Équité CEO and Professor of Luxury Strategy Dr. Daniel Langer via video conference, participating the the Forbes Panel on the Future of Luxury

I had the pleasure and privilege of participating in the panel discussion organized by Forbes India on the Future of Luxury. The panel included a distinguished group of luxury experts:

Dr Daniel Andre Langer, CEO, Équité
Kapil Chopra, Founder & CEO, The Postcard Hotel
Abhay Gupta, CEO, Luxury Connect
Manish Malhotra, Celebrity Fashion Designer
Sharad Agarwal, Head, Lamborghini India
Vikas Purohit, CEO, Tata CLiQ
Manish Mehrotra, Chef, Indian Accent

Here are my personal eleven most important lessons for luxury brands that we discussed during the meeting:

The luxury sector will lead the rebound of the economy
Not all brands will participate in the same way, brands need to get their act together now
Traditional ways of brand positioning will not work in the future, brands need to develop a purpose and optimize the way they bring their positioning across
Consumers want to be excited after the crisis is over -- the brands that are doing this right now will be the ones that get out of the crisis in a much stronger fashion
Crisis management is critical: focus on your employees, support them (both for health and reassurance of their futures), strengthen your brand, services, and product offers now
Focus on trust and transparency as the fears of consumers need to be addressed, especially for any service-related business including hospitality, travel, etc.
Avoid pricing over-reaction as they impact the perception of your brand
Digitization will play a much bigger role: for example, luxury car brands are now reevaluating how to sell their cars online and how to bridge the personal experience with the digital experience
It is not digital versus physical but rather the question of how to combine physical and digital to become more efficient and provide better experiences
Social distancing may lead to an even better luxury perception - for example, fewer tables in a restaurant will make it more desirable
Innovate, innovate, innovate: luxury is about redefining boundaries - and crisis is the opportunity to question everything, come up with new and better ideas, and excite your customers

To discuss in more detail what this means for your brand, contact us at contact@equitebrands.com and visit our Covid-19 strategy resource page

Daniel Langer is CEO of the luxury, lifestyle and consumer brand strategy firm Équité, and the professor of luxury strategy and extreme value creation at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. He consults some of the leading luxury brands in the world, is the author of several luxury management books, a global keynote speaker, and holds luxury masterclasses in Europe, the USA, and Asia. Follow @drlanger

Forbes Panel: 11 Lessons for Luxury Brands post Covid-19