Latest / The Future of Luxury Podcast with Dr Daniel Langer / The Cost of Waiting Equite Luxury Report 1
Transcript
- 0:03Most brands think they sell luxury.
- 0:05>> [music]
- 0:06>> Very few actually create desire. This is
- 0:08the difference.
- 0:10The future of luxury podcast [music]
- 0:12with Dr. Daniel Langer.
- 0:21Welcome to the future of luxury. I'm
- 0:24Daniel Langer. Today I'm recording this
- 0:26podcast from Palma de Mallorca and I
- 0:29just had the opportunity to present our
- 0:32luxury report 2026 to 2030 uh during a
- 0:36luxury session today to a global luxury
- 0:39brand. The report, we called it the cost
- 0:43of waiting and the reception has been
- 0:45unprecedented. So, this is why I wanted
- 0:48to dedicate this episode and also a few
- 0:51a couple of future episodes to the
- 0:53podcast give you a deep analysis.
- 0:56Since the publication, I've given
- 0:58various media interviews on the finding
- 1:01and I have presented the report in
- 1:03strategy sessions like today with brands
- 1:05all over the world. The feedback has
- 1:08been remarkably consistent. Leaders of
- 1:11luxury brands tell me that this report
- 1:13is relevant to them well beyond
- 1:16information. It is really shaping in the
- 1:18meantime business decisions, investment
- 1:20priorities, market strategies, and how
- 1:23brands preferred prepare for the next 5
- 1:25years. So, we'll take some time today to
- 1:28look into the details and to really
- 1:30dissect what we need to know about the
- 1:33findings.
- 1:35And
- 1:36you know, what we see here is that the
- 1:39industry is sensing that this moment is
- 1:41different. And therefore, it deserves
- 1:45more than just a headline summary.
- 1:47So, I will take you
- 1:49not only through the details of the
- 1:51report, but I want to give you also a
- 1:53bit of context beyond that.
- 1:55Why we see what we see. I will show you
- 1:58what it means for your decisions and
- 2:01today we start with the foundation.
- 2:04Um, what carried the industry for the
- 2:08last 20 years and also why I believe
- 2:11that a lot of those conditions that we
- 2:13have experienced and experienced will
- 2:15not repeat.
- 2:17Our cost forecast also has clear
- 2:20assumptions through 2030 that I'm going
- 2:22to explain and I will also show you what
- 2:25separates the brands that will grow from
- 2:28those that will quietly, in some cases
- 2:31and other cases quite abruptly, lose
- 2:33relevance.
- 2:35To understand where the industry is
- 2:37heading, you have to understand what
- 2:40carried it until here. So, let me take
- 2:43you a little bit back in time and we
- 2:46will analyze the growth trajectory over
- 2:48the last 20 years or so.
- 2:51For two decades, roughly two decades,
- 2:53the personal luxury goods market grew
- 2:56almost constantly. Few exceptions, most
- 2:59notably the financial crisis, you
- 3:00probably all remember 2008-2009,
- 3:03and even then the market proved
- 3:06remarkably resilient with a quite fast
- 3:09recovery.
- 3:10Um, and also getting not only back on
- 3:12track but continuing um, the growth path
- 3:15that it has. The growth rate over the
- 3:17period
- 3:19um, in these kind of 20-25 years was
- 3:21roughly 6% in a compound annual growth
- 3:24rate. 6% is roughly twice the growth of
- 3:28the global GDP.
- 3:30And because the growth went on for so
- 3:32long and survived a global financial
- 3:35crisis and many other setbacks,
- 3:38you know, many industry analysts that I
- 3:40speak with come kind of to the
- 3:41conclusion that these kind of 6% can be
- 3:44seen as a growth benchmark, as a quasi
- 3:47intrinsic growth rate.
- 3:49And this is, you know, as if luxury was
- 3:51simply grew, growing 6% year on year
- 3:54just because luxury is luxury.
- 3:56And our analysis says something very
- 3:58different. The growth was never
- 4:01intrinsic.
- 4:02It was driven by specific factors. And
- 4:05when I decompose those 20 years, I see
- 4:07two distinct phases.
- 4:09Let's start with phase one. The 2000s
- 4:12into roughly the 2010.
- 4:14This was an expansion story and one that
- 4:17ran on several drivers at the same time.
