marketing strategy

Luxury’s emotional shift and what every brand can learn from it

For decades, luxury operated under a single narrative: heritage, scarcity, and status by distance. That used to work because culture was more centralized: Paris, Milan, London, New York. Prestige signaled the same thing to everyone.

Not anymore. Today’s luxury buyers aren’t responding to a single idea of “the good life.” They’re chasing meaning, identity, experience, creativity, and sometimes rebellion. The signals of desire have splintered. What used to feel aspirational can now feel generic, or worse, out of touch.

  • And while luxury is feeling this shift first, any brand that relies on identity, aspiration, or premium pricing is moving into the same terrain.

This conceptual shift maps to different psychological storylines. Five of the most powerful expressions of luxury today are showing up like this:

  • Explorer luxury tied to experience, individuality, and discovery. Aman Resorts is a perfect example, selling seclusion and personal immersion rather than opulence for display.
  • Creator luxury fueled by artistry, innovation, and co-creation. Bottega Veneta demonstrates this with “quiet” craftsmanship and design-led identity instead of logos.
  • Lover luxury centered on sensuality, intimacy, and self-expression. La Perla embodies this through luxury that’s felt on the body, not broadcast to others.
  • Connoisseur luxury rooted in discernment, depth, and cultivated understanding. Hermès plays here, appealing to people who value mastery without fanfare.
  • Outlaw luxury defined by rebellion, provocation, and cultural subversion. Balenciaga has built its relevance by breaking aesthetic rules while commanding high luxury pricing.

Brands that cling to a single inherited definition of luxury risk becoming invisible to the very consumers driving the market.

Here are four strategic pivots any luxury brand can act on, and they apply to any brand driven by meaning, identity, or aspiration.

  • Decide what kind of desire you represent. Don’t rely on default prestige cues. Clarify whether your version of luxury is about mastery, creativity, seduction, exploration, transformation, or authority, and build around it.
  • Replace distance with depth. Exclusivity doesn’t have to mean aloofness. Private client experiences, cultural collaborations, and insider access deliver status through intimacy rather than separation.
  • Localize without losing your center. Cultural authority isn’t owned by one region anymore. The future belongs to brands that adapt expression to different markets without diluting identity.
  • Let people participate in the story. Younger luxury buyers don’t just want to own something rare, they want to shape it, remix it, or see themselves in it. Drops, co-designed capsules, and digital-first touchpoints reward involvement instead of worship.

Luxury is no longer defined by a single narrative. The opportunity is not to abandon the roots of luxury, but to declare which emotional territory you own now.

And while this shift is most visible in luxury, the pattern is already spreading. Any brand that focuses on meaning or aspiration faces the same choice. The brands that will stay relevant aren’t the ones with the longest history. They’re the ones with the clearest identity.

If you’d like help clarifying which emotional territory your brand occupies – or should occupy – I’d love to help. Contact me at info at bureauwest.com

Sources: “A new vocabulary for luxury: The nine archetypes defining its future,” Luxury Daily, October 13, 2025; Bureau West research and analysis

Posted on by Jay Zaltzman

The insight you didn’t ask for – but needed most

Sometimes, market research seems to lead companies in the wrong direction. One famous example: Coca-Cola’s launch of New Coke. Research participants said they liked the taste better. The data backed it up. But what the company missed was the depth of emotional connection consumers had to the original – its familiarity, its identity, even its nostalgia. Within months, Coke was flooded with protests and had to reverse course. Then there’s Tropicana, which redesigned its packaging in 2009 – removing the familiar orange with a straw in favor of a more minimalist look. The response? A 20% drop in sales in just a few weeks. Not because the juice changed, but because the emotional cues customers relied on had vanished from the shelf.

But was the research wrong – or were they asking the wrong questions?

Almost every project begins with clear, focused questions. Sounds smart – however, participants frequently provide important insights about something entirely different. But if it’s not in the discussion guide, it’s often ignored.

