Conference on Luxury and Retail at IE Business School

To celebrate the X edition of the Administration and Strategic Management in the Luxury Market, 20 IE Business School organized the Retail and Consumer Trends in the Luxury Market conference on October 20.

Top speakers were present at the event. The event was attended by the director of the program, Susana Campuzano; Inge Lehmann, CEO and founder of Lehmann International; and Eduardo Martín Cardona, retail expert who has worked at Inditex, Vittorio & Luchino, Noritex, and currently works at Media Markt.

Susana began by stressing the enormous amount of success that the program has had, that is celebrating its tenth edition. However, on this ten-year journey the program has not lost a bit of its novelty, since it is updated and renewed year after year, as new times require. The director pointed out the fact that this is a pioneering program that many schools have copied afterwards.

Then it was Inge Lehmann’s turn. Lehmann International is a company dedicated to brand strategy for retail companies, and its CEO shared with us her company’s approach when segmenting consumers according to their lifestyle, anticipating their needs and aspirations and then helping companies and brands to achieve success in their strategy, approach or sales. During her presentation, Lehmann established different consumer segments according to style preferences. For example, traditional, neo-traditional, modern or trendy, each with characteristics that strongly stand out.

The conference was wrapped up by Eduardo Martín Cardona, current manager and administrator at Media Markt, who has also been chief commercial officer at Noritex and managing director of Victorio & Lucchino. Additionally, he spent much of his career working for Grupo Inditex, where he became director of Zara Spain.

Eduardo talked to us about the “best practices in traditional retail” using some examples from a brand with which he is very familiar: Zara. To begin, Eduardo defined a brand as “a social phenomenon with its own identity,” and he especially stressed the importance of proper management of the point of sale, something that we sometimes tend to underestimate. Customer service or employee motivation in the retail sector also were key concepts during his presentation.

Susana, Inge and Eduardo are just some of the professors that make up this Administration and Strategic Management in the Luxury Market Program. If you want to enjoy and learn everything that they have to offer, as well as hear the points of view of other great professors about the luxury market and the retail sector, we recommend you join our program. You won't be disappointed!