Tag Archives: Pictet Report

This independently managed, family-owned hotel in the City of Basel attracts guests from all over the world for its luxurious accommodation, its superb restaurant with three Michelin stars, and its talented staff team offering superior serviceThe Grand Hotel Les Trois Rois, which sits on the Rhine in the historic centre of Basel, is one of the oldest city hotels in Europe. The first record of The Three Kings dates back to 1681 when it was described as an inn for gentlemen. Rebuilt in 1844 in...

Consumers increasingly spend more on luxury experiences and less on luxury goods, and are developing an appetite for novel benefits when buying high-end products and servicesWhen people talk about Swiss brands, they often think about the luxury products and services for which the country is justly famous – its watches, jewellery, chocolates and deluxe hotels, for example. Over the last decade, my own research and teaching activities at INSEAD have taught me that decoding luxury consumption...

As is evident when travelling on public transport, people spend a lot of their idle time on mobile phones. But according to Stephan Schambach, the serial entrepreneur behind several major innovations in e-commerce, retailers have been slow to recognise that the future of their industry lies in mobile technology. Customers will increasingly demand the online experience available in other consumer industries such as travel and tourism, and the retail brands that are first to provide it will...

When Hubertus Bessau was 16, he knew exactly what he wanted to do – or rather, he knew exactly what he did not want to do. He did not want to work for a large company where it would be hard for him to have any impact on what happened. His ambition was to find a career that he would enjoy and where he could make a difference.He was already earning his own pocket money by designing websites for friends of his parents rather than taking casual jobs like working in a bar as friends did. When he...

The sharing economy is disrupting many consumer industries such as hotels (Airbnb) and taxis (Uber). One traditional industry that is increasingly facing disruption is office accommodation, where co-working is growing fast around the world. As with traditional offices, there are desks, meeting rooms and other working facilities, but they are usually shared by people not employed by a single organisation who enjoy working together as a community with online services providing benefits.One of...

A fast-growing German business which has become the country’s second-largest online clothing retailer and one of the fastest growing e-commerce companies in Europe, has designed its online shop like a fashion magazine to inspire customers seeking new ideas.Most online clothing retailers have a simple model: consumers look at their websites to search for clothing they want and purchase it. ABOUT YOU sees itself as a fashion discovery website which uses personalised data to offer suggestions...

Three British entrepreneurs have created the world’s first insurance-backed peer-to-peer marketplace to rent almost anything, bringing the sharing economy to cameras, projectors, disco equipment, drones, hot tubs, kayaks and a lot more.Mass consumption has become a common complaint in modern life, as consumers increasingly feel that they need to acquire the latest gadgets, update their mobile phones frequently and own cars used on average for only 4 per cent of the day. Throughout our lives,...

People born between 1981 and 1996 are radically changing the patterns of consumption established by their predecessors, in ways that are adversely affecting some industries and favouring companies which take advantage of the increasing spending power of younger consumers.Millennials are a group of people who were born between 1981 and 1996, which makes them between 22 and 37 years old in 2018. They are important for two reasons: there are more than 80 million millennials in the US today,...

Giant digital companies are increasingly competing in the physical world by personalising their offerings, and offering products that create a ‘better me’ or a better world. But some retailers are fighting back by creating real world experiences that cannot be rivalled online.Understanding the consumer of the future is critical to success in a fast-changing world where the old rules no longer apply. Brands need to react to the evolving needs of consumers who are prepared to change their...

Photographic artist Simon Roberts says that cities have gradually opened up more of their private land for public use, driven by the noblesse oblige of sovereigns, then philanthropic industrialists, and now city-dwellers demanding more sustainable cities.Until the 17th century, urban parks in Europe were private land – exclusively owned and used by royalty, the nobility and wealthy families. But when Charles II became King of England in 1660, he opened the grounds of St James’s Park next to...