Dr Heather Kappes

This course is available on the CEMS Exchange, Global MSc in Management, Global MSc in Management (CEMS MIM), Global MSc in Management (MBA Exchange), MBA Exchange, MSc in Human Resources and Organisations (Human Resource Management/CIPD), MSc in Human Resources and Organisations (International Employment Relations/CIPD), MSc in Human Resources and Organisations (Organisational Behaviour), MSc in Management (1 Year Programme) and MSc in Marketing. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process. For information on controlled access courses, including eligibility, application processes, deadlines, and departmental contact details, please refer to the Controlled Access Courses webpage.

How to apply:

Places on oversubscribed courses will be allocated via a random ballot process with priority given to students with the course in their Programme Regulations, followed by other Department of Management students, then students from elsewhere in the school. Providing you apply before the Department deadline of 10am on Monday 28 September 2026, the time you applied will not be taken into account. Please be aware that places on high demand courses cannot be guaranteed. By submitting an application, students are confirming that they meet any pre-requisites specified. Providing an additional written statement will not aid a student’s chances of being accepted onto a course, and statements are not read.

For further information and updates on course availability during Week 1, please see the Department of Management Electives Moodle page.

Deadline for application:

Please apply by 10am on Monday 28 September 2026 with your first course choices. No allocations are made before this date and time.

For queries contact:

Please view the Department of Management Electives page for contact emails.

 A prior course in marketing (MG4E8, MG4B3, MG4E2, or equivalent), or permission from the instructor.

The 10-week course is divided into halves, with the first 5 weeks covering luxury marketing and the next 5 covering omnichannel retailing.  

Luxury Marketing. Luxury marketing represents a distinctive domain within marketing theory and practice, one that often inverts the conventional logic governing mass-market goods. Where traditional marketing emphasises accessibility, scalability, and broad market penetration, luxury marketing cultivates scarcity, exclusivity, and controlled distribution as strategic imperatives. This course examines the theoretical foundations and managerial challenges unique to luxury brands, exploring how firms create and sustain brand equity through heritage narratives, craftsmanship signalling, and experiential retail environments. We will analyse the tension between growth imperatives and brand dilution, the complexities of digital engagement for brands built on physical rarity, and the evolving demographics of luxury consumption across global markets. By the end of five weeks students will possess both a conceptual framework for understanding luxury as a category and practical tools for addressing the strategic dilemmas that luxury brand managers routinely face. 

Omnichannel retailing. Omnichannel retailing strategy addresses one of the most consequential transformations in contemporary retail: the imperative to deliver seamless customer experiences across physical stores, digital platforms, mobile interfaces, and emerging touchpoints. Omnichannel strategy demands integration at the levels of inventory management, customer data, pricing consistency, and brand experience. This course examines these complexities through a marketing lens, focusing on how channel integration shapes customer journey orchestration, brand perception across touchpoints, and the strategic deployment of retail formats as brand communication vehicles. We will engage with challenges such as maintaining positioning coherence when customers encounter brands through vastly different contexts, leveraging customer data for personalisation without compromising trust, and designing attribution models that capture the true contribution of each channel to conversion. Cases will span traditional retailers navigating digital transformation, digitally native brands expanding into physical presence, and hybrid models that exploit the complementarities between online and offline commerce. Over five weeks the student will develop the analytical capabilities to evaluate omnichannel initiatives not merely as operational improvements but as strategic marketing decisions with implications for customer acquisition, retention, and lifetime value. 

30 hours of seminars in the Winter Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

In its Ethics Code, LSE upholds a commitment to intellectual freedom. This means we will protect the freedom of expression of our students and staff and the right to engage in healthy debate in the classroom.

Students will undertake the following formative assignments:

• Essay proposal
• Practice Exam Questions

• The Luxury Strategy: Break the Rules of Marketing to Build Luxury Brands by Jean-Noël Kapferer and Vincent Bastien. 
• Fischer, Marshall. The New Science of Retailing: How Analytics are Transforming the Supply Chain and Improving Performance. Illustrated edition, Harvard Business Review Press, 2010. 
• "Luxury Marketing Challenges and Opportunities in the Digital Era" (Special Issue, International Journal of Marketing, Communication and New Media, 2018). 
• “What is Omnichannel Marketing?”, McKinsey (https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-omnichannel-marketing) 
• "What is a luxury brand? A new definition and review of the literature" by Eunah Ko, J. P. Costello, and Charles R. Taylor (Journal of Business Research, 2019). 

Exam (50%), duration: 120 Minutes in the Spring exam period.

Essay (50%).

The essay assignment will include an observed oral assessment. For detailed assessment information, including all deadlines and timings, please see the relevant course Moodle page. Assessment timings will be available at the start of each term.