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This article is part of The Luxury Slowdown Survival Guide, a collection of articles that examines the recent industry downturn and the strategies brands may employ to come out of it unscathed.
As the slowdown wages on, you might expect brands to tighten their purse strings when it comes to marketing. But as luxury spending declines, the aspirational shopper pulls back on expenditure and consumers question the true value of luxury, experts agree it will be top of mind for 2025.
“Our research of executives in the industry suggests that if in the prior years they’ve been [most] worried about geopolitical instability, the top of their worry list for 2025 is really consumer appetite,” says Anita Balchandani, senior partner at McKinsey, who leads apparel, fashion and luxury in both the UK and EMEA.
“Marketing will remain a crucial investment for 2025, considering the climate,” says Federica Levato, partner at management consultancy Bain Co and leader of its EMEA fashion and luxury practice. “During the financial crisis of 2008/9, brands pulled back on marketing investment. But since then, they’ve realised how crucial marketing is in times of crisis," she says, as learnt from Covid, when brands kept their budgets and found new ways to self-promote.”
However, having priced out the aspirational shopper, luxury brands need to shift focus. In 2025, successful strategies will be those that harness a more affluent, intergenerational consumer and convince them that luxury goods are worth the price.
Here’s a guide on how to speak to luxury consumers in the midst of a slowdown.
1. Understand today’s luxury consumer mindset
Over the last five years, we’ve seen luxury prices surge across major labels, with many iconic handbags more than doubling in price from 2019 to 2024. At first, this helped boost margins and profits for luxury groups. But as well as alienating the aspirational shopper, it’s called into question luxury’s value and if it’s really worth the cost.
Our exclusive survey of almost 1,000 Vogue and GQ readers asked participants how effective they think luxury brands are at appealing to consumers today. Some 48 per cent of respondents said “somewhat” or “very effective”, but 29 per cent said “somewhat” or “very ineffective” (20 per cent were neutral). When asked what luxury brands could be doing to better appeal to consumers, the top five choices were: decrease prices (52 per cent), improve sustainability/ethics (34 per cent), improve product quality (33 per cent), develop newer and more creative ideas (19 per cent) and create a better sense of community and brand experiences (18 per cent).
“There’s consumer fatigue around whether luxury is ‘sufficiently specialist’ today,” says Balchandani. Brands should use their marketing channels to underline the value of their products. “When it comes to provenance, quality of the materials, fabrication and craftsmanship, many brands have been guilty of elevating without communicating,” she says. “They’ve aimed to up their quality and production [as well as price], but in ways that they haven’t necessarily communicated to customers, or in ways that the customer doesn’t necessarily value. In some cases, it may be that the brands don’t really have the true substance to fall back on.”
In the H2 2024 edition of the Vogue Business Index, our global consumer survey found that nine out of the top 10 brands for consumer sentiment saw a decline in whether they offer “good value for money”. Since the first half of the year, nine of these 10 brands also saw their average scores decline on metrics tracking brand quality (consumers were asked to rate “cuts and fittings of the clothing” and if a brand “offers high-quality pieces”). This means, per the report, that consumers are requiring brands to deliver more in terms of quality. And they’re doing their research: according to our Gen Z Broke the Marketing Funnel report, 70 per cent of Gen Zs and 69 per cent of millennials only trust a brand “after carrying out their own research”.
TikTok content
Over the last decade, we were in a boom era defined by hyper-growth, hype and entertainment, a host of brand collaborations and a focus on connecting with younger audiences, says Edward Campbell, global luxury strategy lead at international marketing and strategy firm Dentsu, which works across Kering brands like Gucci and Bottega Veneta, among others. Now, we’ve returned to “true luxury”, and brands need to return to core tenets of the industry, like craftsmanship, quality, a more refined product offering built around iconic silhouettes, cult flagship products and an elevated consumer experience.
