This morning was very interesting in my opinion. We took the metro to the Duomo and walked to a huge department store called Excelsior Milano. It was newly renovated in 2011 so everything was very updated and modern. They sell all kinds of different products with varying price ranges. The first floor was housing items and different kinds of miscellaneous items. They had two floors dedicated to men and women’s clothing with designer brands like Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and many others. Although everyone wanted to buy something, most of the items were way out of our price range. They also had two more floors for shoes and accessories. My favorite floor was the shoe floor. It had a ton of Louis Vuitton red bottom shoes and I loved every single pair! I had never seen Louis Vuitton shoes before in person so that was super cool. The store also had a restaurant and grocery store on the bottom two floors. I enjoyed the visit a lot!

After we were finished with out tour of the department store, we headed to a nice lunch at a four star hotel in Milan. We had risotto, fried veil, and potatoes. Then, most of us headed back to the hotel to catch up on some sleep before our guest lecture at 4:30.

The guest lecture was a woman who works for the Italian shoe company Velasca. They make handcrafted and authentic oxford shoes for men. This lecture was interesting because instead of focusing 100% on supply chain, she talked a lot about marketing. She discussed their target market which is men between the ages of 25 and 55 and what they wanted their brand image to be. The brand is higher end but since it doesn’t use a middle man in their supply chain, the price is more reasonable for consumers. In their ads, they use a story line in order to engage the consumer. They want their consumers to see the guy in the ad, Federico, as an family guy who is educated and unique to his culture by wearing the shoes. I thought it was interesting to listen to their thought process when making these critical decisions in their marketing mix. I enjoyed her presentation a lot. Tomorrow, we are going to the Fashion Library of Milan, so I think tomorrow will be just as interesting as today.