That kind of thing happens often. For example:

  • A tech client wanted customer input on a new feature, but customers said they really want the existing features to be easier to use.
  • A bank wanted to learn how personal advisors could be most helpful to customers with high balances; however, the customers weren’t interested in a personal connection – they just wanted faster service and better rates.
  • A food company conducted testing on different flavors of their product, but customers had greater concerns about making sure the ingredients were “clean.”

The problem is, when participants tell us what they really want, if it doesn’t fit with the research brief, their remarks are frequently treated as “off-topic.” But they have the potential to be strategic gold. They may lead to opportunities that should not be ignored.

As a result, I’ve developed what I call the “Opportunity Layer.” It’s an approach that makes sure we don’t ignore:

  • What customers bring up without prompting.
  • What truly matters to them, beyond the discussion guide.

How the Opportunity Layer works:

  • During qualitative sessions, we make space to follow the energy, nuance, and emotions that come up, not just the guide.
  • Analysis includes the stated objectives as well as the unexpected input, with the resulting report including answers to the brief as well as the Opportunity Layer – what showed up beyond the brief.
  • We conduct a facilitated debrief with stakeholders to discuss results and potential strategic pivots.

Benefits for clients:

  • Discover blind spots you didn’t know existed.
  • Prevent initiatives built on incomplete understanding.
  • Gain richer strategic perspective on customer needs and motivations.

Could the Opportunity Layer uncover strategic gold for your company? Contact me at at info at bureauwest.com and let’s discuss!

Posted on by Jay Zaltzman

Using ethnography to get at the truth

One of the biggest challenges in market research is making sure people are telling us the truth. Beyond intentional lying, people frequently don’t realize they’re not telling the truth. For example, people think they always make decisions based on logic only (and they don’t). And they over-estimate how “virtuous” they will be, whether it comes to eating or saving or variety of other activities.

 We have a variety of ways to get around that problem. One favorite: asking people what other people think or say or do – not them. Another is ethnographic research: observing people’s behavior in real life, whether at home or at work or while shopping. This type of research helps us learn more about customers and prospects: we get to see what they really do, including the things that contradict what they say they do. And we can more fully understand the context of how our product or service fits into their lives.

There are many examples of how ethnographic research has helped companies:

  • IKEA combines home visits with qualitative interviews and quantitative surveys to develop their Life at Home report which helps inform product development and communication strategy.
  • Google researchers observed how people navigate unfamiliar areas to inform the intuitive design of Google Maps.
  • The dripless cap was invented after researchers saw people had a roll of paper towels next to their detergent containers and learned it was there to clean up the drips that always happened.

While ethnography can clearly help with product development, note the IKEA example above: their in-home research also provides a deeper understanding of their customers and their needs, which can help develop more effective marketing strategy.

One problem with ethnography: the “observer effect.” People may change their behavior because they know they’re being observed. That’s why I advocate combining qualitative interviewing with ethnographic research. As a researcher, rather than remaining silent and telling people to do what they normally do, I have a conversation with them so they can be more comfortable and not feel judged.

For example, when I was conducting in-home and in-store research about how parents buy food for their children, I noticed one mom who talked about buying healthy food… but I saw a lot of junk food in the pantry!Mom must have known we could see that, so rather than ignoring it, I gently probed “you know, many of the people we talk to mention the desire to eat healthy, but they still have a lot of snacks like these. Tell me about that.” My comment about the other people we talked to enabled mom to not feel judged and then we could talk about the trade-offs between healthy and unhealthy snacks, which was very valuable to our client as they developed messaging and packaging for their products.

Let’s discuss how to find out what truly motivates your customers. Email me at info at bureauwest.com.

Sources: “Companies That Use Ethnographic Research: Success Stories,” Insight7; “IKEA Life at Home,” IKEA; Bureau West research

Posted on by Jay Zaltzman