MSc Luxury Brand Marketing

Our Masters in Luxury Brand Marketing programme provides students with a rich breadth of knowledge and understanding of marketing specifically related to luxury brands. It includes a focus on critical insights into luxury consumer behaviour, luxury branding and marketing communications, and an examination of legal aspects of branding within a luxury context.

It will allow you to develop your intellectual ability together with the contemporary skills and practices needed to excel in the industry. There will also be an opportunity to complete a work placement, volunteering work, desk-based consultancy or even study abroad. Students are also encouraged to engage in an independent research project.

The programme allows students to study luxury marketing within a global context while at the same time developing a greater awareness of the wider obligations of the business, including responsible leadership. The primary aim is to equip students with a contemporary understanding of luxury brand marketing in order to meet the constantly changing needs of the luxury brand industry. To help achieve this, the University has built upon a wealth of expertise in the luxury sector through our distinguished range of academic and honorary professors, who are all current leaders in the industry.

Graduates, equipped with their specialist knowledge, analytical and personal skills, can expect to be well-placed to command managerial positions within the increasingly competitive, digitally-orientated global luxury brand sector.

Module Information

Our well-established links with industry together with current thinking and research has shaped the structure of the programme, which consists of 6 modules, plus a Dissertation.

Strategic Marketing of Luxury Goods Explores how the assets of a luxury company can be used to create and deliver value to stakeholders, particularly customers and stakeholders. Students are provided with the opportunity to develop a managerial overview of how marketing interacts with the other functional areas of the luxury business.

Legal Aspects of Brand Management Focuses on and contextualises niche aspects of law so as to be accessible to those without a 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.

Developing Personal and Professional Competence Enables students to identify, understand, develop and articulate their key personal abilities in the context of their future career aspirations. Students will be given the opportunity to undertake an industry placement, volunteer, study abroad or take part in desk-based consultancy in order to be better prepared for their personal and professional life.

Consumer-Led Sustainable Marketing Designed to provide an in-depth and critical understanding of consumer-led sustainable marketing practices. Students are introduced to the concept of customer insight and its role in marketing decision-making. The module evaluates the psychological, social and economic roots of the discipline of consumer behaviour and relates these to contemporary consumers.

Global Branding and Integrated Marketing Communications Provides students with a critical understanding of branding theory through an examination of key theoretical frameworks relevant to brand identity, personality, brand relationships and brand culture. Various sectors including fashion, luxury, travel and entertainment are explored while providing students with an understanding of marketing communication’s mix.

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.

The British School of Fashion is an innovative academic hub developed by Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) to create and disseminate strategic fashion business insight through its provision of leading-edge education, research and consultancy.

Dedicated to its mission statement of achieving “the common good,” the British School of Fashion advances business and management thinking and practice through the co-creation of knowledge with its industry partners, esteemed Honorary Professors, alumni network, research active staff and diverse student population.

In a demonstration of its entrepreneurial nature, the British School of Fashion designs and delivers globally unique executive and postgraduate programmes which offer participants a trans-discipline learning experience across its campuses in London and New York.

Who are we?

Our first steps in fashion date back to 1875 and to our founding colleges in Glasgow, Scotland. In that era, our primary aim was to provide women with opportunities in design, textiles and retail, with a keen awareness of the economic, social and environmental needs of the time. British fashion has evolved to encompass so much more than just manufacturing and the education provided by the GCU British School of Fashion reflects those changes.

For decades, GCU has contributed to the business of fashion through the creation of pioneering courses. We were the first UK Institution to offer an MSc in International Fashion Marketing in 2000, and are still one of only a few Universities worldwide to offer a dedicated MBA in Luxury Brand Management.

The British School of Fashion intends to build upon the foundation provided by our strong heritage and fashion industry expertise through continued innovation of new programmes and investment and development of our academic faculty.

What do we teach?

We offer differentiated Masters degree programmes co-created through industry expertise from our honorary professors, the knowledge of academic experts and the innovation and energy of our students.

We integrate the latest academic thinking with the wider business insights we derive from our research and consultancy of contemporary business practice. Our teaching is also fully engaged with the fashion industry and we have partnerships and collaborations with a diverse range of fashion companies including Marks and Spencer, Converse, ASOS, The Retail Trust, Arcadia, Folk, All Saints, Lyst, House of Fraser, Margaret Howell, Farfetch and Topshop.

Through these close links, we are able to provide master-classes from world leading businesses, as well as opportunities for valuable internships, visits and live project briefs.

We ensure that our graduates have the skills and expertise needed to manage a fashion business in today’s global market. We challenge our students to become critical thinkers, with a competent grasp of the theories and concepts that help explain and advance best practice in business. We encourage them to challenge the status quo, to be creative in their thinking, to be entrepreneurial in their actions, and to recognise that good business is better business.

Why are we different?

Our University motto “For the Common Weal” – meaning “for the common good” – is the main thread throughout every one of our British School of Fashion initiatives. Our Chancellor, Professor Muhammad Yunus, is our foremost representative in this respect, having received the Nobel Peace Prize for achievements in economic and social development. Professor Yunus also remains one of only seven people who has been recognised with a Nobel Peace Prize, Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal.

“It’s not about passing old knowledge to a new generation. It’s about solving problems, now. The moment you turn something into a social business, it becomes an engine that doesn’t need refuelling.”

Professor Muhammad Yunus, Chancellor of GCU.

The British School of Fashion at GCU embodies the University’s endeavour to promote enterprise, innovation and learning underpinned by a deep-rooted social conscience. We recognise that the fashion industry has a responsibility to conduct business in an ethical manner, to promote and practice fair trade.

Our New York Campus houses The Fair Fashion Center. This initiative acts as both a repository and conduit of information and the centre is focused on examining the business case for sustainability in the fashion industry.

Furthermore, the British School of Fashion has responded to a worldwide call to put social responsibility, ethics and sustainability at the top of the agenda for training future business leaders by becoming a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact-backed initiative: the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME). Our participation in PRME exhibits our long-term mission to deliver economic and social benefits at home and across the world, and the values of PRME underpin the entirety of the British School of Fashion’s portfolio. Through this commitment, we will continue to improve engagement with the cause. We will regularly report progress on the application of the principles, and in so doing, contribute to the learning experience of academic institutions worldwide participating in the PRME initiative.

How do we co-create our knowledge?

Our specialised fashion knowledge is generated through a unique and critical balance of leading-edge industry practice and underpinned by the latest academic research.

The fashion business is a major economic driver in the UK and internationally and the British School of Fashion is committed to becoming a leading centre for the understanding of consumers’ behaviour towards fashion. By adopting innovative and experimental research methodologies, we are already advancing understanding of fashion consumption – across all distribution channels.

The knowledge that we generate shares three common characteristics:

• It is rigorous, independent and based on sound research methodologies
• The outcomes always have relevance and add value to the fashion business sector
• It improves and advances the competitiveness of people and organisations

Our insight is the product of intellectual curiosity and a mature understanding of the realities of doing business in today’s global, omnichannel fashion environment. In recognition of this, many leading fashion businesses commission us to undertake a diverse range of bespoke consultancy and business development projects.

One of the most important ways we obtain and maintain our knowledge is through the relationships that we foster with our Honorary Professors and Industry Partners.