At Yankelovich, we call it the mainstreaming of affluence. University of Florida advertising professor James Twitchell has dubbed it the democratization of luxury, a phenomenon that he says is paralleled by its mirror image, luxury creep. BCG consultants Michael Silverstein and Neil Fiske characterize it as the new luxury or luxury for the masses. The Wall Street Journal has described how it looks as the hourglass economy. Management consultants Joseph Pine and James Gilmore anticipated it in their analysis of the emerging experience economy.
It’s called many things and described in many ways, but what it comes down to is a rising set of expectations in the consumer marketplace. Simply put, consumers want to live luxuriously. Indeed, consumers not only want this, they think they deserve it. Every car should drive like a luxury car; every hotel room should be a five-star experience. What’s more, consumers expect the very best at the very best price, which is to say that material luxury has become the basic cost of entry
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