2. Communicate craftsmanship to explain cost
So, how do you communicate you’re worth the high price tag? Communicating craftsmanship across various channels is key. Campbell calls out Loewe, which has produced a series of digestible ‘making of’ TikTok videos, showcasing the artisanal techniques behind its Flamenco purse or feather-detail polo shirt (featuring funny commentary from the artisans themselves). At a higher brow level, the brand has held an annual Foundation Craft Prize event since 2016 to celebrate talents across art and design. Bottega Veneta appointed its first-ever director of craft and heritage, long-time artisan Barbara Zanin, last year to “protect and promote Bottega Veneta craftsmanship”, as an ambassador that can speak to the brand’s unique techniques.
Exhibitions are also a key way to demonstrate savoir faire and heritage. In 2023, Gucci staged a large-scale immersive ‘Cosmos’ exhibition in Shanghai and London to demonstrate the brand’s rich heritage and the design ethos of creative director Sabato De Sarno. Three weeks ago, after stints in Paris, London and New York, Dior took its impressive ‘Designer of Dreams’ exhibition, focused on the brand’s eponymous founder, to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Dior also regularly shares ‘making of’ videos on TikTok, breaking down looks of Lady Gaga’s Venice Film Festival gown, or the Dior kilt from its Scotland cruise show in June, among others.
“These days, you’ve got to demonstrate one message consistently, but in different ways. It’s no longer just about having a really great print campaign backed up by some virtual or social content or digital film,” Campbell says. “You’ve got to have a key message or a key part of your DNA communicated across multiple spaces. Loewe is a great example of this. It feels more authentic when Loewe talks about the making of one of its own products,” he says, “because they’re talking about craftsmanship in other areas as well.” In the future, digital product passports could provide more in-depth information about the artisans that make goods or the farms from which raw materials are sourced.
3. Prioritise experiential marketing to prompt user-generated content
Consumers heading into 2025 still want to make purchases, but they don’t want to feel like they’re being sold to, says consumer behaviour marketing specialist and social media manager Jack Campbell (aka Jack Wize), and founder of Australian strategy firm Wize Industry, who shot to fame on TikTok for his marketing strategy videos. Content should spark curiosity rather than urgency, making consumers feel as though they’ve discovered something themselves, he adds.
There’s two ways to achieve this, experiential marketing that can be reshared online or user-generated content (UGC) from real consumers. “I think if you can find a way to have others speak on behalf of your brand on a platform like TikTok, that can work well to communicate value,” says Dentsu’s Campbell.
In this vein, experiential pop-ups and hospitality touchpoints that consumers can enjoy and (crucially) reshare on social media, will be a “focal point” of luxury marketing in 2025, as customers prioritise experience over ownership, says Levato. “We may be in a downturn, but there’s still interest in intangible luxury: travel, hospitality, restaurants, unique experiences and events.” Via these experiences, consumers themselves promote the brand in a relatable, authentic way.
4. Demonstrate how products can ‘enrich people’s lives’
To further imbue goods with value, consumers need to see how a product will enrich their lives, adds Wize. Luxury brands could learn from contemporary labels when it comes to attracting new customers with relatable UGC from real consumers. The Frankie Shop and Cult Naked are among the brands that regularly reshare customers wearing and styling their pieces. Booming premium athleisure label Adanola depicts its products as part of consumers’ daily lives on TikTok, sharing the content of micro and nano-influencers (often customers) carrying coffees through a city, or taking selfies wearing Adanola in a lift (the latter garnered 4.9 million views). “Consumers are looking for wardrobe heroes that have multiple end uses,” says Adanola founder Hyrum Cook. “A vital part of the Adanola brand values is making everyday lives easy — showing this through our marketing and content has been a key part of connecting with our audience.”