- 4:20The most visible was distribution.
- 4:22Luxury brands expanded their footprint
- 4:24massively. New boutiques, new markets,
- 4:26new airport locations, new department
- 4:28store corners. Think about how the map
- 4:31changed in those years. Cities that had
- 4:34once one luxury address suddenly had
- 4:36entire luxury districts. But underneath
- 4:39the distribution sat something even more
- 4:42powerful. Capital.
- 4:44This was the great era of consolidation.
- 4:48Independent family maisons were acquired
- 4:50and integrated into the large luxury
- 4:53groups wave after wave of M&A activity.
- 4:58For example, I recently had lunch with
- 5:00Anna Fendi and she told me about the
- 5:03first years of Fendi and that it took
- 5:08them almost about 60 years to or 50 or
- 5:1160 years to move from one store that
- 5:14they operated into the, you know, more
- 5:17than 300 stores that they had today. So,
- 5:20it was a very slow growth in the
- 5:22beginning and then around that time that
- 5:25we are describing, a massive, um, not
- 5:28only expansion, but also massive
- 5:30activation around the brands. And Fendi
- 5:32is not the only example, there are many
- 5:34mores.
- 5:35And with that integration came something
- 5:38the industry had never had at this
- 5:40scale. Professional management, shared
- 5:42infrastructure, and above all, capital.
- 5:45Brands that had operated as artisanal
- 5:47houses for centuries suddenly had the
- 5:50balance sheets of a global corporation
- 5:53behind them.
- 5:54And that capital really went to work.
- 5:57Investment in brand building exploded.
- 5:58Advertising reached levels the industry
- 6:01had never seen before.
- 6:03The mega campaigns, celebrity
- 6:05ambassadors, monumental flagships that
- 6:07functions as brand statements more than
- 6:10retail spaces. These are all examples of
- 6:13how the capital was spent. And at the
- 6:15same time, portfolios expanded across
- 6:17categories.
- 6:19For example, fashion houses
- 6:21um often moved into accessories.
- 6:23Accessory houses moved into beauty.
- 6:25Watchmakers moved into jewelry. Every
- 6:27brand wanted more entry points, more
- 6:30connections to the customers, more
- 6:33occasions to capture the client. So,
- 6:36put it together. More capital, more
- 6:38brands under professional management,
- 6:40more advertising, more categories, more
- 6:42doors. More offer, more demand, and the
- 6:46industry grew.
- 6:48This was the first phase. And then came
- 6:50phase number two, 2010s to 2020. And
- 6:54this was really a wealth creation story.
- 6:57At its center, China. What happened in
- 6:59China in those years was the biggest
- 7:01wealth creation in the history of
- 7:03humanity. Hundreds of millions of people
- 7:06rising into the middle class. A
- 7:09generation discovering luxury for the
- 7:12first time and treating the logo as a
- 7:15marker of arrival. Brands responded by
- 7:18going deep. Distribution expanded from
- 7:21Beijing and Shanghai into second tier
- 7:23cities, then into third tier cities.
- 7:27And every new mall needed luxury
- 7:29anchors. And the brands delivered.
- 7:33>> I'm Dr. Daniel Langer. I advise [music]
- 7:36some of the most iconic luxury brands in
- 7:38the world. And I'm also the executive
- 7:40professor of luxury strategy [music] at
- 7:42Pepperdine University and I teach luxury
- 7:45at NYU.
- 7:46The luxury industry is changing faster
- 7:49than ever before.
- 7:50>> [music]
- 7:50>> Dramatically shifting consumer
- 7:51expectations, the rise of Gen Z and AI
- 7:54are redefining what luxury means [music]
- 7:57today.
- 7:58And this means companies must operate in
- 8:01a radically different way.
- 8:03>> [music]
- 8:03>> This moment demands action.
- 8:06And this is why we created Equite
- 8:08Intelligence.
- 8:09>> [music]
- 8:09>> It redefines luxury training for top
- 8:11management, marketing, sales teams, and
- 8:14client-centric roles. It's an innovative
- 8:16digital learning solution that equips
- 8:18[music] your teams with the strategic
- 8:20capabilities needed for the next era of
- 8:23[music] luxury.
- 8:25Our platform delivers real-world
- 8:27insights and tools
- 8:28>> [music]
- 8:28>> your teams can apply immediately.
