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WHAT'S NEW IN THE WORLD OF EXPERIENCE
A collection of posts from our founder on all things experiential
Changing the Game in Luxury Hospitality
Our team just finished building a new hotel concept and brand for a client in the Middle East. And we built it in a way that fundamentally challenges how luxury hospitality has been developed for decades. We didn’t start with a location and ask what belonged there. And we didn’t build a beautiful asset and then ask a brand, service model and experience to make it distinctive. We reversed the entire logic. This developer and their investors understood that in a saturated ultra
The AHA Group
Aug 182 min read
HNW and UHNW customers aren’t fooled by your segmentation.
“I know exactly what they track, and I find it mildly offensive because it’s obvious and archaic. It has absolutely no value to me as a client.” said a tech millionaire. A few weeks ago I was at a dinner with UHNW customers of one of our clients, and we got onto the topic of how luxury brands segment “the wealthy.” UHNW individuals know they are being profiled this way. And the feedback was scathing. “I know that they use my net worth and purchasing patterns to put me into th
The AHA Group
Aug 182 min read
The evolution of buying behaviors and decision-making in HNW and UHNW markets.
Last week, the CFO of a multi-billion-dollar luxury brand dropped by a session I was teaching. He liked it so much, he cancelled all of his afternoon meetings to stay to the end. The topic? The evolution of buying behaviors and decision-making in HNW and UHNW markets. Over six weeks of almost continuous work travel, I have delivered versions of this briefing to sales organizations across luxury retail, private aviation, wealth management and luxury automotive. And I keep comi
The AHA Group
Aug 182 min read
"Most people don't realize how quickly they're revealing what they don't know."
"Most people don't realize how quickly they're revealing what they don't know." I hear some version of this constantly from HNW and UHNW luxury buyers. "My team, my family office, and I get sold to every day. Usually by people who know everything about the product they're selling and almost nothing about the life I'm actually living.” They are right. Whether it's private aviation, luxury retail, hospitality, wealth management, or another affluent-facing business, there is an
The AHA Group
Aug 182 min read
Something every luxury brand needs to hear.
Last night, over dinner in Portofino, an UHNW guest of our client netted out something every luxury brand needs to hear. I asked him what keeps him returning so consistently to this brand every quarter, year after year. He replied, "Aside from the quality, they have helped me develop my life over the years in ways I didn't expect, and they treat me with such care that feels like family - only more loyal, with more wisdom, and better taste." He spends millions annually with th
The AHA Group
Aug 182 min read
I knew exactly what had gone wrong with this luxury brand.
Somewhere in a conference room months earlier, someone had written, "We need to create more memorable moments." I could see the evidence everywhere. Here's the problem: affluent and ultra-high-net-worth clients have already moved on. Like way on. What feels extraordinary to an organization often feels remarkably familiar to someone who experiences the world's best brands every week. The objective isn’t to design specific moments. It’s to design brand DNA into everything. Ever
The AHA Group
Aug 182 min read
From July 9-17, I will be in Milan
From July 9-17, I will be in Milan and the surrounding region with members of our executive leadership team working with our clients in the luxury and ultra-luxury retail and hospitality sectors. These organizations are making decisions that will shape client engagement, brand relevance, and competitive position for years to come as they navigate an increasingly competitive luxury landscape. While our schedule is largely committed, we do have limited remaining capacity for a
The AHA Group
Aug 181 min read
Luxury brands are still teaching old hospitality models
I've spent the last several years listening to luxury brands explain how they plan to win High-Net-Worth clients. The answer is remarkably consistent. And remarkably wrong. "Luxury brands are still teaching old hospitality models. Good thing that's not us." Except IT IS. Along with the majority of luxury brands who still believe the secret to winning HNW and UHNW can be found in a hospitality training program. According to Bain's 2025 Luxury Study, the top 2% of luxury custom
The AHA Group
Aug 182 min read
The most powerful expressions of a luxury brand don't happen in stores
They happen in stories. In our work with Rolex, the challenge was never creating meaning. Rolex already possesses extraordinary meaning. The challenge was translating that meaning into something people could physically experience. Into signatures, rituals, environments, and moments that allow the customer to move from observer to participant. This is why the new Rolex boutique located on a mountain top in the Swiss Alps is so compelling. Most brands still think about physical
The AHA Group
Aug 182 min read
This Is the Dangerous Trap Making Businesses Bland, Forgettable and Easy to Ignore
I attended three events last week hosted by three different luxury brands. By the end, I could have covered the logos and struggled to tell you which brand hosted which event. This epidemic of sameness runs through luxury retail, private clubs, wealth management, hotels, and countless other industries. Most leaders cannot see the degree to which they have homogenized their offerings. Take private aviation. Most private aviation companies have hired an "experience leader" from
The AHA Group
Aug 181 min read
Our firm is made up of 45 careers, 45 lives, 45 families, 45 ambitions, and 45 futures.
