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Syndicated Research · Semiannual

Experience Economy 2.0

A living intelligence series, co-authored by subscribers, on how the world’s most wealthiest consumers choose - built on qualitative depth, choice-based conjoint and MaxDiff, fielded twice a year across six markets, so a shift is visible while it’s still forming.

Explore the Intelligence

Five waves, one instrument held steady

The series builds on itself. Each wave keeps the questions that came before and adds a dimension, so the trend line stays readable while the picture widens.

  1. Wave 1

    Live

    June 2026

    The baseline. 500 verified affluent buyers across six markets, on the attributes that drive the decision in all four industries. Everything that follows is measured against this reading.

    Explore

  2. Wave 2

    Coming Soon

    December 2026

    The geographic widening: mainland China, the UAE, and Latin America - where the affluent are growing fastest, and where the category average conceals the most. In fieldwork soon. Open for the first time to a subscriber’s own question, scripted directly into the field inside the Portal.

    Explore

  3. Wave 3

    Locked

    June 2027

    The generational cut. Gen X, Millennial, and Gen Z read separately rather than blended - the divide most houses assume, measured rather than assumed.

  4. Wave 4

    Locked

    December 2027

    Conjoint against named brands, not category abstractions - trade-offs modeled on the competitive set as your buyer actually sees it.

  5. Wave 5

    Locked

    June 2028

    Wealth-event cohorts: the liquidity event, the inheritance, the exit - buyers caught in the window where spending patterns are being rewritten.

One Portal, every wave in one place

The report was never the whole product. Wave 1 already brought the research together in one place. From Wave 2, the Portal goes further - giving subscribers a way to interrogate the intelligence, explore what sits behind it, and help shape what gets asked next.

Wave 1 brings together the report, country and category cuts, and the qualitative depth behind them. From Wave 2, the Portal becomes the place to work with all of it - one login, one evolving view of the intelligence.

  1. 01

    Ask the intelligence

    AI-Generated Synthesis

    Every query returns a read, not just a chart - what’s moving, what’s anomalous, and what’s worth asking next. Ask the dataset the way you’d ask an analyst, and get an answer grounded in the underlying cuts.

  2. 02

    Shape what comes next

    Co-Authored Fielding

    From Wave 2, subscribers can put their own question directly into the field. The next wave isn’t simply delivered to you - you can help shape it.

  3. 03

    Go behind the finding

    Full Instrument Access

    The answer is only the beginning. Open up the research behind it: the conjoint design, MaxDiff battery, qualitative transcript and raw table.

One wave gives you a finding. The Portal lets you work with it.

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How the research is actually conducted

The research compounds with every wave - giving subscribers a living view of what is moving, why it matters, and what to ask next.

Global markets per wave
6+
Verified HNWI and UHNWI respondents, Wave 1
500+
Verified qualitative interviews per wave
8-12
Waves a year
2

  1. Respondent verification

    Every respondent is screened on investable assets and wealth tier before entry, with discreet, boosted recruitment at the upper tiers where panels thin out. A high-income consumer is not a high-net-worth one, and we don’t treat them as interchangeable.

  2. Conjoint integrity

    Choice designs are built to established standards - balanced, randomized and tested for prohibited combinations before fielding. Utilities are estimated at the individual level, so fine segments can be read rather than a single blended average.

  3. Qualitative depth over volume

    Eight to twelve interviews per wave, run by moderators who work in this category, with respondents verified to the same standard as the quantitative sample. Depth is the point; a hundred shallow conversations would tell us less.

  4. Longitudinal consistency

    The instrument stays stable wave over wave. Where a question has to change, the change is documented and the break in series is shown on the chart rather than absorbed quietly.

The brands serving the wealthiest people in the world often understand them the least - working with limited visibility into a market whose data was already stale by the time it arrived.

Luxury has moved from the commoditized to the experiential. What the affluent buy is increasingly the experience around the object rather than the object itself - the access, the anticipation, the way a house makes them feel recognized. That shift isn’t slowing, and it doesn’t wait for a research cycle built around annual reporting.

At the same time, the definition of luxury is changing faster than at any point in the category’s modern history. A generation has redrawn what a signature purchase looks like. Wellness, discretion, provenance and time have entered the value set. A house working from data gathered eighteen months ago isn’t working from data - it’s working from memory.

Verified access

Direct access to verified HNWI and UHNWI respondents across six markets, screened on wealth tier rather than self-declared income.

Semiannual tracking

Two waves a year, on one consistent instrument, so a real movement can be told apart from a passing mood.