- 8:31The world's leading brands trust us to
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- 8:35transformation. And this is your moment
- 8:38to [music] future-proof your
- 8:40organization.
- 8:43But, you know, China was never the whole
- 8:45story. Look at the Middle East, it
- 8:47transformed the quality of its retail in
- 8:50the same period. Southeast Asia did the
- 8:53same. And the United States created
- 8:56enormous wealth, especially at the very
- 8:58top, as markets rebounded powerfully
- 9:01after the financial crisis.
- 9:04So,
- 9:05to understand those 6% compound annual
- 9:08growth rates
- 9:10that we saw, we have to picture those
- 9:12forces working together. On one side,
- 9:16brands expanding offers, distribution,
- 9:18and brand investments
- 9:20funded by unprecedented capital influx.
- 9:23On the other side, historic wealth
- 9:25creation across multiple regions at
- 9:28once. Both running simultaneously for
- 9:31years.
- 9:32This is how an industry doubles the pace
- 9:34of global GDP for two decades.
- 9:37And this is why
- 9:39I also believe that the 6% CAGR that we
- 9:43saw is not really like a law of nature,
- 9:46something that brands can bank in all
- 9:49the time. It was the product of specific
- 9:52conditions.
- 9:54Now, the critical question.
- 9:55Do those conditions repeat?
- 9:58Let's look at them one by one.
- 10:00Distribution is now a near ubiquitous
- 10:02for many brands. In fact, actually a lot
- 10:04of brands are starting to consolidate
- 10:06and actually reduce doors again. The
- 10:09white spaces around the world are almost
- 10:11gone. And in many cities, there are more
- 10:13luxury boutiques standing than the
- 10:15demand beneath them justifies. I already
- 10:18spoke about um a lot of doors already
- 10:22starting to close. The consolidation
- 10:24play here is largely complete. And then
- 10:27let's have a look at China.
- 10:29And let me be precise here, because this
- 10:31is often misunderstood and I get I'm
- 10:33getting so many questions, you know, by
- 10:35companies, but also by the media on
- 10:37China. And I want to be very clear.
- 10:39China will remain a growth country for
- 10:42luxury.
- 10:43But China is different today than it
- 10:45was. It has matured from an emerging
- 10:47market discovering luxury into one of
- 10:49the most sophisticated, most competitive
- 10:52markets in the world.
- 10:54Our analysis suggests that the growth
- 10:56rate there moves into the single digits
- 10:59as a long-term average.
- 11:01Instead of the double digits the
- 11:03industry built its plans on.
- 11:06Maturation doesn't mean decline, but it
- 11:08changes everything about the pace.
- 11:10The market is moving into a new phase.
- 11:14A phase, as I said, of maturization.
- 11:17And on top, the maturization comes as a
- 11:20shift that is easy to underestimate and
- 11:22that our report examines in depth.
- 11:26And this is the next generation of
- 11:28luxury clients.
- 11:29We are
- 11:31at the beginning of the biggest wealth
- 11:33transfer in human history moving towards
- 11:35Gen Z and the generations behind them.
- 11:38And our research shows that Gen Z buys
- 11:41luxury differently.
- 11:43They they apply
- 11:46a far harder scrutiny to luxury brands
- 11:48than any generation before them.
- 11:51Their expectations
- 11:53are the highest ever and their tolerance
- 11:57for inauthenticity
- 11:59is practically the non-existent.
- 12:01They inform themselves through channels
- 12:04the brands do not control and frankly
- 12:07often do not really understand. And they
- 12:09respond to peer and creator signals more
- 12:13than to traditional brand authority.
- 12:16And here I recommend the future of
- 12:18luxury podcast episode that I recorded a
- 12:21while ago in Shanghai um
- 12:24with Daniel Mike Mype and um Thomas
- 12:26Dirkson where we look for example in
- 12:28depths into the um KOL culture in China
- 12:33um and where we dissect really you know
- 12:35how um the the entire digital
- 12:38infrastructure is completely reshaping
- 12:41luxury in terms of um not only demand
- 12:45but in terms of influence.
- 12:47So now combine
- 12:49that what we just discussed with what
- 12:51happened to pricing. Prices rose
- 12:54massively in recent years and many case
- 12:57in many cases those price increases have
- 13:00not been backed by value creation and
- 13:02customers of course understood this.