TikTok content
For brands brave enough, another key marketing trend for this year will be founder-focused content, as we’ve seen from designers like Marc Jacobs and Simon Porte Jacquemus, who regularly appear on brand channels; or employee-focused content, as we’ve seen at Loewe and Gen Z luxury media platform SheerLuxe. In December, Loewe and JW Anderson creative director Jonathan Anderson explained the shift on Bella Freud’s ‘Fashion Neurosis’ podcast: “As media changes, I think it’s important today that you have authenticity. Younger people want to know you. They want to believe that you believe in what you are selling. That there’s a realness and honesty to it.”
“Consumers prefer hearing directly from employees, founders, or genuine customers who haven’t been paid to share their opinions,” says Wize. “They buy into the two-way relationship of ‘I entertain you, you support my business’.”
5. Create intergenerational appeal
As younger aspirational consumers pull back luxury spending, intergenerational marketing will be “pivotal” in 2025, McKinsey’s Balchandani says. “Seventy-five per cent of consumer net worth in the US belongs to the over-55 category, and the picture is similar in China.” The ‘silver spender’ is not only consuming, but also powering younger shoppers to buy products for their dependents, she adds.
It’s already begun, but analysts agree we will see a renaissance in some of the more traditional marketing mediums for 2025 in response to the shift. “More traditional luxury audiences are coming into focus; older audiences are reading more high-end publications, or shopping in high-end environments and going on high-end travel experiences, meaning out-of-home and print [campaigns] are becoming more important,” Campbell says.
They may like more traditional mediums, but targeting older shoppers “doesn’t mean a brand needs to be dull or boring”, adds Balchandani. “Frankly, the way we’re aging, we’re staying younger for longer. Brands need to think about creating intergenerational appeal rather than one type of customer.”
6. Take a holistic approach to talent
Merit was one of the leading beauty brands of 2024 in terms of brand awareness and buzz. From the beginning, it’s managed to attract an intergenerational consumer. “We haven’t used the traditional celebrity spokesperson marketing playbook — instead, we tap into diverse talent that you might not expect to see in the beauty space, but who are representations of our broad, multi-generational community,” says CMO Aila Morin. In 2024, Merit tapped talents like Allyson Felix (39), Martha Stewart (83) and Grace Coddington (83) for campaign and social media content. “From our experience as consumers, there weren’t many brands speaking to our demographic [women in their 30s, 40s and beyond], and we felt uniquely positioned to answer that call,” says Morin. “Not only does this group have immense purchasing power, they also influence generationally in both directions — introducing their daughters and their mothers to Merit, which has allowed us to capture both sides of that age bracket.”
A presence on social media isn’t everything, Campbell says, pointing to Bottega Veneta, which doesn’t have Instagram or TikTok, but is “one of the most successful brands in the luxury landscape right now from a growth perspective”. Instead, the brand focuses on fashion shows (curating front rows that feature internet boyfriend Jacob Elordi and Olympian Imane Khelif, just a few seats down from “very demure, very mindful” creator Jools Lebron); out-of-home campaigns like through the iconic use of real paparazzi shots; or arts alignments, such as its installation at Milan design fair Salone del Mobile, to reach different levels of consumer.
7. Avoid jumping on every trend
Levato also highlights the importance of re-engaging Gen Z as influencers for older generations, despite their “current detachment from luxury due to price increases”. This year, brands should avoid hopping on every trend, as they did in 2024 with the likes of very demure, very mindful and Brat summer, says social media strategist Joel Bjarni Marlinarson, who works with brands including Pinterest. “I think we’re seeing brands moving away from the Duolingo or the Ryanair strategy of being really reactive and random with the trends that they hop on. And I think brands are going to be more sensitive about how they hop on trends, how fast they do it and if that really speaks to their audience.”
“Marketing managers, founders and creators see something trending and think, ‘This works for them, so I should try it too,’ but then end up stuck in the 200-view jail wondering why it isn’t resonating,” echoes Wize. “The key is to focus on creating original content or adapting trends in a way that feels unique to your brand. It keeps your content fresh and memorable without blending into the sea of sameness.”
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