Luxury Unfiltered: In uncertain times, training is the ultimate luxury advantage

April 23, 2025

Daniel Langer is the founder and CEO of consulting firm Équité

I have just returned to the U.S. from Europe, where I had the pleasure and privilege to be invited to lead a masterclass on emotional selling for top luxury professionals in London.

The sense of anticipation was tangible, as it is typical for my masterclasses. However, as market uncertainty is skyrocketing, the intensity is even higher than usual.

Seasoned experts from iconic brands, all seeking to sharpen their edge in a market that’s never been more challenging.

Client retention
One exercise stood out: I asked each participant to reflect deeply on their best and worst client experiences. The stories that emerged were powerful.

In every “best” experience, the person felt valued, seen and truly understood. In every “worst,” or what I like to call “breakup experience,” the opposite was true.

Clients left feeling devalued, ignored or reduced to a transaction. This exercise was more than a warm-up.

It was a mirror held up to the entire luxury industry at a time when client trust is plummeting and the value proposition of luxury is under unprecedented scrutiny.

Are you making your clients feel valued? Or devalued?

Since luxury is, in my words, extreme value creation, anything less than the perception of extreme value is a catastrophic failure. According to Bain & Company’s recent luxury study, the customer base for personal luxury goods has contracted by millions of people in just the last two years.

Even among the most important clients, the top 2 percent who now account for a significant amount of all of the luxury value, there is a growing sense that the experience has become transactional and less exceptional.

I hear so often that ultra-high-net-worth individuals are underwhelmed. My team and I at Équité have seen this firsthand: recent mystery shopping exercises across multiple luxury brands and categories revealed significant shortcomings, from inattentive service to a lack of emotional engagement at the most critical client touchpoints.

The trust crisis
Meanwhile, the trust crisis is being amplified by social media.

TikTok over the last week has been full of viral videos claiming that luxury brands manufacture most of their products in China, only to finish assembly in Europe for the “Made in Italy” or “Made in France” label. These claims, while often not fully accurate, fuel skepticism at times when trust in many luxury brands is already broken.

The recent Italian court investigation into Dior’s supply chain, where bags retailing for thousands of dollars were produced for less than $100, has further eroded consumer confidence and put the entire sector under a harsh spotlight. Layer on top of this the relentless price increases and the generational shift as Gen Z becomes a more influential luxury client, and it’s clear: luxury brands are facing a perfect storm.

In this environment, training is not just important. I can’t stress it clearly enough: it is existential.

And the mistake that brands make when they fear a crisis is to save money for training and client inspiration. The problem: when clients see less value in the brand proposition, when trust is fragile, and when every interaction can tip the scales between loyalty and abandonment, the skills and mindset of your front-line teams become your most critical asset.

Yet, too often, luxury brands still treat training as a box to check, focused narrowly on product knowledge or operational procedures. That’s a fatal mistake.

What’s needed now is a radical transformation in how we approach training. It must go far beyond the basics to include the psychology of luxury, the art of emotional selling, and the ability to unlock the emotional keys that drive true client connection.

My research has shown that up to 98 percent of a luxury brand’s value is derived not from the product itself, but from the story, the experience, and the emotional resonance it creates. If your teams don’t understand this, if they can’t consistently make every client feel valued and inspired, then no amount of marketing or price signaling will save your brand.

The good and the bad are: the luxury perception of your brand is determined at the point of sale and during the client service you deliver.

Training is essential
The best luxury experiences are never just about the object. They are about how the client feels in the presence of your brand.

Do they feel recognized, understood, and part of something extraordinary? Or do they feel like just another number?

In our masterclass, participants realized that their most memorable successes came when they connected with clients on a deeply personal level. When they listened, empathized, and created a sense of belonging.

Conversely, every failure could be traced back to a moment when the client felt invisible or dismissed. This is why training must now focus on emotional intelligence, storytelling and the nuances of human connection.

It’s about equipping every team member, from the boutique floor to the boardroom, to become an ambassador of the brand’s values and an architect of extraordinary experiences. It means teaching the psychology behind luxury purchases, understanding the shifting motivations of new generations and mastering the art of making every interaction feel bespoke and meaningful.

The stakes could not be higher. In a world where negative experiences go viral in minutes and where skepticism about authenticity and value is rampant, the true cost of underinvesting in training is brand erosion, lost loyalty, and ultimately, irrelevance.

The brands that will thrive are those that recognize training as the ultimate lever for competitive advantage: a way to rebuild trust, inspire desire, and create the kind of emotional resonance that makes clients fall in love with luxury all over again.

My call to action for every luxury brand leader: make training your top strategic priority. Invest in programs that go beyond skills to shape mindsets and behaviors.

Empower your teams to become storytellers, psychologists and creators of wonder. In times of uncertainty, this is not just the path to survival. In my experience, it is the only way to lead.

The future of luxury belongs to those who make people care, who inspire, and who create unforgettable moments. Start with your people. Train them not just to sell, but to enchant. The rest will follow.

Luxury Unfiltered is a weekly column by Daniel Langer. He is the CEO of Équité, a global luxury strategy and creative brand activation firm, where he is the advisor to some of the most iconic luxury brands. He is recognized as a global top-five luxury key opinion leader. He serves as the executive professor of luxury strategy and pricing at Pepperdine University in Malibu and as a professor of luxury at New York University, New York. Dr. Langer has authored best-selling books on luxury management in English and Chinese and is a respected global keynote speaker.

Dr. Langer conducts masterclass management training on various luxury topics around the world. As a luxury expert featured on Bloomberg TV, Financial Times, The New York Times, Forbes, The Economist and others, Mr. Langer holds an MBA and a Ph.D. in luxury management and has received education from Harvard Business School. Follow him on LinkedIn and Instagram, and listen to his Future of Luxury Podcast.

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