- 13:04Largely unchanged products
- 13:06no commensurate improvement quality
- 13:09in creativity or in client experience.
- 13:12Put those developments together prices
- 13:14that outran value meeting a generation
- 13:17of clients who scrutinize harder than
- 13:19ever and now you understand why the
- 13:21times of near automatic growth are over.
- 13:25And clients responded
- 13:27Because clients always respond. In 2024
- 13:30and 2025, the market was already
- 13:33negative. And what is remarkable is that
- 13:36this happened in an environment where we
- 13:38didn't have any major
- 13:41um any major crisis.
- 13:43So, 2024 and 2025 theoretically should
- 13:46never have been negative, but they were,
- 13:48and this is the shift in customer
- 13:50expectation. Two consecutive years of
- 13:52decline as clients held back on luxury
- 13:55purchases
- 13:56and redirected their spendings in
- 13:58meaningful part towards brands that are
- 14:01not only more accessible in absolute
- 14:02price,
- 14:04but also in their point of view often
- 14:06provided a better value perception.
- 14:09So, it is all about value. And we
- 14:12sometimes have to simply remind
- 14:13ourselves. Ladies and gentlemen, life is
- 14:15sometimes easy. You provide the right
- 14:17value, customers buy. You don't,
- 14:19customers run away.
- 14:21Our estimates now indicate something
- 14:23remarkable.
- 14:25Elevated mid-market has overtaken luxury
- 14:28as fashion's main economic profit
- 14:30creator for the first time on record.
- 14:33Let that sink in for a moment. Clients
- 14:36did not leave the market. They left
- 14:38brands whose value equation stopped
- 14:40convincing them. And this is the
- 14:41critical bridge to our numbers. From
- 14:44here on, growth no longer arrives with
- 14:46the tide.
- 14:47Growth depends on the actual competitive
- 14:50performance of each individual brand
- 14:52and on its ability to create desire.
- 14:55That is the new phase. And once you see
- 14:57it, our forecast makes sense.
- 15:00A word on how we build it.
- 15:03We did significant bottom-up modeling
- 15:05across regions and categories validated
- 15:07top-down against historical contraction
- 15:09cycles informed by primary research
- 15:11across more than 30 luxury houses and
- 15:13two decades of proprietary frameworks.
- 15:16Our forecast suggests personal luxury
- 15:18goods contract 2 to 4% in 2026.
- 15:22For 2027,
- 15:24our analysis points to a roughly flat
- 15:26year in a range of minus two to plus 1%
- 15:29and then from 2028,
- 15:31we believe we will see a gradual
- 15:33recovery 1 to 3% building
- 15:37up to 3 to 4% a year. On this path, the
- 15:40market approaches its peak and remember
- 15:43the peak was 2023, its peak of 369
- 15:46billion euros around roughly 2030.
- 15:50Within that forecast,
- 15:52one number actually matters more than
- 15:54the others, a flat 2027. Because you
- 15:57know, when you look at 2026 and our
- 15:58forecast here, the natural expectation
- 16:00would be different. If the geopolitical
- 16:02situation stabilizes, you know, the
- 16:05assumption could be that 2027 should
- 16:08just bounce, but our analysis suggests
- 16:10it won't because the indicators point to
- 16:14a geopolitical shock just being
- 16:16catalyst. It's not the cause of the
- 16:19struggles within the industry. The cause
- 16:22is what you be just walked through, a
- 16:24maturing market meeting a more demanding
- 16:26client and a value equation that many
- 16:29brands still have to rebuild. That
- 16:31rebuilding takes longer than two
- 16:33quarters.
- 16:36If 2027 comes in roughly flat without
- 16:40acute external pressure,
- 16:42that would be the clearest evidence that
- 16:44the shift is structural.
- 16:47So now let me take you
- 16:49one level deeper because the global
- 16:50number conceals where the pressure
- 16:52actually sits. The regional pictures
- 16:54matters enormously because geographic
- 16:56exposure now determines which brands
- 16:59will feel it most. Europe in our point
- 17:02of view carries the steepest developed
- 17:04market decline in our forecast.
- 17:07The exposure here is structural.
- 17:09Roughly half of European luxury revenue
- 17:11comes from inbound tourists and this
- 17:14year every major source of them um is
- 17:18impaired at once.
