Today many brands struggle to connect with young millennials and the emerging Generation Z
Daniel Langer, CEO of Équité in South China Morning Post. Photo: AFP
By Daniel Langer
Our world is changing rapidly, and the speed of change is accelerating at ever-increasing rates. Even before the coronavirus, I spent most of my projects and masterclasses on supporting luxury brands in coping with change. Take luxury cars as an example. A few years ago, the typical buyer was in his or her 50s or 60s, and he or she would sometimes would take years to decide before pulling the trigger on a purchase. Now many brands struggle to connect with young millennials and the emerging Generation Z. Those young, digitally-savvy consumers are more demanding than previous generations, and they expect brands to define the zeitgeist.
Particularly in China, now fewer than 20 percent of luxury goods are bought by consumers older than 40. Instead, the sweet spot for luxury purchases in China is between 25 and 35 years. To the surprise of many luxury managers, luxury is female. Women do more than 75 percent of purchases. Men do a significant part of their luxury purchases as gifts to their spouses and partners. Interestingly, many luxury brands ignore that and target older men instead.
This creates a gap between brands that make assumptions and brands that know. artificial intelligence is a tool that brands are increasingly using to generate faster, more precise consumer insights. They need to know who their customers are, what they think, how their perception and sentiment changes over time, and what they expect.
Daniel Langer is the CEO of the leading luxury, lifestyle and consumer brand strategy firm Équité (equitebrands.com), and the professor of luxury strategy and extreme value creation at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. He consults some of the most iconic luxury brands in the world, is the author of several luxury management books, a frequent media commentator, a global keynote speaker, and holds luxury masterclasses in Europe, the USA, and Asia. Follow @drlanger on Twitter