The analog rebellion: Why luxury is failing the presence test

This week, my youngest daughter bought something unexpected for Gen Z. It wasn’t a new gaming console or a pair of sneakers. It was a vintage typewriter. She intends to use it to write letters to her friends and take notes. When I asked her why she would choose such a laborious method, her answer was immediate and revealing: she likes that it’s analog. She appreciates the resistance of the keys and the need to commit to a thought. Importantly, she has to be fully present because she cannot delete a mistake. This preference for friction is a direct diagnostic of a massive strategic failure across the luxury industry. While my daughter seeks the weight of commitment, managers have spent a decade obsessed with the industrialization of absence. Billions have been poured into optimizing the soul right out of the brand experience to achieve a sterile kind of seamlessness. The result has backfired. The more predictable a brand becomes, the less present it feels to consumers. The very convenience the industry now sells is exactly what its most desirable clients are trying to escape. The scarcity of soul The data shows that this shift is not about nostalgia. It is about a structural rejection of digital ubiquity. This is why some of the trendiest bars in the world, such as those at Raffles London, now curate vinyl-only sessions. They are not playing analog music for the sake of it. They are creating a specific acoustic and emotional depth that requires the listener to be in the room. On social platforms, the shift is even more aggressive. Hashtags like #DigitalDetox and #DumbPhone have exploded in popularity. Users are gaining status by rejecting the demand for constant novelty. Reports from the Global Wellness Institute rank “analog wellness” as the No. 1 trend for 2025. Young consumers are actively buying basic devices to escape the relentless connectivity that defines their lives. The industry has blindly mistaken technology for progress. It has equated premium with high-tech for so long that it has forgotten the fundamental law of luxury: luxury is defined by the scarcest resource. In 2026, the scarcest resource is not information or access. It is undivided human attention. The paralysis of the infinite Luxury management often overlooks the psychological and economic cost of the paradox of choice. In the digital realm, we are paralyzed by infinite variety. When every product variation is available at the tap of a screen and supply feels endless, the act of choosing loses its weight. This abundance does not create satisfaction. Instead, it creates a sense of detachment. When everything is editable and undoable, no single purchase feels significant or final. Strategic luxury operates on the principle of curated constraint. The power of the analog world lies in its limitations. A distinct, highly personal experience cannot exist in an environment of endless options. It requires a clear boundary. By narrowing the field of choice, a brand restores the value of the decision. This intentionality is a critical driver of desirability, one that many modern managers have traded for short-term volume. Brands that provide clear, restrictive, and highly curated paths are finding that clients feel more satisfied when the path is narrow and the outcome feels like a personal commitment. The arrogance of efficiency In my luxury masterclasses for global brands, I constantly challenge the prevailing management logic that equates efficiency with excellence. The luxury industry has become arrogant in its use of technology. Consider the overuse of touchscreens and haptic controls in cars that do not need them, which has forced even Ferrari to take a step back and reconsider its interface design. Bugatti, similarly, has made a deliberate choice to minimize screens and return to the tactile. Many digital layers neither add value nor create a brand-specific feel. Instead, they create friction and disconnect between the driver and the machine. The same failure is happening in retail. Sales associates are so focused on their digital devices that they fail to look clients in the eye. They are physically there but mentally absent. This is a betrayal of the luxury promise. If a client is spending $10,000 on a bag, they are buying the validation of their own presence. When the brand treats that interaction as a transaction to be optimized and the client as a walking wallet, the dream fractures. The strategic pivot: From digital to tactile Winning the next generation of luxury clients does not mean abandoning digital. On the contrary, the more digital our lives become, the more valuable the human element and everything that engages the senses will be. The brands that will thrive with Gen Z are those that double down on sensory details and the quality of human interaction that no screen can replicate. This is the tactile premium. Going forward, luxury brands must reprioritize human mastery. They must stop eliminating all friction and start celebrating it. In my book Luxury Marketing and Management, I emphasize that a significant, but vastly underestimated, value driver is difficulty. Excellence requires effort, and presence demands a lack of distraction. Yet most companies fail to leverage this driver effectively. Additionally, trust is a casualty of the AI era. As synthetic content becomes infinite, we are collectively facing a crisis of authenticity. You can fake a digital experience. You cannot fake the time and dedication it takes to show up physically or make someone feel they are truly being listened to. The typewriter my daughter bought is a statement of intent. She is choosing effort over ease. Luxury has always been about taking the time to do things the hard way because the result is better. The future of this industry is not found in a virtual world. It is right here, in the eyes of the person standing in front of you. If you are not looking back at them, you have already lost. 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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The analog rebellion: Why luxury is failing the presence test