Like many people, I'm feeling the pinch of rising living costs. The natural reaction is to pull back, spend less and think twice about those frivolous purchases. Not necessarily because you want to, but because there's simply less money left to spend.
Yet the desire to treat yourself doesn't disappear. If anything, with the pressures of modern working life and the increasingly blurred line between work and home, those little luxuries can feel more important than ever.
I know this from experience. Take magazines and newspapers. They're exactly the sort of thing people cut back on when times are tough, and it makes perfect sense. Who's thinking about some juicy celebrity gossip when they can barely afford to heat and light their home? Besides, reading in the dark would be difficult.
But wanting something and being able to justify buying it are two very different things, and that distinction is beginning to reshape the luxury market.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), UK consumer prices rose by about 42.5% between September 2016 and September 2026. Something that cost £100 a decade ago would now cost around £142.50, if it had kept pace with general inflation.
Against that backdrop, it's hardly surprising that people are becoming more selective about what they spend their hard-earned cash on. But what's happening at the luxury end of the market is particularly revealing.
The disappearing aspirational customer
Like so many brands, luxury advertisers are on an eternal search for customers with money to spend. If you've ever worked in advertising, or even overheard a marketer talking, you'll probably have heard them mention ABC1s, the familiar social grades used to classify audiences.
Traditionally, AB consumers, those in higher and intermediate managerial or professional occupations, have been particularly attractive to advertisers. But social grade is based on occupation, not income, and a professional job increasingly doesn't mean someone has money to spare.
Luxury has always relied on more than the exceptionally wealthy. There are also millions of aspirational customers: people willing to save up for a designer handbag, an expensive watch or the occasional indulgence.
Research from Boston Consulting Group and Altagamma, published in 2025, found that around 35% of aspirational luxury consumers, those spending less than €5,000 a year on luxury, had reduced or stopped their luxury purchases over the previous year. The main reasons were price increases they saw as unjustified, a sense of lower value and greater financial caution.
Meanwhile, the industry's wealthiest customers appear to be living in a different world. The same research found that the top 0.1% of luxury customers, those spending more than €50,000 a year, account for more than 37% of the broader luxury market's value once cars, yachts and wellness are included.
It's a striking contrast. While some customers are questioning whether they can justify a luxury purchase, others remain willing to spend extraordinary sums.
This year's edition of the same study suggests the freefall among aspirational buyers is now slowing, with most expecting to hold their spending steady. But it also found that 70% of luxury consumers, at every level of wealth, had decided against a purchase in the past year because the price felt unjustified. The desire is still there. The willingness to pay any price for it isn't.
Of course, the affluent aren't all struggling, and the wealthiest aren't entirely immune to economic uncertainty. But there is a growing distinction between those who aspire to luxury and those for whom the price is barely a consideration.
What does this mean for advertising?
For luxury brands, the question becomes increasingly important: who are they actually trying to reach? The broad ABC1 audience, the aspirational buyers who are cutting back, or the super-wealthy who are essentially off the scale?
Traditionally, premium magazines and newspaper supplements have been attractive environments for luxury advertising. Beautiful photography, carefully curated editorial and an audience interested in fashion, travel and lifestyle all add to the appeal. As brands put more emphasis on their highest-value customers, publishers could face pressure to show that their audiences offer more than aspiration alone.
There is another side to this, though. Luxury advertising has never been only about immediate purchases. It's also about creating desire, establishing identity and building relationships with customers who might not buy today, but could tomorrow.
And that's something a carefully considered editorial environment can still offer.
Perhaps the luxury market isn't losing its appeal at all. Perhaps the desire is still there, but the number of people who can comfortably act on it is shrinking.
Sources and further reading
On AdDeck:
- Print ad formats: the magazine and newspaper placements luxury brands have traditionally relied on.
- Ad glossary: social grade (ABC1) and print terms such as readership and circulation.
Elsewhere:
- Office for National Statistics: CPI index, all items (2015=100).
- Altagamma: Consumer & Retail Insight 2025 press release (BCG-Altagamma True-Luxury Global Consumer Insight, July 2025).
- Boston Consulting Group and Altagamma: True-Luxury Global Consumer Insights 2026 summary (July 2026).