Our firm is made up of 45 careers, 45 lives, 45 families, 45 ambitions, and 45 futures. As a founder, I've always taken that responsibility seriously. I don't discuss it often, but our employee experience is intentionally designed to honor individuality and create exceptional work. Over the years, three beliefs have shaped many of the decisions inside our firm. 🔷 People Deserve Extraordinary Experiences 🔷 🔹 For major onsite engagements, we often rent homes where every team
The AHA Group
Aug 182 min read
I see 200-300 handwritten notes a year. 99% of them miss the mark.
I see 200-300 handwritten notes a year. 99% of them miss the mark and, frankly, make me think less of the person who sent them. I've received them from airline executives, hotel general managers, cruise line officers, luxury retail associates, auto dealers, private bankers, and advisors. The industry changes, but the mistakes never do. And everything on this list makes me think less of the brand and the leadership behind it: 🔹 The note was written by someone's admin. Sorry,
The AHA Group
Aug 182 min read
Luxury clienteling is one of the worst experiences in luxury retail.
200 of the world's most valuable luxury retail clients spoke to us about this topic. 65 percent of wealthy, high-net-worth, high-spending luxury consumers report dissatisfaction with the retail in-store and digital experience. 85 percent say the overall luxury client experience has declined. The brands reading top-tier client concentration as loyalty are misreading a warning sign as a report card. Those clients aren't more loyal. They're just the last ones left while everyone
The AHA Group
Aug 182 min read
White Paper: The Consent Collapse
In over 200 conversations with HNW and UHNW clients, they have shared views about retail luxury brands they would never say publicly. Not because they are angry. Because they are done. What is striking is not the dissatisfaction itself. It is the language increasingly being used to describe modern luxury relationship models. Clients describing “VIP relationships” as psychologically exhausting. Clienteling as surveillance. Familiarity as entitlement. Personalization as pressur
The AHA Group
Aug 182 min read
I’ve been in 8 private clubs in the past two weeks.
Very few people experience this particular category of luxury in that kind of concentration. The cumulative effect is powerful. It’s rare to get to see these types of clubs back-to-back, but there are lessons for everyone in my read-out for our client. These are all clubs that have opened in the past two years, and I was fortunate to accompany several HNW / UHNW members on visits as their guest. I’ll net it out: the gap between perceived differentiation and actual differentia
The AHA Group
Aug 182 min read
"The Wow Trap" Article
The luxury industry is still pouring money into “Wow Moments.” The data says it’s a terrible investment. Even more so for HNW and UHNW clients. Gartner found that delighting customers with one singular Wow Moment has surprisingly low impact on retention, despite the significantly higher operational cost. But the most damning statistic may be this: 98% of companies invest in delight programs that drive only 2% of total brand loyalty. The remaining 98% of brand loyalty is drive
The AHA Group
May 252 min read
Our 7 Principles Framework for UHNW Event Design
When HNW and UHNW clients come to us about event design, they have already made one decision: the event is a brand extension. Our job is not to plan it, our job is to architect the experience so precisely that the people in the room walk away behaviorally different from when they walked in. That is a fundamentally different design problem. And it requires a fundamentally different model. Here is how our approach compares to what the market is currently offering: The market st
The AHA Group
May 252 min read
The "What" versus The "How"
My morning routine is pretty consistent. After my first coffee (absolutely essential, non-negotiable) I normally take about fifteen minutes to sketch out my LinkedIn post for the day. I’ve been thinking about writing this post for some time. As I scroll through my LinkedIn feed, it strikes me that 90% of the content I see could be characterized as “What”. In my world of luxury and ultra-luxury, there is a diverse range of thought leadership around the problems facing luxury t
The AHA Group
May 252 min read
HNW/UHNW consumers are becoming extraordinarily fast evaluators
Last week, I spent time with a client discussing something I think about often: high-end consumers are becoming extraordinarily fast evaluators. Not necessarily harsher, but faster. Someone may have stayed at Aman in Tokyo, visited a private members club in London, and had a remarkable experience at Cartier, all before interacting with your organization that same month. Those experiences shape expectations more than most companies realize. This has come up recently in worksho
The AHA Group
May 252 min read
The Players Changed. The Industry Hasn't.
“Tradition deserves to be preserved. But too many golf clubs use tradition as an excuse to avoid evolution.” That came from an interview this week with a club member for one of our consulting projects. He continued: “I play golf all over the world and belong to three clubs. The courses are world-class. Much of the experience around them still feels decades behind the clientele they serve.” That observation is more important than the industry realizes. Golf may be one of the c
The AHA Group
May 152 min read
Ready to Make Your UHNW Customer Experience Exceptional?
Our clients contact us with a distinct business challenge in mind - how can they strengthen the experiences they deliver to their affluent and UHNW customers, better prepare their people to engage their customers, or simply how to win and retain more UHNW customers.
Sometimes that work begins with a consulting engagement. Other times, it is a one-day executive facilitation session, sales training, wealth briefing, or an UHNW keynote.
We welcome your inquiry through our contact page or directly to William Andrews at williama@ahaexperience.com.
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