Real segmentation

Every finding cut by age, geography and wealth band, because a sixty-year-old collector and a thirty-year-old first-generation buyer aren’t the same market.

Four structural failures in how the affluent are studied

None of these is a failure of effort. Each is a failure of design - and each is fixable.

  • Static reports, dynamic markets

    Most affluent research arrives as a finished document describing a quarter that’s already closed. By the time it circulates, the behavior it describes has moved on. A report is a photograph; a market is a film.

  • Stated intent, not decision behavior

    Ask an affluent consumer what matters, and everything matters. Attitudinal scales produce flattering lists where craftsmanship, sustainability and service all score highly. Only a forced trade-off shows what a buyer will actually give up.

  • Over-reliance on anecdote

    The category runs on confident storytelling - the flagship observation, the trend piece, the one client everyone quotes. It’s vivid, persuasive and unweighted. A boardroom can’t tell a signal from a story without a sample behind it.

  • Fragmented across markets

    A study in Dubai, a different instrument in Singapore, a third in Milan - none of them comparable. The result is a set of local truths that can’t be added up, and a group-level question that never gets answered.

Four intelligence pillars

Every wave reports against the same four pillars, so a subscriber reads a trend rather than a new report each cycle. Select a pillar to see what it delivers.

Brand & Positioning Intelligence

Where a house actually sits in the affluent mind, measured against the houses it genuinely competes with rather than the ones it names in a deck.

  • Desirability and consideration for leading houses, tracked wave over wave in each market.
  • The specific attributes driving preference - heritage, craft, rarity, discretion, recognition - ranked as a true hierarchy through MaxDiff rather than a rating scale.
  • Perceptions of authenticity and legitimacy among younger affluent buyers, where the sharpest movements are occurring.
  • White space: the positions available in each market that no established house currently occupies credibly.
  • Movement flags, so a two-wave decline is visible before it becomes a four-quarter problem.

Product & Experience Design

What the affluent want built, and what they’ll refuse to pay for once it’s built.

  • Feature and attribute prioritization across categories, using MaxDiff to force genuine differentiation across long lists.
  • Willingness to pay by wealth band and generation, isolated through choice-based conjoint rather than asked directly.
  • The experiential components now carrying the most weight - access, personalization, service, provenance, aftercare.
  • Where a category’s expected standard has quietly moved, so a house can see the new baseline before a competitor sets it.
  • Format and configuration preferences, including the trade-offs the affluent make between exclusivity and availability.

Customer Experience Strategy

The gap between what a house promises and what a client receives, measured touchpoint by touchpoint across six markets.

  • Expectation and delivery captured on the same respondent, producing a real gap rather than a satisfaction average.
  • The touchpoints where the affluent are most and least tolerant of friction, by market.
  • Service expectations by wealth tier - where the UHNWI standard genuinely differs from the HNWI standard, and where it doesn’t.
  • Digital and human balance: which interactions the affluent want automated, and which they insist stay personal.
  • Recovery behavior - what a house can do after a failure, and how much of the relationship is recoverable.

Market & Opportunity Mapping

Where the demand is forming, how large it is, and how long the window stays open.

  • Demand pool sizing by market, category and wealth band, updated every wave.
  • Emerging market signals, including the first-generation wealth cohorts reshaping India, the Gulf and Southeast Asia.
  • Category migration - where discretionary spend is moving between goods, experiences, wellness and assets.
  • Competitive intensity by market, so an entry decision is made against a real field rather than a reputational one.
  • Forward indicators drawn from wave-over-wave movement rather than commentary.

Core findings by industry

Four industries. Four surprising insights into what affluent consumers value.

Automotive

A luxury car needs to deliver more than a prestigious name.

Build quality mattered more than any other attribute tested, while manufactured exclusivity mattered least.

See the Findings

Retail - Fashion and Beauty

Being hard to get doesn’t always make something more desirable.

Exclusive access ranked lowest among the attributes tested. The people chasing a limited-edition release may not be the same people making the most valuable purchases.

See the Findings

Hospitality

Luxury hospitality is ultimately about what the experience makes possible.

Time with people who matter ranked highest among the attributes tested, while being seen ranked last.

See the Findings

Financial Services & Wealth Management

For wealthy clients, feeling understood matters more than special access.

Privileged access ranked lowest of twelve attributes. Having an advisor who genuinely understands them mattered more.

See the Findings

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PortalEvery wave in one place
1
Waves a yearNew intelligence, twice a year
2
QuestionsAsk the wealthiest. Shape the next wave.
5

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