Inconspicuous Consumption
& The Craft PremiumFrom choosing craft alcohols to staying in a downtown Airbnb, a new perception of luxury is emerging, rejecting conspicuous opulence and behemoth luxury brands, and embracing artisanal values such as proximity, small batch production, authenticity, heritage and craftsmanship, found in independent brands such as Rapha, Moscot or Fjallraven.
This expedition invites you to explore how your business might connect with the craft culture and offer consumers the meaning they seek in these purchases.
- Benefit from inside access to globally successful independent lifestyle brands, and their executives.
- Discuss new ideas of luxury with practitioners and experts from farm-to-table pioneers, to renowned designers and leading lifestyle editors.
- Conduct interviews and gain first-hand insights on the aspirations of this new consumer class .
- Use design thinking to understand how to adapt to this profound shift in the perception of luxury, and re-invent your offer.
- Enjoy stimulating exchange and network with other board-level executives preparing to tackle this profound cultural change, impacting the luxury segments of all industries, from hospitality to electronics, personal care to real estate.
- Benefit from inside access to globally successful independent lifestyle brands, and their executives.
Health, Wellness,
& The Immortal AspirationExercise is the new shopping and Amazon owns Whole Foods. For Soulcyclers, yogis and superfood aficionados everywhere, wellness has become both a status symbol and a quasi-spiritual pursuit, a new belief system offering a path to self-realisation, belonging and ultimately transcendence (on Instagram, at least).
This expedition invites you to explore how your business might find new meaning and competitive advantage in the context of the unstoppable global health and wellness movement.
Photo by Marcelo Moreira
- Benefit from inside access to companies and executives at the forefront of the wellness phenomenon.
- Discuss the movement with expert practitioners and thought leaders.
- Conduct interviews and gain first-hand insights into the expectations of health-focused consumers and capture the ethos and essence of this lifestyle transformation through your own ethnographic research.
- Use design thinking to understand how to respond to demand for wellness in existing products and service, and how to imagine entirely new mission-driven wellness offers.
- Enjoy stimulating exchange and network with other board-level executives preparing to respond to these new conceptions of wellbeing in their business; in sports and pharmaceuticals, but also every business that relates to a consumers' body, from bedding to apparel, personal care to food.
- Benefit from inside access to companies and executives at the forefront of the wellness phenomenon.
Digital Tribes
& The Direct-to-Consumer Opportunity
As malls echo emptily, direct-to-consumer brands like Glossier and Bonobos are building deep and tribal affinities with their customers. With exclusive distribution relationships and radically different cost structures they are disrupting long-established categories from eyewear to mattresses. The meteoric growth and sale of Dollar Shave Club to Unilever signals the importance of this opportunity for retail businesses in every vertical.
This expedition invites you to explore how you might lead your business might leverage the D2C opportunity and reimagine brand, product & distribution strategy to successfully reach digital tribes.
- Benefit from inside access to globally successful D2C brands, and their executives, and understand what they do differently.
- Discuss status and group identity signalling with leading social media and branding practitioners.
- Conduct interviews and gain first-hand insights into the behavior and expectations of niche audiences.
- Use design thinking to understand how to re-imagine marketing, product and distribution strategies for a digital world.
- Enjoy stimulating exchange and network with other board-level executives preparing their organization to move into the Direct-to-Consumer channel.
- Benefit from inside access to globally successful D2C brands, and their executives, and understand what they do differently.
Wealthy, Retired & Lonely:
Designing For The Silver Segment
By 2030 one in five Americans will be over 65. This drastic change in demographic structure is already affecting every level of the US economy, from labour markets to real estate. Living longer, and often alone in suburban sprawl, wealthy, ageing boomers represent an unprecedented market opportunity for businesses able to respond to their unique needs.
This expedition asks how you might lead your business in creating value for the silver segment, and position it to thrive in the ageing demographic landscape of affluent America.
- Benefit from inside access to innovative organizations and executives pioneering new products and services for the senior market.
- Explore the experience of aging in affluent America with expert practitioners, from leaders in senior communities to psychology professionals.
- Conduct interviews and build empathy for the needs of older customers, and gain first-hand insights.
- Use design thinking to understand how to adapt and create offers that meet the unique needs of the silver segment.
- Enjoy stimulating exchange and network with other board-level executives excited to better meet the needs of affluent seniors.
- Benefit from inside access to innovative organizations and executives pioneering new products and services for the senior market.
Beyond Gender,
In Teams,
Product Development & MarketingHumans coming of age in the time of #metoo and non-binary activism are refusing gender stereotypes in their careers, their physical identity and their lifestyle and parenting choices. A new normal is on the horizon, where businesses will benefit from going beyond gender segmentation in their products and services, from skincare to automotive.
This expedition invites you to explore how you might lead your business past staid gender norms to reach consumers that identify as individuals, not stereotypes. We will also explore gender diversity in teams and leadership as a driving force for success.
Photo by Karina Carvalho
- Benefit from inside access to innovative companies that have brought-to-market non-binary products and services in traditionally gendered categories.
- Meet and learn from the companies pioneering policies to encourage leadership diversity.
- Discuss the culture and ethos of inclusivity with experts from every area, from HR practitioners to activists, and learn how to be a workplace ally to diverse individuals.
- Use design thinking to gain insights into non-binary attitudes and understand how they translate into unmet customer needs and opportunities for your business.
- Enjoy stimulating exchange and network with other board-level executives thinking about how to better lead for inclusion, in your teams, product development and marketing.
- Benefit from inside access to innovative companies that have brought-to-market non-binary products and services in traditionally gendered categories.
