Bridging tradition and transformation, academic rigor and industry relevance, Dr. Eleonora Cattaneo is both scholar and strategist—shaping the future of luxury brand management through a rare fusion of insight and influence.
With a PhD in Marketing from the University of Pavia, an MBA from SDA Bocconi, and a BA from the University of Bristol, her academic journey is as global as the brands she advises.
From leading the MA in Luxury Brand Management at Regent’s University London and teaching at SDA Bocconi in Milan, to advising global fashion, design, and hospitality brands, Eleonora Cattaneo moves fluidly between the classroom and the C-suite, research and real-world application, intellect and impact.
Now Professor of Luxury Management and Director of the MSc and Executive Masters programs at the Glion Institute of Higher Education in Switzerland, she mentors the minds shaping luxury’s next chapter.
In this exclusive interview with Florine Eppe Beauloye, founder of Worthbury, Eleonora Cattaneo explores the converging contrasts and nuances redefining high-end hospitality and the future of luxury brand management—from cross-sector loyalty to curated brand moments, from future-facing expression of heritage to holistic sustainability.
Worthbury: As the Director of Glion’s MSc and Executive Masters in Luxury Brand Management, how do you see luxury education evolving to prepare professionals for a dynamic landscape shaped by AI advancements, emerging luxury hubs and shifting consumer preferences?
Eleonora Cattaneo: I recognize that luxury education must evolve to address the dynamic landscape and have designed the programs I lead to prepare professionals to navigate in this transformative environment. The programs incorporate AI and digital innovation into the curriculum, ensuring that students understand how to leverage these technologies to enhance brand value and customer engagement. This includes exploring AI-driven personalization strategies and data analytics to inform decision-making processes.
Understanding that luxury is as much about experience as it is about product, our programs emphasize experiential learning.
Understanding that luxury is as much about experience as it is about product, our programs emphasize experiential learning. Students engage in real-world projects, field visits to luxury brands, and internships that provide firsthand insight into the industry’s operations.
Each year, the MSc students organize a luxury event which they design and deliver to the market.
We address the shift in global luxury market expansion to include emerging hubs in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa and we focus on the issues prioritized by luxury consumers today: authenticity, sustainability, and personalized experiences. This includes exploring sustainable business practices and ethical branding, ensuring that graduates can lead brands that resonate with evolving consumer preferences.
Worthbury: With your unique experience in both academia and consulting for luxury brands, what can the academic world and the luxury industry—especially in hospitality—learn from each other to drive innovation and elevate guest experiences?
Eleonora Cattaneo: I believe there is tremendous value in building stronger bridges between theory and practice, particularly in the context of luxury hospitality. Luxury brands excel at creating emotionally resonant experiences. By observing how luxury hospitality crafts these moments, educators can better teach the emotive and sensory aspects of brand experience, which are often underemphasized in traditional marketing education.
Academia offers tools for long-term thinking and critical analysis, which are vital in an industry often driven by quarterly results or trend cycles.
Academia offers tools for long-term thinking and critical analysis, which are vital in an industry often driven by quarterly results or trend cycles. Theoretical models and case studies help leaders step back from day-to-day operations and make more reflective, strategic decisions.
Worthbury: Luxury brands across industries—from fashion to automotive—are increasingly entering the branded residences space, particularly in Asia Pacific and the Middle East. What opportunities and challenges do they face, and how can these ventures strengthen brand equity?
Eleonora Cattaneo: Luxury brands expanding into branded residences are tapping into one of the fastest-growing intersections of real estate, hospitality, and lifestyle branding, particularly in Asia Pacific and the Middle East. This move offers significant opportunities—but also distinct challenges. Branded residences allow luxury brands to extend their aesthetic and values into daily life, creating a fully immersive brand world. Living in a Bentley-branded apartment or a Bulgari residence turns customers into long-term brand participants, not just consumers.
Branded residences allow luxury brands to extend their aesthetic and values into daily life, creating a fully immersive brand world.
In key markets like Dubai, Singapore, and Bangkok, there is strong demand from HNWIs for real estate that combines status, exclusivity, and service excellence. For luxury brands, this is a direct path to customer lifetime value and cross-category loyalty.
Moreover, in volatile retail or tourism environments, residences offer long-term, tangible assets that align with broader wealth management trends and collaborating with leading architects and interior designers enables brands to showcase their design DNA in new, spatial forms. This enhances perceived value and storytelling potential.
Assuming the design and delivery are a good fit with the parent brand, challenges are mainly related to operational issues as luxury brands often lack expertise in real estate development or property management. Without the right hospitality or residential partners, the execution risks diluting the brand rather than strengthening it.
Today’s luxury houses are no longer just fashion labels—they’re cultural architects.
Worthbury: Luxury fashion houses like Louis Vuitton and Dior are expanding into chic F&B ventures such as LV The Place Bangkok and Dior Café. What’s driving this trend, and how can brands craft authentic dining experiences that deepen customer connections?
Eleonora Cattaneo: Affluent consumers, especially Gen Z and Millennials, value experiences over possessions. Dining—when elevated to a curated, branded moment—creates lasting memories that strengthen emotional bonds with the brand. Today’s luxury houses are no longer just fashion labels—they’re cultural architects.
