Design & Emotion Blog

The March issue of David Report addresses ‘future luxury’:

What is luxury to you? What is it to others and what will it be in the future? Interesting questions and not easy to answer. In this issue we will bring forward a couple of important trends that according to us will be crucial for the definition of future luxury.

It features some interesting topics related to luxury, like an interview with James Ogilvy who launched Luxury Briefing in 1996. Furthermore, you can find a summary of luxury today, tomorrow and finally a list of future trends in luxury. Of that list I will give a short summary below. I am not sure if I agree with all of the trends that are predicted, but some of them give a nice insight in possibilities for the future.

The Trends (that will define Future Luxury)

1. Timeless quality
   The future consumer will seek excellence both concerning behaviour and product. We will see a new type of sustainability where quality is paramount both concerning material and design.
   
2. Security and safety
   The cutting-edge of consumer culture will find a new arena in these new urbanised country zones. Safety will be the number one thing in our mind and our comfortable homes will work as hubs towards the surrounding world.
3. Emotional branding
   A lot of people have turned almost anti-brand. It will be a great challenge for companies to find new methods to converse, involve and interact with the consumers and offer them to experience the brand according to their own wishes. In the future building a relationship with your consumers and offer them relevant brand experiences will be paramount. It will be about engaging and understanding the consumers needs and develop product and services according to it. To create passion and desire and improve their lives. The brands that will understand that they are just a tool for the consumer to realize their personal dreams will survive and flourish.
4. Good karma
   From the consumer point of view responsible purchasing is a growing trend. We will demand transparency. Companies can achieve success by doing good and as a socially conscious consumer you have the power of change in your hand.
5. Seize the day
   Time has turned into luxury. True luxury. Time is more or less one of the only things you can t buy with money. That’s why it is so desirable. The great luxury in the future will be about taking control over your own time, because it will never come back.
6. Supreme regionalism
   There will be a great wish for authenticy in the society in the future. The ongoing globalisation is erasing regional specialness with the speed of a bullet. Supreme Regionalism grow as a reaction to the present standardisation. Inside this trend we will find a new cultural luxury. Locally produced and controlled products with textures and flavours with a unique twist, made with great craftsmanship.
7. Food and health
   Health is turning into one of the biggest luxuries in our time when most food has converted into mass-produced semi-finished products. By choosing well tasting food that does not harm the environment and animal welfare you are choosing life… and health.
   
8. Individual editions
   This trend is a spin-off from both the Timeless Quality and the Supreme Regionalism trends. The globalisation forces us to buy the same products from the same brands all over the world. Limited-editions are desirable because it attracts and flirts with your persona. We will see a reaction towards the standardised global assortment and meanwhile the limited-edition series will help us feel individual and special.

For the complete list and other articles on future luxury, see the March edition of David Report >>>

What I like about the list is the focus on people and engaging experiences or emotion. I am not sure if we will all move to the country-side, but what I think is already in motion is the shift to demanding more engaging, sustainable, healthy experiences. I certainly like the statement that the brands that understand that they are just a tool for people to reach their goals and dreams, will survive best.

Even though we will seek more individually gratifying experiences, I also think that we will see a trend towards seeking even more groups of people that think alike. Internet and user-content-driven websites will play a big part in this. This same trend will also influence the emotional branding trend, because it makes people more powerful. They have the knowledge which they share with each other at a global scale (Internet), not only do they hear experiences from the neighbours, but they can get information about brands and products from just about anyone they’d like. This will make brands completely dependent of these pools of information and groups of like-minded ‘friends’. They will have to infiltrate and intergrate themselves at a personal level within these groups and ‘make friends’ just like we would in real-life.

Let’s hope for an emotional future, in the sensible sense! Not the Tom-Cruise-on-Oprah type! 😉

[tags]future, luxury, design, emotional branding, emotion, experience[/tags]