decides to start an haute couture collection?
Who is managing all these, and many other potential challenges? The Brand Manager, a specialist in shaping, preserving or renewing the identity of a brand, from defining a company's vision, mission and its values, to the coherent implementation of effective and efficient marketing and communication policies.
This profile requires traditional economic and marketing skills, but also an ability to interpret post-modern reality applying a knowledge of aesthetics, sociology, history, philosophy, psychology and semiotics, but with a natural sensibility for innovative concepts: experience, emotional, viral and guerrilla marketing, tribal societing, low- and no-cost communication, convergent branding, buyology, storytelling, concept- and cross-selling, trendsetting, pampering, metabranding, cult- and love-marking, image building, hardwear and softwear, communication, trading up & down, heritage and vintage management, product placement, eco-nomics.
Handling both tangible and intangible assets, a Brand Manager supports major brands to achieve a real competitive advantage, a suitable positioning, and a good empathy with their clients; the Brand Manager helps to restore sleeping brands giving them a new life, follows the creation of person-brands, shaping their archetypes from the outset.
This kind of new multidisciplinary and flexible Brand Manager is without doubt a pivotal figure for companies facing an increasingly complex and challenging market scenario.
Course description. The Master consists of three interdependent teaching modules:
- Sectoral, providing a good knowledge of the fashion and luxury systems, to produce an awareness of how such segments can feed on different factors (from economics to art), and to equip the student with business, marketing and communication management tools, leading to their effective exploitation.
- Technical, providing professional knowledge of every process in branding, beginning with the semiotic definition, moving on to logo and image building, and including the legal protection of the trademark.
- Innovative, providing a smart toolbox of new techniques for creating value through innovation.

Programme. Fashion & Luxury Management: the specific aspects of the fashion and luxury systems: history, philosophy, marketing basics, production chain, merchandising, costumer relation management; Brand Management: brand components and models of branding; Innovation Management: [re]creating value, image building, low- and no-cost communication, web 2.0, buyology, cult- and love-marking, emotional marketing, trading up & down, concept- and cross-selling, vintage & heritage, product driven marketing; Contemporary Art: the transversal language for all the segments carrying intangible values; Global Economy: from economics to eco-nomics: handicraft, industrial, financial and green business models; Visual Communication: visual merchandising, advertising, events, product placement, media planning basics; Business Management: economic and organizational management for fashion and luxury brands; Trendsetting: buzz listening, word of mouse, globetrotting and trend searching for brand [re]vitalization; Multiculti: global, local, glocal: trading in the global market; Trademarking: the brand from a legal point of view; Brand Design: design principles for the brand visual context: the logo, the website, the communication materials.
Language English.
Professional profiles. This profile can lead to jobs such as a first level managerial position, a self-employed consultant, a [crisis] temporary manager, both in a company and in a marketing & communication agency.

Eligibility. The Master is open to graduates (or equivalent) holding a valid academic degree. Applicants with no academic degree, but with significant working experience in fashion, luxury goods and communication industry, will be considered as well. Knowledge of English required. For internships in Italian companies Italian language is desirable. Send your CV and a written motivation by e-mail. A phone interview with the course director will be arranged. Candidates will be selected by a practical on-line test and an interview with the Course Director.

Course duration. 9 months + 3 months internship . Attendance is mandatory. Start Date: April; October.

Cost. Euro 15.000,00.