The objectives of the course aim to give students: The skills to identify, understand and manage the main tools to drive a business in the Luxury, Fashion & Made in Italy sectors in an innovative and integrated way. The knowledge and capacity to understand the dynamics and challenges of managing companies in luxury sectors (Fashion, Jewelry, Hotellerie, Automotive, Yachting) and excellence-based Made in Italy industries (Furniture Design, Food & Winery, Mechatronics, Advanced Manufacturing). The ability to adopt a systemic approach integrating Brand, Retail-Sales, Customer Experience, Sustainability, and Digital Transformation across all the above sectors. Independent and critical thinking: recognizing innovation and connections across diverse industries without a silo-mentality. Communication skills: learning how to express brand values and cultural uniqueness with coherence, depth and effectiveness.

Please see previous point.

This course explores the strategic and operational dynamics of Brand, Retail, Customer and Employee Experience in the Luxury, Fashion and Made in Italy sectors. It provides insights into the evolution of global markets and the specific value and structure of Italian excellence-based industries, with an emphasis on cross-sector contamination. Core Topics: BRAND Brand as the most tangible of intangible assets. Role of the brand in value creation. Differences and common grounds across sectors: Fashion, Jewelry, Hotellerie, Automotive, Yachting, Furniture Design, Food. Brand Identity and Positioning Models applied to high-end and heritage-based brands. Brand valuation, coherence, and consistency. MADE IN ITALY: one of the best known brands (and certainly the most counterfited) The ‘Country of Origin Effect’ for Italian products has a very high commercial value to the point that foreign consumers are willing to pay an average premium price of up to 20% on Italian products, putting the brand Made in Italy on same level of brand awareness as Coca Cola and Visa. Why is that? What are the reasons behind this strong preference for Made in Italy products? The markets for Made in Italy: Lifestyle sectors (but not only) The distinctive features of the Italian industrial system (Family business, districts, evolution, etc.) Key data and figures on Made in Italy How a country’s history (beyond clichés) gave rise to the Made in Italy phenomenon CUSTOMER & EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE From traditional marketing to experiential logic. How luxury and excellence-based industries design and manage the customer journey. Customer Experience Audit: methods, applications and practical exercise. Internal branding and employee experience as key levers of brand delivery. RETAIL & HOSPITALITY TOUCHPOINTS Retail strategy and typologies: from flagship stores to experiential spaces. Hospitality mindset applied to retail, and vice versa. Innovations in retail and physical/digital hybridization. The role of hotellerie and tourism in the brand experience. How to measure Retail performance in Luxury sectors SECTORIAL INSIGHTS Fashion & Accessories: pipeline, seasons, creativity and industrialization. Jewelry: value perception, rarity, symbolic meaning. Automotive: is still the value of Made in Italy present in all italian automotive brands? And what is the evolution of the automotive industry related to luxury? Yachting: product excellence, in a sector where craftsmanship expertise, experiential storytelling, innovation and lifestyle combine. Furniture Design: how the italian furniture design with the industrial districts’ expertise became icons of a lifestyle exported all round the world. The evolution of the market and how this business works. The Salone del Mobile as the key event where things happen. Food & Winery: The both traditional and evolving most common expression of Italy, the industry between reputation, innovation and communication models. Hospitality: the tradition of Italian high-end hospitality and its evolution. Mechatronics & Manufacturing: excellence and precision as brand values of the hidden side of the Made in Italy industry. TRENDS AND COMMUNICATION Trends forecasting and cultural sensitivity. From product-based to lifestyle-based storytelling. Digital Transformation: impact on communication, retail and experience. SUSTAINABILITY Sustainability challenges across sectors. Greenwashing vs genuine practices. Made in Italy and local production as sustainable value. Case histories and conferences from top managers will be integrated in the course.

Slides and papers will be provided during the course. Suggested reading: Made in Italy Industries. Carcano-Lojacono BUP 2018

Classes will alternate between traditional lectures, Q&A sessions, and direct student participation. Experiential activities led by the students outside our campus will be included, along with specific group projects to be presented at the end of the course.

Student assessment will be based on classroom participation and attendance (mandatory) and the quality of engagement in experiential activities (10%), the overall quality of the group project and the individual student’s presentation (40%), and the result of a final written exam with multiple-choice questions (50%) to be held at the end of the course.

Thesis assignments will be primarily based on consistent and active participation, a demonstrated interest in the course topics, an excellent final evaluation, and the submission of an original and coherent thesis proposal.