Over the past three months, I had the opportunity to work as an intern at Christian Dior, specifically as a product manager for their luxury perfume line: La Collection Privée. My daily tasks varied greatly, from sending packages to retailers, competitive analyses, working on marketing plans for product launches, counter activities and even packaging over 1700 packages for Mother’s Day. I enjoyed working alongside one supervisor as there was much attention given and therefore mistakes were easily corrected. I learned so much in little time and would be eager to find out what was next. Each day brought me new insights and experiences, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that everyone at the company was very kind and open, despite my initial fear about working in a luxury company where people might be pretentious. The luxury world has its stereotypes and it is important to make your own opinion before following them. Nevertheless, it was empowering to work in an almost all-female environment, and I learned a lot from hearing about the journeys and accomplishments of my colleagues. This has definitely inspired future projects and study plans of mine. I valued the time spent with all different types of colleagues such as interns in different universities in completely various bachelors and our managers and directors. It is a privilege to learn from those who have succeeded in the luxury field.
The purpose of my internship was to explore the luxury market and determine whether I wanted to pursue a career in this field. The domain has tempted me for a very long time and I had no way to determine how I would appreciate it, until now. I can confidently say that I am interested in luxury marketing in fashion specifically. Although I worked in the perfume and cosmetics department, I was fortunate enough to work on a project that involved collaborating with the fashion department at Dior. The project concerned the promoting and advertising of La Collection Privée at the Bijenkorf in Amsterdam. I designed call to action cards and worked on the overall presentation of this project. It was amazing to go through the whole process of speaking with editors to obtain the perfect card as well as receiving the products of the line like perfume, soap, creme and sending them off to the boutique. Then, when I would pass in front of the Dior at Dam Square, I could only think of the project that we had there. Overall, this internship was an amazing opportunity that opened doors for me in the future and provided me with valuable experience and insight.