Luxury Clients Want Meaning More Than Status

As luxury’s reset makes desirability harder to build, emotional connection is emerging as the clearest place to start. In both the US and China, it ranks as the top driver of brand desirability, ahead of more traditional markers such as craft, heritage and trends.

In a market where customers are more selective, desire increasingly depends on whether a brand feels personally meaningful, reflecting a client’s taste, values, aspirations or identity. This is lifting categories like jewellery that are associated with identity, emotion and self-expression.

In the US, desirability is also increasingly tied to a brand’s purpose, creativity and cultural relevance, suggesting that brands will be evaluated not only on what they sell, but for what they stand for culturally.

In China, desirability is more closely linked to recognition and the shopping experience itself. Consumers place much greater emphasis on visibility and high-touch service, reflecting the continued role of luxury as a social tool.

• Buzz / hype is ranked as the top desirability driver by Gen Z in China, while in the US it matters more to Millennials.
• Exclusivity is the #2 driver for Gen X in China, while it ranks #10 for the same cohort in the US.
• Shared values is the #2 driver for Gen Z in China, but is less important to all other cohorts.

Emotional connection is important universally for the luxury sector, but its expression varies in different markets

In the US, emotional drivers are more closely tied to self-reward, with clients gravitating toward brands that reflect their personal identity and lifestyle. This is especially true for occasional luxury clients, which should influence the positioning of entry-level products.

In China, emotional drivers are more about external expression, with confidence-building emerging as important motivation for purchases by occasional and aspirational clients. Here luxury products help customers feel socially validated.

In both markets, brand history plays a weaker role; heritage alone is not enough to create brand desire.

I spend more on things that give me emotional value… In the past two years, jewellery has become a bigger part of my luxury spend.

—  ESTABLISHED LUXURY CLIENT, CHINA

Brands are working harder to generate the emotional pull that makes luxury desirable

Price increases and retail expansion were once enough to buoy sales but now brands have to work harder to build desirability. The challenge is to create demand without overexposing a brand — to make it feel culturally relevant and emotionally charged, while preserving the allure that makes it aspirational. Brands must treat desirability less as a creative halo and more as something to measure and protect.

Luxury once functioned as a status symbol for me. But now, I think it has become more of a vehicle for lifestyle and self-expression.

—  ESTABLISHED LUXURY CLIENT, CHINA

The question of what builds desirability has become more urgent. Before, luxury served as external validation, to signal success or status. Today, clients are increasingly drawn to brands that feel personally meaningful, that help them express individual taste and identity. Recognition and social signalling still matter. But luxury clients also want purchases that feel personal, distinctive and worth choosing for themselves.

Everything’s available everywhere, so I gravitate towards uniqueness…I certainly don’t love it when I walk out and I’m in the same Chanel blazer that costs $11,000… you don’t want to have the same stuff as everybody else.

—  ULTRA-HIGH LUXURY CLIENT, US

In the US, this is creating momentum for challenger brands — smaller, independent brands without established heritage but rich in cultural relevance. A bigger number of US clients say these brands reflect their identity more than legacy brands. This reflects a broader shift in aspiration. Clients are increasingly drawn to items that signal uniqueness, not just status, and are discovering alternatives to luxury giants through social media and resale culture.

In China, legacy brands, both global and local, continue to resonate more strongly because recognition still carries significant emotional weight. Trust, visibility and cultural authority remain central to how luxury signals confidence and belonging — even when that signal is quieter, more insider-coded or less logo-led than in the past.

Chinese brands are gaining an edge with culturally distinctive storytelling

Chinese luxury consumers, particularly younger ones, are increasingly gravitating towards home-grown brands that tell authentic, culturally specific stories — a movement known as Guochao. Local labels are drawing clients with an offer of distinct designs, high-quality manufacturing and Chinese narratives. For luxury leaders, Guochao signals a critical market shift and shows that Western brands can no longer rely solely on Eurocentric heritage to win in China.

For example, Laopu Gold, which brings elements of Chinese culture to contemporary jewellery designs, has recently emerged as one of China’s most prestigious brands. Founded in 2009, the jeweller’s rise and reputation as China’s “Hermès of gold,” reflects growing interest from Chinese luxury clients in local, home-grown brands. The brand has also been boosted by the popularity in China of gold as an investment. Laopu continuously refreshes its offer with modern interpretations of Chinese designs, adding techniques and materials, like cloisonné and enamel, to create a steady pipeline of products meant to maintain their exclusive aura over time.

Desirability leads to full-price purchasing — while scarcity plays a smaller-than-expected role

Luxury clients are willing to pay full price when a product feels worth having immediately, underscoring the role of desirability in driving full-price sales. Around 50 percent of those surveyed in the US and China say they would pay full price for a luxury product if they wanted the item right away.

Scarcity plays a smaller role in generating desire than previously thought, cited by around just a third of US clients and one quarter of Chinese clients as a driver of full-price purchasing. Customers are more likely to justify paying full price because of product uniqueness and quality. Clienteling is a weak full-price driver in both markets, even among higher-tier Chinese clients.

In the US, the more affluent the client, the more access to new collections matters — the opposite trend to China. The emphasis on quality and craft also rises with affluence in the US.

In China, scarcity matters even less than in the US and equally among different client tiers. On the other hand, emotional connection plays a larger role than in the US, particularly among aspirational clients.

How should executives respond to these shifts?

In both markets:

Move beyond “quality justifies the price”

• Craftsmanship is now the baseline expectation, not the differentiator.
• Shift messaging from what the product is to what the customer becomes through owning it.

Balance desire and access

• “I want it now” is the strongest trigger for full-price purchasing, but scarcity should amplify desire rather than block it.
• Reduce friction across retail, clienteling and digital touchpoints to capitalise on emotional momentum, while preserving enough selectivity to keep products feeling special.

Treat brand meaning as atop-line driver

• Assign ownership, KPIs (e.g. brand sentiment) and investment to emotion-driven brand storytelling, cultural positioning and community, with the same rigour used for product and campaign launches.

In the US:

Make self-reward easier to justify

• American clients want luxury that feels personal — and consider this a reason to spend.
• Communicate emotional outcomes (“this reflects who I am” or “this fits my life”) to link products to identity, lifestyle and shared values.

Create faster refresh cycles for core products

• Emotional relevance now moves faster than product cycles.
• Heritage brands should continuously refresh the meaning, styling and cultural framing of hero products, outside of seasonal launches.

In China:

Redefine status from visibility to insider recognition

• In China, status is becoming more subtle.
• Clients increasingly value products, experiences and brand access that signal taste to the right people, not just visibility to the widest audience.

Build full-price purchasing through trust

• Established luxury clients in China increasingly pay full price because they trust the brand deeply — not because they fear missing out.
• Shift from scarcity-driven selling towards building long-term client relations.

BoF Insights is The Business of Fashion’s in-house consultancy. We partner with leading fashion and beauty brands and investors to help them sustainably grow for the long term. Get in touch to find out how we can support your business.