Marie Kondo, Cronuts and why everything you think you know about luxury is wrong. We explore why millennials crave escape from the chaos.
If your normal day consists of being constantly bombarded by social media, advertising, emails and work deadlines to the point of despair, then you’re not alone.
Brands are having to compete harder than ever to capture and keep our attention with promotions and new “must have” products. They shout louder and louder and as a society who are so connected, it feels impossible to escape. Even a conversation you might have with a work colleague about holiday plans can result in being targeted later that day online.
We’re obsessed with staying up with the latest trends, driven by comparisons of our lives to the social influencers who dominate our feeds. The result, is that we’ve found ourselves buying so many things that the magic has worn off. Like a jaded teen who’s grown tired of Christmas, that special feeling that we once had, being first in line for a new phone or the latest Cronuts, Chounuts and Cruffins, no longer exists.
Just look to the rise of Marie Kondo and how her decluttering techniques are changing mindsets. A key part of her appeal is that if an object doesn’t spark joy in your life then it has to go. All around the word people are decluttering their cupboards, removing the irrelevant and unimportant, the unused and unneeded from their lives.
What does this mean for the luxury goods market? It means it’s no longer good enough just to say you need the latest product to increase your status. The New Luxury mindset needs to also be meaningful, inclusive, transparent, authentic and sustainable.
In the relentless pace of modern life, simply slowing down can become a spiritual experience. Lon Retreat, the beautiful boutique resort encapsulates this by providing tangible ‘discovery’ experiences and inviting guests into a world separate from the chaos. Lon provides a space to unplug from the rest of the world. Secrecy and discovery are core values and built into the DNA of everything it does, delivering on the audience’s need for isolation, while providing a personal story to introduce a new destination to their friendship group.
The branding we developed reflects the reason-to-believe behind Lon Retreat – disconnecting from the busyness of city life and reconnecting with the beautiful experiences that can be found in slowing down and keeping things simple. Rather than leading using excess to signal ‘luxury’ as part of the brand proposition, Lon uses semiotics, language and authentic elements in a meaningful way to create a ‘New Luxury’ experience that delivers on guests needs to unplug.
