As we move into the 2020s, we can expect the luxury industry to hit a period of introspection, with brands and services taking stock of their position, ambitions and purpose. This assessment is not accidental, however. It comes at a time when unstable global wealth and the reverberation of socio-economic shifts are affecting the behaviour, monetary worth and expectations of high-net-worth consumers.
Our 2019 macrotrend Liberation Luxury explores luxury’s emerging new mindset – and how brands must respond. Published in September, the trend examines how luxury lifestyles will evolve to focus on the values of flexibility, discovery and curiosity, with luxurians becoming ever-more footloose, increasingly unpretentious yet expectant of hyper-personalisation. As luxury marketing expert Pam Danzinger notes, the luxury sector will soon be ‘less about the brands themselves and more about enabling people to become more of who they really are’.
Demonstrating Liberation Luxury in practice, the early 2020s will see luxury brands also liberate themselves from norms and traditions to seamlessly integrate into the itinerant lives of these consumers, playing out through microtrends such as Anti-aspiration Advertising, Transient Third Spaces and Privacy Platforms.