Recent academic endeavours at Pepperdine University’s Graziadio Business School Luxury Strategy Center posit a compelling model: that luxury is, at its core, about the creation of extreme value. The focal point here is the consumer’s emotional and psychological landscape, the field where real value is cultivated. Luxury brands must engage in a role reversal, stepping into the shoes of their consumers to understand their desires and expectations.

When a brand can incite a level of desire so profound that it overshadows the allure of competitors or how dear its price tag is, it has successfully produced extreme value, leading to a nonlinear willingness to pay. The power of extreme value perception negates the need for exorbitant pricing or other superficial markers. It roots luxury in the emotional and psychological dimensions, domains often overlooked yet fundamentally crucial for a brand’s staying power.

A brand’s narrative, its soul-script, emerges as the base in the quest for extreme value. Sadly, the industry landscape is littered with brands that lack a compelling story.

Research indicates that up to 95 per cent of luxury brands lack a compelling story. And this is fatal because extensive research at Pepperdine has shown that the brand story carries most of the value of a luxury brand. In other words, the brand story isn’t merely an optional aspect but the cornerstone of luxury branding.

Without an authentic and unique story that vividly articulates what the brand stands for, the potential for creating extreme value becomes a distant dream. In fact, Équité Research predicts that up to 50 per cent of today’s luxury brands will vanish by 2030—a reflection of poor brand storytelling.

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In a world that is filled with products and brands that compete for the attention of the world’s most affluent clients, a brand can no longer rely on traditional markers—quality, craftsmanship, design, heritage—to claim luxury status.

The future belongs to those that can articulate a compelling story, connect deeply with consumers and, most importantly, create extreme value—transforming the way consumers perceive themselves and the world around them.

This is not a luxury; it is a necessity.

Named one of the “Global Top Five Luxury Key Opinion Leaders to Watch”, Daniel Langer is the CEO of the luxury, lifestyle and consumer brand strategy firm Équité, and the executive professor of luxury strategy and pricing at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. He consults many of the leading luxury brands in the world, is the author of several best-selling luxury management books, a global keynote speaker, and holds luxury masterclasses on the future of luxury, disruption, and the luxury metaverse in Europe, the USA, and Asia.