- 17:20For example, Gulf tourism, Chinese
- 17:22travelers that are redirecting, American
- 17:25travel is expecting to soft it
- 17:28because of a strong euro. And also
- 17:30domestic European demand is in part
- 17:32absorbed by the energy effects directly.
- 17:36The Middle East shows the deepest
- 17:38regional decline of all.
- 17:40Our estimate says something between 15
- 17:42and 20%. And I need to be transparent
- 17:45with you about how this region has
- 17:47evolved against our modeling.
- 17:50The region was on track to be the
- 17:52strongest growing industry region of
- 17:542026 before the conflict in Iran
- 17:56reversed it. When we built the forecast,
- 17:59our base case assumed a resolution by
- 18:01the end of June, but as you all know,
- 18:04that resolution has not held. With a
- 18:06ceasefire framework effectively
- 18:08collapsing, the disruption in the region
- 18:11will likely last considerably longer
- 18:14than our base case has assumed. And even
- 18:17when a resolution comes, the second and
- 18:20the third order effects on real estate,
- 18:23unemployment, on the confidence of
- 18:25residents and visitors may propagate
- 18:28well beyond it.
- 18:30In our modeling,
- 18:31a scenario like this moves the regional
- 18:34numbers towards the downside and can
- 18:36push the recovery out by 12 to 18
- 18:39months.
- 18:40What our analysis continues to suggest
- 18:43is that the region's structural drivers,
- 18:46wealth growth, infrastructure
- 18:48investment, cultural development, they
- 18:51all survive intact.
- 18:53Delayed and not destroyed.
- 18:56The high-value Gulf client did not
- 18:59change preferences. That client paused.
- 19:02And the brands that hold their
- 19:03commitment through this period will
- 19:05rejoin the recovery from a stronger
- 19:07position than those that retreat. I've
- 19:10analyzed
- 19:12hundreds of crisis
- 19:14and the rebound of crisis. And I've
- 19:17always seen that after a crisis, there's
- 19:21always a reshuffling. There's some
- 19:23brands that emerge much stronger than
- 19:25others, and these are the brands that
- 19:26keep a very close contact with the
- 19:28clients, that inspire the clients, that
- 19:30continue to invest.
- 19:31>> I'm Dr. Daniel Langer, and after [music]
- 19:34advising many of the world's most iconic
- 19:36luxury brands and teaching both at
- 19:39Pepperdine and NYU, I've seen how
- 19:41quickly the luxury industry [music] is
- 19:43evolving. And the reality is, most
- 19:46universities simply [music] can't keep
- 19:48up.
- 19:49Today's students want more than theory.
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- 19:52>> You want industry-relevant skills and
- 19:54real frameworks.
- 19:56You want a clear path into [music]
- 19:58fast-growing fields like luxury fashion,
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- 20:48>> So, that's the Middle East. The United
- 20:49States
- 20:51is, in our assessment, the most
- 20:52structurally favorable major market
- 20:54through 2030, and the single most
- 20:57important source of the industry's
- 21:00recovery.
- 21:01The reason here is the strong wealth
- 21:03concentration. It's the deepest in the
- 21:05world. The country holds roughly a third
- 21:07of global personal wealth, and the top
- 21:09tier has compounded as at over 8% in
- 21:12real terms in the last two decades. The
- 21:15US contracts only 2 to 3% in 2026 and
- 21:20leads the return from 2028.
- 21:22But the same concentration that makes
- 21:25America the strongest market makes it
- 21:27also the most unforgiving one. The
- 21:29American consumer is direct and
- 21:31decisive, quick to reward value and
- 21:33quick to abandon a brand whose price has
- 21:36outrun its delivery.
- 21:38The US is where strong fundamentals
- 21:41compound fastest and where weak
- 21:43fundamentals unravel fastest.
- 21:46Mainland China in our forecast for 2026
- 21:50is approximately flat in a range of
- 21:52minus two to plus two percent, and this
- 21:55may be the most misread number in the
- 21:57entire industry. So, let me say
- 21:59precisely what it means. The total
- 22:01Chinese category holds roughly stable as
- 22:03travel disruption brings some spending
- 22:05home that had flowed abroad. The Chinese
- 22:08luxury market itself is not collapsing.
