By Josh Lane, Chief Operating Officer, FerebeeLane
According to a January 2025 article in the Financial Times, London will face an oversupply of luxury hotel rooms with more than 750 new rooms available in 2025, prompting questions of a reckoning, or correction. Geo-political tensions and the fluctuations of major currencies are contributing to the “murky at best” travel outlook for luxury hoteliers.
While many affluent travelers continue to thrive financially, the plethora of choices gives the buyer the upper hand while hoteliers face an increasing challenge of distinguishing their 5 Star hotel with a Michelin rated restaurant from another with a remarkably similar offering.
CMOs across luxury retail brands are facing the same dilemma as many brands, in pursuit of mass adoption and trying to grow their market share, feel and seem the same to the affluent consumer. There are standouts, but they are the exception.
Be Different Not Better
CEOs, CMOs, Board Members are asking themselves and their teams, “How can we be better than our competition?”
That is exactly the wrong question.
Being better is not a sustainable business advantage that will enable a brand to stand the test of time. A luxury brand that thrives in uncertain times, across decades, and with an ever-evolving consumer and media landscape must aim to be different from its competition.
This concept is called declustering, and it’s the process of finding an ownable part of the market where a brand can win again and again because your competition cannot profitably compete in that space.
Being different, not better, is about identifying the unique value the brand provides to the marketplace, to the consumer.
Unique means only your brand. Value is something your consumers desire greatly. Together they move the brand away from the competition into its own space. The brand has become declustered, and different, from all other competitors, in the mind of the consumer.
This concept of declustering can be achieved in several ways for a luxury brand and the following are a couple approaches that we’ve seen appeal to the affluent consumer.
Guardians of Culture
Today’s affluent travelers are often referred to as “Culture Collectors” traveling to broaden their perspectives and crafting a mosaic of experiences that have a sustained life.
These affluent travelers become curators of meaning and they seek out destinations and brands that add cultural context and new inputs into that curation.
Luxury hotel and retail brands that embrace their role as “Culture Guardians” resist the temptation to appeal to everyone, and instead each proudly reflects a particular element of culture throughout the totality of the brand experience.
They may stake this out by embracing an interpretation of English design through the room, food and beverage, unique programs, and service experience. Perhaps an Asian-based brand can bring a modern expression of Asian hospitality to the center of London. A large global brand can mandate that each hotel adopt the personality of the local culture while maintaining their internationally-recognized service standards.
The test is that each individual hotel or retail brand would only work in that specific location; those that pass that test are Guardians of Culture.
Say No
The retail manta, “the consumer is always right,” is wrong.
Affluent consumers want authentic experiences, but an authentic experience may not be what they expected or even liked. A luxury brand must reflect discipline and carry a genuine perspective that stands for something. When a luxury brand refuses to compromise, it speaks with authority.
While some affluent consumers may choose another brand, others will gravitate toward it. Affluent consumers consistently choose the brand that says “No” to anything that isn’t aligned with the experience they are focused on delivering and that the consumer is expecting.
That commitment earns loyalty and respect and can result in a resiliency and price insensitivity for the brand over time.
Finding the Brand’s Unique Value
Being valuably different, and not focused on being better, is the key to being a brand that stands the test of time.
There are countless strategies that a luxury brand can embrace to separate and be different from competitors. The essential element is that the strategy must be unique to that brand, and it has to deliver a value that affluent consumers deem important and can’t find elsewhere.
About
FerebeeLane is a brand strategy and creative agency that works with premium and luxury brands to engage the discerning affluent consumer. For the past 20 years, the agency has collaborated with beloved brands such as Le Creuset, Blackberry Farm, Miele, The Ritz-Carlton, Baker McGuire Furniture, Vail Resorts, Chimay Trappist Beer, as well as numerous other Relais & Châteaux properties, and other luxury brands throughout the home. To learn more about FerebeeLane or our perspective on the discerning affluent consumer please contact Josh at josh.lane@ferebeelane.com
