Fashion Marketing
Fashion jobs, including the role of fashion marketer, place employees on the frontier of an exciting cultural and commercial landscape. From PR and design, to retail and buying, the duties of the fashion marketer are expansive - and, if you are thinking about a job in the field, our guide should offer some idea of what to expect as you climb your career ladder.
What does a fashion marketer do?
Essentially, fashion marketers facilitate the sale of the products their designers create. Though that may sound simple, in reality the job involves research, strategy, and, ultimately, an understanding of consumer psychology.
Research: the first task of any fashion marketer is to consult the market research: who are my customers? What do they want? Knowledge of trends is crucial: marketers should be able to anticipate which styles will be popular - and which will not!
Strategy: with the research in, fashion marketers develop a program for selling their products. In practice, this part of the job involves negotiating deals with manufacturers, considering unit prices and volume - and determining what commercial direction their products will take in the public sphere.
Public Relations: once the products are ready for roll-out and retail, fashion marketers work with advertisers, social networks, bloggers and the media to increase awareness and maximise their products' chances of commercial success.
Analysis: as a product moves through its commercial life-cycle, fashion marketers monitor sales figures and locations - gathering information for next season, when the process begins all over again!
Education and training
Prospective marketers are entering a competitive and demanding workplace - where any kind of experience offers an edge when it comes to finding a job. Most candidates will hold a university degree: obviously Marketing is an ideal qualification, but relevant fields include, English, Maths, Business and, of course, Fashion Design. Degrees may take up to four years to complete.
Education is by no means a key to a fashion marketing career and successful candidates will be expected to have developed a level of professional experience on their own initiative - either through work placement schemes, or internships. Like professional vacancies, student internships are highly sought-after, providing on-the-job experience and precious networking connections.
Salaries
Given the variety of companies in the industry, fashion marketing salaries can vary significantly - especially by the size of the organisation you work for. Entry-level salaries tend to be above £25,000, but can rise to around £50,000 in senior positions. While fashion roles are available across the UK, the majority of jobs are focussed in London - and, understandably, this is also where higher salaries are located.
Skills and Qualities
The fashion marketing role requires flexibility: marketers straddle a number of disciplines and must be able to deal with personnel at every level of the design and retail process. The commercial side of the job requires numeracy and problem solving, while the marketing and PR side requires excellent communication skills, creativity and forward thinking.
Fashion marketing can be pressurised and demanding, but also incredibly satisfying as you take your marketing campaign from inception to retail success. The job may not be for everyone but candidates who are driven, ambitious and hungry consumers of current styles and trends will soon find themselves set on an exciting and rewarding career path.
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