Growth’s hidden cost: How scale erodes luxury

When I was a child, there was a Jaguar parked near my school. Every morning, I would slow down just to look at it. Its lines were elegant, and the car was exuding confidence. It was unmistakable. You knew exactly what it was and what it stood for: sophistication, strength, and an almost feline grace. Seeing that car felt extraordinary, every single time. Today that feeling has vanished. Jaguar, once a symbol of distinctive British luxury, became a brand chasing numbers. It expanded production, lowered prices, and tried to compete head-on with the German luxury giants. In the process, its design language lost character and distinctiveness. The curves became generic, the silhouettes interchangeable, there was nothing left that felt extraordinary. The cars that once stirred emotion now blend into traffic. The decision to pursue volume was meant to drive growth, but it drove the brand into obscurity. Luxury’s fundamental paradox This is one of the fundamental paradoxes of luxury. Growth looks like success on a spreadsheet, but it often destroys what makes a brand desirable. Luxury is built on rarity, emotional connection, and identity. It needs to create extreme value with every single item. When brands dilute these principles in the pursuit of scale, they lose their power, their reason to be. A luxury brand that becomes like everything else loses its meaning. Clients who once felt proud to own something unique begin to look elsewhere for distinction. Maserati is another cautionary example. For decades, it embodied extreme exclusivity, Italian passion and design flair. A Maserati was sensual and imperfect in the best possible way, full of personality and sound. Then came the quest for higher volumes. New much cheaper and much more practical models appeared, dealerships expanded, and prices went down. The exclusivity and distinctiveness that once defined the brand disappeared. What remained was a name without the same resonance, a luxury badge caught between aspiration and reality. Maserati today is in a bad position: too accessible for the elite, and too expensive for the mainstream. Spreadsheets override soul The underlying mistake is confusing growth with value creation. In luxury, the two are rarely aligned. True value is emotional. It comes from storytelling, extreme craftsmanship and distinction, scarcity, and belonging. These cannot be multiplied at industrial speed. When luxury brands try to play the same game as mass-market players, they end up competing on rational attributes like price or performance. What disappears is the feeling of transformation that makes luxury powerful. And on rational attributes others can easily win. Porsche just experienced this in China, where Xiaomi practically killed the Taycan with a product that is similar in design and performance, but 50%-80% cheaper. The best luxury houses understand that less can achieve more. Hermès could easily sell more bags. Ferrari could easily produce more cars. Rolex could produce more Daytonas. Patek Philippe could increase the production of its best-selling watches. However, all these brands choose restraint. Their waiting lists are reflections of discipline. Clients know that the brands will never compromise quality for chasing quantity. This integrity builds trust, which in turn fuels desire. When exclusivity fades forever Brands that forget this principle risk losing everything that makes them exceptional. Once exclusivity fades, it is nearly impossible to bring it back. Clients remember how a brand made them feel. If that emotion turns from aspiration to indifference, recovery becomes a long and uncertain journey. Luxury brands exist to create meaning, not volume. They turn ordinary materials into extraordinary objects and experiences. They help clients feel a shift in perception: a heightened sense of self, a moment of pride, a quiet confidence. When brands surrender this mission to chase quarterly results, they trade timelessness for transience. The world does not need more luxury products. It needs more brands that represent pure emotion, real artistry, and an authentic soul. Brand storytelling when done right is not a gimmick, or a marketing exercise. It provides clarity about what the brand stands for. It’s the definition of the one thing brands want employees and clients to know about them. It’s what powers the value creation system. Defining the one core mission In my point of view, there is nothing more critical for a luxury brand: creating clarity on the one core mission, the reason to be and target emotion that sets the brand apart from everybody else. Identifying and defining this is one of the most challenging tasks and most brands don’t invest enough time and resources into this. The result: they end up in the sea of sameness, with little differentiation, little inspiration and little desirability. Those few brands that understand the importance of being unique, distinct, and creating extreme value will continue to inspire loyalty and be able to command price premiums others can only dream of. Those that do not will discover that the biggest risk in luxury is trying to grow too much at the expense of brand equity. On which side are you? This is an opinion piece by Daniel Langer, CEO of Équité, recognized as one of the “Global Top Five Luxury Key Opinion Leaders,” and advisor to some of the most iconic luxury brands in the world. He serves as an executive professor of luxury strategy and pricing at Pepperdine University in Malibu and as a professor of luxury at NYU, New York. Daniel has authored best-selling books on luxury management in English and Chinese, and is a respected global keynote speaker. Daniel conducts in-person masterclasses on various luxury topics across the world. As a luxury expert featured on Bloomberg TV, Forbes, The Economist, and others, Daniel holds an MBA and a Ph.D. in luxury management and has received education from Harvard Business School. Sign up for his online luxury masterclasses at the Jing Academy.

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Growth’s hidden cost: How scale erodes luxury