- 22:10What is changing is who captured who
- 22:13captures the spending within it.
- 22:16Our analysis indicates that Western
- 22:18brand revenue in China declines
- 22:20um while Chinese luxury brands move from
- 22:24peripheral in many categories to central
- 22:28in some categories and continue overall
- 22:31to take market share. So, we see within
- 22:34China a structure to shift from
- 22:36international global brands more and
- 22:38more towards Chinese brands. And that
- 22:41basically conceals
- 22:43um the structure
- 22:44um behind it. For brands, it means the
- 22:46right metric is not longer just mainland
- 22:49revenue, it is your share of the Chinese
- 22:51consumer's
- 22:53wallet measured globally wherever the
- 22:55purchase happens.
- 22:57And Japan, after a spectacular
- 23:00tourist-driven boom, normalizes as the
- 23:02yen strengthens, contracting 3 to 5%
- 23:06Here the deeper signal is the recent
- 23:08Japanese boom was largely largely a
- 23:11currency effect, and I've been writing a
- 23:13lot about this over the last 2 years.
- 23:15Brands that build expansion plans on
- 23:17those peak numbers face capacity
- 23:21um in a normal
- 23:22normalized market um that a normalized
- 23:26market may not support. One more thing
- 23:29about the recovery. And this may be the
- 23:31most important strategic point in the
- 23:32entire forecast. The recovery, when it
- 23:35comes, will be concentrated.
- 23:37Our analysis suggests that it will be
- 23:39led by the brands that build strong
- 23:42fundamentals.
- 23:44While brands that did not will continue
- 23:47losing share even as the aggregate
- 23:49recovers.
- 23:51Think about what that means. The
- 23:53industry number can rise while your
- 23:56position falls. A recovering market is
- 23:59not a recovering brand.
- 24:02Which brings us to the deepest pattern
- 24:04in the report.
- 24:05Where the wealth is actually flowing.
- 24:07Because the wealth keeps compounding and
- 24:10the biggest wealth transfer in history
- 24:12is accelerating.
- 24:13What changes is the direction.
- 24:16Client expectations are shifting and
- 24:18with them the categories. Our forecast
- 24:21shows wellness and longevity growing 8
- 24:23to 12% this year, the only major major
- 24:26category with double-digit structural
- 24:28growth sustaining 10 to 15% through
- 24:312030. Wealthy clients are directing
- 24:34serious capital toward longevity
- 24:35clinics, advanced diagnostics, and
- 24:38health itself. Because the only thing
- 24:41they cannot buy more of is time.
- 24:44So this also
- 24:46is kind of leading to a logical
- 24:48extensions that experiences and travel
- 24:51are growing. In short, clients are
- 24:53investing more and more in themselves.
- 24:57And when they do
- 24:58buy hard luxury, the purchase is
- 25:00increasingly made with last lasting
- 25:02value in mind.
- 25:04That is why jewelry stands out in all
- 25:06forecasts as the most resilient category
- 25:09in personal luxury goods and the
- 25:10strongest performer to through 2030, 4
- 25:13to 7% a year, because it sits at the
- 25:16intersection of emotional meaning and
- 25:18enduring value. And of course, as in all
- 25:20categories, not all brands are going to
- 25:22grow. Some grow Some Some brands are
- 25:25going to outgrow others.
- 25:27So,
- 25:29if we basically look at all of this
- 25:31together,
- 25:32um
- 25:33the categories that will profit are
- 25:35investment categories. Investment goods
- 25:38that do retain value, but also
- 25:40investments in oneself.
- 25:43Wealth is flowing towards experiences,
- 25:46towards well-being, and towards objects
- 25:49that endure.
- 25:50So, let me draw the conclusion
- 25:52because everything in this episodes
- 25:54points to one place.
- 25:57The market is in the middle of a
- 25:59structural shift. Some brands
- 26:01anticipated the shift and prepared
- 26:03early.
- 26:04They sharpened their value equation.
- 26:06They elevated their experiences, and
- 26:09they built desirability with discipline,
- 26:11and they're growing significantly right
- 26:14now.
- 26:15Even through contraction.
- 26:18Many brands across categories, however,
- 26:21are doing more
- 26:22of the same.
- 26:24And in a fundamentally different market
- 26:26setting, more of the same will not close
- 26:28the gap between what clients expect and
- 26:31what they perceive they receive.
