When we signed off our last Luxury & Hospitality Futures report, organisations across the sector were in the throes of responding to Covid-19’s impact by dipping their toes into live-stream retail, at-home luxury experiences, and longer-term tourism. Meanwhile, luxurians retreated into safety and comfort, expecting brands to meet their needs anytime, anywhere.

A year on, as our 2022 forecast report indicates, the sector is demonstrating impressive elasticity not only in weathering the global pandemic but also in its response to wider social and cultural happenings; with brands and organisations addressing everything from their histories and internal workings to inclusive marketing and environmental concerns.

Willingness to engage in such matters is helping to nurture green shoots of recovery across the luxury and hospitality sectors. “It’s clear that consumers still want to buy luxury goods, and this, along with brands’ ability to adapt and innovate, is driving a return to growth in the market,” Claudia D’Arpizio, a Bain & Co partner tells us. According to the company, the personal luxury goods market is already building towards pandemic recovery: by the end of 2022 or early 2023, it is forecast to return to 2019 levels, with a value of £240bn ($328bn, €281bn).

Building on luxurians’ ever-more Omnilux Lifestyles, people are increasingly cherry-picking their luxury experiences, from the novel and fun to slower, more meaningful engagement with brands and luxury travel, as the consequences of accelerating technologies, the climate emergency, and the aftermath of COP26 kicks in.

“Our industry is still going through a massive learning curve,” Robert Triefus, Executive Vice-President of brand and customer engagement at Gucci, tells The Future Laboratory. “If you want to be successful, you’ve got to build emotion into everything you do – there is an expectation now that the most important brands in the world are being responsible, sustainable, [with] deep engagement with their community.”

And he’s right of course, but what does this mean in terms of the new trends we are beginning to see emerging for 2022 and beyond? Let’s take a look at some of the more relevant trends our analysts across key markets such as retail, hospitality and luxury have been mapping and assessing.

Luxtainment

To reach consumers experiencing different stages of lockdowns, luxury brands are exploring alternative content marketing opportunities that combine entertainment with expertise and acquisition.

One route has been via tv. In China, shows such as Crazy Wardrobe and 720 Trend Manager – where participants compete to set up and run their own fashion showroom – regularly feature luxury brands and promotional opportunities for products, says Zoe Suen, a writer for The Business of Fashion. “China’s tv and streaming medium will have an even greater role to play in the soft marketing mix for fashion and beauty players in the years ahead,” she explains.

Meanwhile, Tmall’s Soho Live platform is a daily streaming service that features key opinion leaders (KOLs) and stylists talking about luxury brands, while sister content marketing tool Soho Mag offers trend insights and shoppable editorial features.

Music, too, is becoming a conduit for Luxtainment. Gucci, for example, recently joined forces with British editor-in-chief Katie Grand on issue zero of Perfect, a new publication centred on music. Each issue is accompanied by a vinyl record featuring performances from 11 global talents – the first of which were co-selected by Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele.

We’re in a world where, especially without fashion shows, [luxury marketing] can go anywhere. It can be a film or it can be a box or it can be a fanzine.

Katie Grand, Creator, Perfect

Whisper Networks

To uphold an aura of exclusivity in the era of luxury omnipresence, some luxury brands are focusing on invitation-only experiences for micro-communities.

Digital members’ clubs, for example, are catering for those looking to connect with their peers in a more intimate way. HYPR is an app-based members’ service for Millennials interested in luxury cars, streetwear, music and art. Both a product and service, it gives members access to luxury vehicles alongside new cultural experiences; for example, they can summon Lamborghinis and Mercedes-Benz G-class vehicles to tour around London. Members can also connect with each other at cultural or brand-led experiences.

Similarly, Rolls-Royce’s Whispers app provides clients with secure, private connections to other like-minded people and business leaders – including the company’s board members – alongside curated experiences such as design, photography and abstract painting courses and virtual performances by renowned theatre groups.

The desire for more discreet, intimate connections, particularly among high-net-worth individuals, is also translating into offline moments where only a handful are granted access. Boucheron’s revived Hôtel de Nocé now features a large one-bedroom apartment with Eiffel Tower views, where only VICs – or Very Important Clients – of the brand are invited to stay overnight. Similarly, Champagne house Moët & Chandon’s Château de Saran in France is a meticulously restored 18th-century masterpiece that operates as an invitation-only hotel.

77% of luxury consumers prefer to buy a product or service simply for the experience of being part of the community built around it.

