Digital Marketing in the Luxury Field: Alumna Eleonora Costantini
Alumna Eleonora Costantini (Class of 2017) was invited to JCU on April 30th in the context of Prof. Antonella Salvatore’s class “Retailing Applied to Fashion,” to discuss her experience as a young professional working in the luxury field. Shortly after graduating with majors in Business Administration and Marketing, Eleonora was hired as an intern by the Brioni fashion house in Milan. After completing her internship, she was hired to work in the Rome headquarters of Brioni.
Alumna Eleonora Costantini – Brioni Fashion House
Eleonora shared her experience as e-commerce and digital marketing specialist as well as the challenges and opportunities that a young professional faces when entering the job market.
Brioni is an important high-end Italian brand of men’s fashionwear. Its main target segment is forty-to-seventy year-old men, mostly politicians, businessmen, and celebrities, who seek the perfection of Italian-tailored fashion. For this reason, Brioni has to guarantee excellent service, both in its physical shops all around the world and on its e-commerce platforms. Eleonora’s job is to improve and maintain the brand’s high standards for e-commerce.
As Eleonora explained, when you work in the e-commerce and digital branch of a fashion house, you have to consider three main aspects. The first one is product selection. One of the criteria to choose which items to display is analyzing what was successful the previous year. In addition, you need to consider that the products you select for retailing are different from the ones sold online. Each physical shop will have different items depending on the country where it is located, because of differences in climate and culture. On the other hand, the online platform has to offer a wide variety of choices for all customers. The second aspect is the segment. The customers who buy online are usually younger than those who buy in the shops. As a consequence, you will have to present a wider selection of items, including more casual clothes. The third element is balance. In fact, it is important to find the right ratio between the most successful items, such as shirts or ties, and what is more representative of the brand, such as suits and business attire.
Eleonora said that the real challenge of her job is to convince people to buy expensive clothes online. In order to make up for the lack of physical interaction with the clothes, photos and descriptions of the items must be very effective. Photos combined with descriptions can give the customer a vivid idea of the fabric and the overall look of the item they are purchasing. The description is not simply a list of the materials used and the measurements, but a story of how the clothes are made and the effort it takes to create luxury items.
As a recent graduate and young professional, Eleonora gave her advice to JCU students who will soon enter the job market, saying they should always try to learn from their experiences. Building your professional path can make you feel insecure or confused at the beginning, but you have to ask questions and learn all you can from more experienced colleagues. The role of a mentor is central for the development of a career path. When you start working, you should identify your own mentor and learn about the new job in order to acquire more skills and improve both as a professional and as an individual.
(Giorgia Tamburi)
