Transformation of Space - New Luxury

Podcast by Prof. Sabine Krieg / Graphics by Aurelie Jahns

Introduction

In Chapter III of our last podcast we already talked about „Luxury in Gen Z“ and came to the conclusion that transformation processes in consumption and spaces are mainly driven in luxury. We wanted to give this phenomena an own podcast not only with seeing a luxury market staying strong and focused even during the Covid-19 crisis but furthermore to answer the question: what does the future luxury market and space look like and we discussed it with experts and young professionals besides exploring international publications. As the luxury demographic blurs globally and exclusive services rise should the future luxury market and space be customisable, poly-cultural and sustainable?

Consumption

The transformation of consumption is a continuous process and we know that society will be irrevocably different post Covid-19. We tried to concentrate only onto those changes being relevant to answer our main question which is surely not capturing a holistic approach. Changes always signal new growth areas based solely on category, but rather attitudinal profiling.

Behaviour

In order to understand the luxury market we wanted to understand the luxury consumer first. A new standard of luxury services is emerging and time being the ultimate luxury. Personalisation becomes a mass-market strategy and until recently many luxury brand shied away from ecommerce, viewing the retail platform as off-brand and lacking a luxury shopping experience. We defined two main behaviours driving mainly the transformation.

Sentiments

Consumer sentiments are always a link to consumer profiles which we tried to capture as in our previous podcast. For the luxury market we were able to define four different sentiments, from perception to cautious motivation to name only two.

Profiles

The four sentiments described before will link into our definition of four key profile groups set to disrupt the industry in 2023 and beyond. There is no arguing that the uncertainty will have lasting effects into the next years and the new luxury will be driven by those profiles – will new be renewed?

Chinese Consumer

As in the previous podcast we wanted to explore a short digression and to define luxury we needed to discuss Chinese consumers in particular. Not only being one of the biggest global consumer groups but furthermore transforming the most with expecting brands and retailers to e.g. align with their concerns of living a more sustainable lifestyle and to give a first insight into the analysis.

The Past

Finally we are diving into the definition of luxury to answer our question. We wanted to start in the „Past“ to not only bring back the definition of value from the outstanding book of Arnaud Esquerre and Luc Boltanski: the enrichment, a critique of commodities. But furthermore to understand its origins and development into the „New“.

Today

We discovered a new book from Charles Wolkenstein, named the horn of plenty, showing through 12 chapters and individual interpretations of different sceneries of art and photography after each chapter how to define or measure luxury. With quoting some main and outstanding findings we were able to go beyond the hypothesis that luxury is measured in monetary terms alone. For a large segment of luxury consumers, health and wellness are the most significant displays of stealth wealth and what is premium mediocrity in this context?

Sustainability

There is no competitive advantage in sustainability anymore, it’s going to be commodity and a baseline. The new luxury embodies the concept of closed-loop design, with an energy efficient and zero-waste manufacturing, retail and disposal chain. Luxury has been transformed and we believe that five years ago sustainability was seen as a supply-chain problem, now it’s a design opportunity.

The Essence

We are closing the podcast with presenting four new forms of luxury. New luxury as a term is rebooted and the transformation process is driven by such forms. New luxury conditions are produced through differentiation and diversity: the essence of transformation.