Source: Global Web Index

Anti-ostentation Attitudes

After a year in which the pandemic has amplified global inequalities and conscious consumption and altered luxurians’ behaviour, more considerate approaches to luxury marketing are emerging online. A driver of this has been tone-deaf luxury and influencer marketing during the pandemic. Bottega Veneta, for example, drew criticism for flying celebrities to its Salon 02 party at notorious German nightclub Berghain during a local lockdown.

In China, ostentation is being monitored by the country’s social media operators. In early 2021, ByteDance, owner of Douyin – China’s answer to TikTok – banned almost 4,000 users for intentionally showing off their wealth. Jing Daily described the ban as an attempt by Douyin to clean up content that “endangers the physical and mental wellbeing of youth”, such as posts flaunting social status, featuring young children with luxury goods or promoting money worship.

This is driving brands and marketers to seek new role models and ambassadors – described as ‘reliable idols’ by Mobbie Nazir, Chief Strategy Officer at creative agency We Are Social. Burberry is one example. Its Voices of Tomorrow campaign, fronted by progressive footballer Marcus Rashford, focuses on supporting UK-wide youth centres and career opportunities among young people.

“It’s become distasteful to say ‘look how ostentatious I am’ when you know so many people have lost jobs or have had loved ones hospitalised [during the pandemic]”

Elma Beganovich, Co-Founder, Amra & Elma

Regenerative Travel

As we move into a post-purpose future, the travel sector is shifting towards the concept of regeneration, which offers a more tangible and measurable approach to sustainable travel.

Collective action will underpin the industry’s efforts. Eco-resort collective Regenerative Travel has open-sourced its white paper that publishes data points for hotels to measure their planetary and social impact. For Co-Founder Amanda Ho, the long-term mission is to avoid ‘regeneration’ becoming a buzzword.

“Sustainability is more associated with efficiency issues, but regeneration looks at everything from a whole-systems perspective,” she tells The Future Laboratory. “With more people starting to use the term regenerative, it was important for us to be able to prove through scientific evidence that our hotels are creating an agenda of impact.”

Measurable goals are also key; for example, responsible travel brand Intrepid Travel has launched a range of company targets in line with the Science Based Targets initiative and the UN’s Paris Climate Agreement.

Looking to the future, a regenerative approach will also influence how and where people find travel companies that do more for people, the planet and cultural protection. The Preferred Hotel Group has founded Beyond Green, a platform for properties that deliver on three pillars of sustainable tourism – implementing ‘beyond the basics’ environmental practices, protecting cultural heritage and contributing to the wellbeing of local communities.

Over half (53%) of creative travellers care most about the social impact they have when travelling.

Source: Trippin

Healing Luxury

In light of the pandemic, creatives across the luxury sector are drawing on ancient wellbeing practices to recast luxury’s value proposition and imbue their products with greater meaning.

Nascent unisex fragrance brand Vyrao offers scents intended to boost the wearer’s energy through ‘high vibrations’. Its Founder, Yasmin Sewell, worked with energist and healer Louise Mita on the fragrance formulations, which Vyrao positions as spiritual and restorative. “The fragrances are designed as playful mood-boosters, a way of integrating positive energy into everyday life,” says Sewell. “Scent is emotional…it energises the spirit and awakens the mind.”

In China, menswear designer Xander Zhou creates fashion that wanders “on the boundary between science and Eastern philosophy”. Conceived during the pandemic, his recent collection features garments bejewelled with needles in patterns that reference acupuncture points from traditional Chinese medicine – a symbolic nod to the human body system and the Taoist understanding of its connection to the earth, heavens and nature.

In a similar vein, Ziwei Longhong, Founder of Chinese jewellery brand Soft Mountains, honours her indigenous Nuosu background, one of China’s ethnic minorities whose traditions are predominantly shaped by nature. Its forthcoming collections will feature wooden beads sourced from forests in Sichuan province, with the Nuosu – as well as Tibetan Buddhists – believing these wooden beads help to soothe and focus the mind.

“I want to inject calmness into my designs to transform the energy of my clients, especially during the pandemic, when we need these restorative vibrations the most.”

Ziwei Longhong, Founder - Soft Mountains

Far from being moribund, luxury in its broadest sense has embraced the latest market constraints in ways that other sectors could surely learn form. But, and this is the big but for 2022, along with purpose, resilience, and betterment, the market, the sector and brands themselves need to be above all flexible, and innovative. Seizing moments when they happen, yes, but always keeping the bigger prize in view; that we now need to think of the legacy we want to leave behind, rather than the heritage that has perhaps played such a great part in our brand building exercise. Why? Because heritage is about the past, and luxury now needs to look to a future to move on and survive.

By Martin Raymond, Co-Founder - The Future Laboratory

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