Fashion Marketing & Management (FASM)

Industry-standard presentation requirements are addressed in a seminar/studio format course. This course prepares students to execute digital presentation techniques required in future courses and prepares students for portfolio development.

In this course, students explore the fundamental principles of fashion aesthetics, including theories of dress, aesthetic norms, color, perceptions, body inclusivity, personality expression, and context. Students gain an understanding of the role aesthetics play in the creation of brand identity. Students are introduced to the fundamental principles of marketing and apply these principles for engaging consumers with the aesthetics and identity of fashion brands.

Through an understanding of the concepts and calculations necessary for successful merchandising, this course introduces students to the terminology of operating statements, retail method of inventory, planning seasonal purchases, methods of calculating markups, turnover, stock-sales ratios, open-to-buy, markdowns and terms of sale.

Students analyze the buying function and the differences of buyers’ responsibilities in various types of merchandising organizations as a means of studying the principles, procedures and techniques practiced by merchandisers of fashion goods in determining what assortments to buy and which resources to select.

This course introduces the concepts and methods by which retailers and wholesalers create special, store-branded merchandise for targeted customer segments. The process of product development, from research to production to distribution, is studied.

This course presents an in-depth look at advanced digital presentation techniques available for fashion marketing and retailing. Students learn strategy, language and tools to create cutting edge consumer experiences across digital and mobile platforms, including video content, digital portfolios and 3D visual retailing. Furthermore, students gain a framework of approaching innovation that enables them to remain competitive in the evolving digital landscape.

While exploring new fragrance product development, merchandising and marketing, students gain insight into the operating strategies at work in the marketplace. Using this knowledge, student teams experiment with core ingredients in hands-on workshops and develop new fragrance trials of their own. Through case studies, students also analyze key competitors and suppliers, as well as the hallmarks of successful fragrance product development and launch.

Students create their own fragrance product for launch to the marketplace, including development of product packaging, branding and marketing strategy. Students also learn to assess the financial health of their brand across the selling life of a product and develop strategies for extending its longevity.

While exploring product merchandising, marketing, and product launch in the footwear industry, students gain insight into the operating strategies at work in the marketplace. Through case studies, students analyze key competitors and suppliers, as well as the hallmarks of successful footwear product marketing and launches. At the culmination of the course, students create a launch campaign for their own product, including development of packaging, branding, and marketing strategy.

This course concentrates on industry issues in retail apparel. Discussions focus on product development, manufacturing, promotion, visual merchandising, special events marketing and the general consumer lifestyle. Students understand contemporary issues in fashion and gain the experience and leadership skills necessary to make merchandising and marketing decisions through both competitive classes and guest speakers’ lectures.

This course addresses the principles of personal selling techniques, presentation skills, the art of persuasion, negotiating and account-building in the wholesale markets. These concepts are developed through lectures and workshops. Students also learn the effects of an organization’s culture on the management process, including decision-making, planning, structure, leadership and defining control, and how these are viewed from a global perspective.

This course presents a comprehensive overview of the direct marketing industry. Through the use of cases and/or assignments, students learn about strategic merchandising plans. Students are also introduced to the various electronic vehicles currently used in this ever-changing industry. A comprehensive study of the growing Internet business and its dramatic impact on the retail industry is presented.

This course focuses on current fashion trends in the international market. Through group discussion and analysis of current videos and published fashion materials, students produce reports on their own observations of the trends and how these trends relate to personal design developments.

Students in this course analyze important factors in developing import programs, distribution of products, market sources, financing, and aspects associated with apparel and other imported products. The impact of imports on domestic apparel businesses is examined.

Current marketplace requirements are addressed in a seminar/studio format course, allowing students to be better prepared to enter the workforce. Projects and discussion topics like formatting of projects, how to pitch an idea, the elevator speech, interview techniques and creation of a physical and digital portfolio are explored in this dynamic course. In addition, students are asked to develop a comprehensive project from concept to client, tapping all areas of the fashion marketing business.

Current fashion-related topics and industry-standard requirements are addressed in a studio format course, allowing students to be better prepared to enter the workforce. Projects expose students to a variety of visual presentation approaches and techniques, developing important skills sets that allow students to pitch ideas through the use of visuals in a more effective manner. This course prepares students to produce portfolio potential projects.

Internships offer students valuable opportunities to work in a professional environment and gain firsthand experience to help them prepare for careers. In an approved internship setting, a student typically spends one quarter working with an on-site professional supervisor and a faculty internship supervisor to achieve specific goals and objectives related to the program of study.