Do Marketers Have the Toughest Job in Fashion?

“Product doesn’t sell itself,” says Karen Harvey, founder and CEO of Karen Harvey Consulting, a luxury advisory firm that helps place talent. “People need to feel like they want to wear that badge [of a brand], and think, ‘That’s actually me.’ That’s where the marketer comes in.”

Experts say that as luxury moves away from the idea of the ‘star designer’ — a singular visionary who carries the brand’s fate on their back, overseeing everything from store experience to social media strategy — marketers are more important than ever in setting a brand up for long-term success. “The notion of the star designer is over, for now at least,” says Frédéric Godart, a sociologist specializing in fashion and luxury and professor of organizational behavior at French business school Insead. “Instead, it’s about putting the brands back at the center of operations, establishing trust and craft as well.”

This speaks to the core challenge facing marketers today. While most brands split marketing teams by region and category to make their messaging as specialized as possible, the resounding directive is to convince customers that the product is worth the price while communicating that a new creative era is underway. What’s the right way to do this? Which customer should be the core target — rising Gen Zs, or older consumers with more cash? Do irony and irreverence, both high in currency on social media, have a place in luxury messaging? Does AI? And in an attention-starved society, how much of it can you actually command?

Luxury marketing’s new playbook

In a period of creative transition, experts suggest brands go back to basics. The role of the marketer is to unite the company — from store associates to e-commerce managers and designers — around a clear identity. “Marketing is not a function anymore. I consider myself an orchestral director,” says Scognamiglio. This involves working across departments, and speaking with customers, to make sure everything is coherent with the long-term vision. “The CMO’s job is to get everyone in the organization to reconnect with what the brand is and what it isn’t. Timeless? Sexy? Minimalist? Loud? Go back to a brand book,” says Harvey. These guardrails help brands navigate the tricky task of sending the relevant message to the right audience, “which is why the CMO is so important”.

To usher in Tron’s era, Scognamiglio revisited the brand’s origins. She sees a lot of similarities between him and house founder Pierre Balmain, in their dedication to precision and craftsmanship. But the importance of a recognizable identity from one creative director to the next cannot be overlooked. “In a meeting, someone used the word ‘minimalist’. How we expressed ourselves was bold, and now everywhere, we see minimalists. That’s not the brand, and it never will be,” Scognamiglio says. “We need to make sure Antonin’s language is interpreted for the values of our brand. The values will stay the same, but the expression is more modern.”

A brand clear identity is more important than ever, says Kerr. “What’s the core value proposition of each brand through each creative director? That has to take center stage in ways it hasn’t in the past, over design and creative vision. Marketing will have to step up its role in really pushing to get the value proposition across.”