Walpole Future of British Luxury Summit

Here are my 5 key takeouts from the ‘Future of British Luxury’ summit by The Walpole at newly opened The Londoner Hotel this week.

Localisation / Uniqueness
Anya Hindmarch, Michael Ward (CEO of Harrods) and Jill Kluge (CMO of Mandarin Oriental Group) all agree that it’s really very dull to travel the world, only to find the same brands and experiences wherever you go. It’s time to undo years of homogenisation, and Michael Ward says, ‘it’s all about uniqueness - people will travel for that’ which is why Anya Hindmarch has poured all her unique creativity into ‘Anya’s Village’ in Pont Street, London, and Jill Kluge believes ‘what matters is to experience a local destination. Mandarin Oriental try to combine shopping, culture and art in a localised way’. Julia Perowne chimed in ‘when the experience is unique, and the consumer has committed to travel, as we have seen at Gleneagles, they are really going for it with more treatments, more experiences and more fun during their stay’.

Ethics beat Aesthetics
Style over substance doesn’t sell like it used to. Consumers, especially high-net-worth ones, prefer to be part of the solution, not the problem, and welcome brands that do not worsen the long list of global issues to worry about, such as Climate Change, Diversity, Equality and Fairness. According to Anya Hindmarch, ‘gone are the days of assessing the cost of your sustainability projects, now, It’s time to count the cost of NOT doing them’. Her ‘I am a plastic bag’ project proves it is possible to create desirable luxury fabrics from waste materials. Yana Peel told us ‘Chanel’s culture fund is about leaving the world better than it was before’ while Mandarin Oriental promote a culture of ‘Inner and Outer Strength (mental and physical fitness)’. Melissa Mullen, from Jo Malone, told us ‘consumers and employees need to believe in a cause. Over half of us will align with brands of purpose’.

China’s Taking Over
If you weren’t already aware (evidently many of the luxury industry attendees were not), China is assimilating luxury at an exponential pace. Adam Knight (Tong) told us that ‘48% of luxury shopping will be carried out by Chinese shoppers, by 2025’.

Online’s the Lifeline
If you were holding out for hordes of shoppers to return to British luxury shopping hotspots, don’t. Scott Lindsay (ESW) says “Research shows UK is no longer a primary destination for luxury shopping’, so we must ‘leverage online channels because hordes of ‘in real life’ shoppers will not materialise in British luxury stores’.

Dare to be Different
‘If you know what you’re doing, stop doing it’ was the clear message from Kevin Chesters, author of The Creative Nudge, who showed examples of ‘me too’ branding in every industry from jewellery to automotive to prove his point that the only way to stand out in today’s cluttered and fragmented media, is to be authentically different. His view was wholeheartedly shared by Nader Tavassoli (London Business School) and his mantra ‘only dead fish swim with the stream’. Even Gareth Dunsmore, McLaren’s new Chief Marketing Officer, agrees that although each and every car ‘may take the same form, we aim to offer a unique and meaningful experience’ which delivers the brand’s DNA to the consumer.

So, there you have it. In post-covid times, British luxury brands need to be unique and localised, ethically authentic, planning for Chinese commerce, digital transformed, and always creatively innovating in line with their brand’s DNA.