- 26:33The geopolitical shock is a catalyst.
- 26:37The structural challenges, as we
- 26:39discussed, are the cause, and they need
- 26:41to be addressed. Only the brands that
- 26:44address them will be growing in the
- 26:46future.
- 26:47And that's exactly why I called the
- 26:50report The Cost of waiting.
- 26:53Waiting for better market conditions
- 26:55means the necessary actions have not
- 26:57been taken. And the gap between the
- 27:00brands that act and the brands that
- 27:03hesitate widens every single quarter.
- 27:07So, what does the work look like? Our
- 27:10report is direct about this, and I will
- 27:12close with it.
- 27:13For brands carrying fundamentals
- 27:16deficits, there is no tactical escape.
- 27:19Spending more on marketing simply
- 27:20amplifies a broken proposition. It does
- 27:23not fix it. Rotating creative directors,
- 27:26for example, without getting the brand
- 27:28story straight, often actually
- 27:30accelerates the erosion.
- 27:32The only durable path is the
- 27:34foundational work across three fronts.
- 27:37First, clarify the point of view your
- 27:41brand can authentically own. The
- 27:43differentiated story
- 27:45no competitor can claim,
- 27:47and it has to be able to be defended
- 27:50operationally and not just declared.
- 27:53And you can see this requires
- 27:55significant work.
- 27:57Second, you have to build the systems
- 27:59that deliver a consistent and
- 28:01distinctive client experience, so that
- 28:03clients really feel valued through your
- 28:06system and never through the lack of
- 28:08meaning
- 28:09um of sorry, the lack of meeting the
- 28:11right person in the right day.
- 28:14And you know, I just also come back from
- 28:16a series of
- 28:18um a experience evaluations in several
- 28:20countries, and I can tell you that
- 28:23almost every time we evaluate client
- 28:25experiences in the luxury space, we see
- 28:27significant upside potential.
- 28:29Significant upside potential absolute
- 28:31terms, but also simply in creating
- 28:33distinct experience markers that brands
- 28:37can own.
- 28:38And third, you have to commit to
- 28:41delivering perceived value that exceeds
- 28:43the price before you can raise prices.
- 28:46Because creating value that merely meets
- 28:49expectations is
- 28:51survival. Creating value that
- 28:53significantly exceeds expectation, this
- 28:56is what earns you the premium.
- 28:58If you cannot make a client dream,
- 29:01you will not make them pay.
- 29:04That work will take years. And this is
- 29:07exactly why beginning now is existential
- 29:09rather than optional. The brands that
- 29:12start now will grow through the
- 29:14recovery. The brands that will wait will
- 29:16discover that each year of delay widens
- 29:19the gap with the brands that acted.
- 29:23And in the next episodes that I will
- 29:26record, um I will do a uh closer look
- 29:29into different categories. Um we'll dive
- 29:32even deeper into the report. Um and I'm
- 29:35pretty sure you're going to find the
- 29:37insights incredibly helpful. We will
- 29:39link the report in the show notes, so
- 29:41you will find them there. And um you
- 29:43know, my ask is if you find this report
- 29:46and also the podcast useful, please
- 29:47subscribe, share, and also explore our
- 29:51Substack. One Substack is Daniel Langer,
- 29:54my own Substack, and then we have a
- 29:56Substack Akitainu Intelligence. Um you
- 29:58will find them in the show notes. And in
- 30:00both Substack, we will explore luxury in
- 30:04a kind of much deeper fashion with
- 30:05additional analysis, um and giving you
- 30:09much more inf- information and insights
- 30:12to navigate the change, the massive
- 30:14change that you see in the market, um
- 30:16in a much more profitable and
- 30:18sustainable fashion. So, thank you for
- 30:20listening, and remember, in times like
- 30:22these, complacency was never a strategy.
- 30:26I will see you on the next episode of
- 30:29The Future of Luxury Podcast.
- 30:31>> [music]
- 30:32>> If this changed how you think, share it
- 30:35with someone who needs to hear it.
- 30:36[music]
- 30:37Bookmark this show, new episodes
- 30:39regularly, The Future of Luxury [music]
- 30:41with Dr. Daniel Langer.
- 30:47>> Relax.
- 30:48Pretty easy.