Cafés, restaurants, and even patisseries allow brands like Louis Vuitton (LV The Place Bangkok) or Dior (Dior Café) to physically manifest their aesthetic, values, and heritage in a multi-sensory format.
Branded cafés invite consumers to linger, share, and post. The result: free digital exposure and user-generated content that reinforces brand desirability in aspirational but accessible ways.
It’s clear that sustainability in luxury hospitality is no longer a niche differentiator—it is becoming an essential pillar of brand credibility.
Worthbury: Sustainability is a growing expectation in luxury hospitality. Based on your research into sustainable luxury, how do you see sustainable practices evolving in this sector, and what advice would you offer hospitality brands to integrate them authentically?
Eleonora Cattaneo: Based on my research into sustainable luxury, it’s clear that sustainability in luxury hospitality is no longer a niche differentiator—it is becoming an essential pillar of brand credibility. But the challenge lies in integrating it authentically, without compromising the exclusivity, comfort, or emotional resonance that defines the luxury experience.
There is a philosophical shift happening: true luxury is now seen as responsibility, not indulgence. Brands are embracing a mindset of stewardship—of land, culture, and community.
Early efforts focused on back-of-house initiatives—LED lighting, water conservation, or waste reduction. Today, luxury hospitality is shifting toward holistic sustainability that touches every guest touchpoint, from locally sourced amenities and regenerative cuisine to eco-conscious spa treatments and architecture.
There is a philosophical shift happening: true luxury is now seen as responsibility, not indulgence. Brands are embracing a mindset of stewardship—of land, culture, and community.
Affluent, educated travelers—especially Millennials and Gen Z—expect transparency and substance, not vague claims. Leading brands are adopting certifications, publishing impact reports, and embedding purpose into their storytelling.
Singita stands out as a benchmark in sustainable luxury. Operating across South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and Rwanda, Singita has built its reputation not just on exceptional safari experiences, but on its deep commitment to conservation, community empowerment, and low-impact design. A significant portion of Singita’s profits support the protection of over 1 million acres of wilderness.
Their model is not hospitality with a green veneer—it is hospitality in service of conservation. Lodges are constructed with minimal environmental impact, often using reclaimed materials and open structures that blend seamlessly with the landscape. For example, their Sweni Lodge uses “glass box” architecture to merge indoor and outdoor space without disrupting the surroundings.
The key takeaway is: sustainability isn’t a checklist—it’s part of the guest narrative.
The company actively invests in local communities through training, education, and employment, creating a regenerative model that benefits guests, nature, and people equally.
The key takeaway is: sustainability isn’t a checklist—it’s part of the guest narrative. Every stay should be infused with purpose, allowing visitors to feel part of something larger than a luxury escape.
Worthbury: Based on your research into heritage branding and brand revival, what key strategies should legacy luxury brands adopt to stay relevant to modern consumers while honoring their legacy?
Eleonora Cattaneo: The most successful legacy luxury brands are those that manage to strike a delicate balance between preservation and reinvention.
Staying relevant to modern consumers requires curation, not nostalgia—a future-facing expression of heritage rather than a museum-like replication of the past.
Staying relevant to modern consumers requires curation, not nostalgia—a future-facing expression of heritage rather than a museum-like replication of the past.
These are the key strategies I recommend:
Curate, don’t reproduce: Selective storytelling.
Legacy brands should curate their archives—highlighting the most meaningful, resonant elements of their history—and reinterpret them with a contemporary lens. This creates continuity while avoiding creative stagnation. Gucci under Alessandro Michele reimagined archival logos and patterns with eclectic, Gen Z-friendly aesthetics—revival without replication. (Although nothing lasts forever and reinvention is essential.)
Appoint the right creative visionary.
Creative direction is pivotal. The ideal artistic lead understands the brand’s codes but is willing to challenge and evolve them. A sensitive but brave reinterpretation of heritage can unlock cultural relevance and renewed desirability. Matthieu Blazy at Bottega Veneta emphasized craftsmanship while steering the brand toward minimalist luxury—honoring the past through modern restraint.
Engage with cultural moments.
Heritage must live in the now. Collaborating with contemporary artists, designers, or digital creators allows legacy brands to enter current conversations without compromising their roots. Dior’s collaborations with contemporary artists and the Lady Dior Art project have helped anchor its legacy in today’s creative landscape.
Embrace new luxury values (without losing soul).
Modern consumers—particularly Gen Z and Millennials—prioritize values like sustainability, inclusivity, and authenticity. Legacy brands must find ways to express these values through the lens of their identity. Chanel’s Métiers d’Art collections celebrate craftsmanship while increasingly incorporating traceable sourcing and sustainability—without losing the couture aura.
Worthbury: Which market do you see as the next major frontier for the global luxury industry, and what unique opportunities or challenges might it pose for brands expanding there?
Eleonora Cattaneo: Based on the research my colleague Simon Joseph and I presented at the Monaco Luxury Symposium —titled “India’s Ascent: Can It Become the Next Powerhouse in the Global Luxury Market?”—I firmly believe that India represents the next major frontier for the global luxury industry.
India represents the next major frontier for the global luxury industry.
This is not a speculative view, but one grounded in macroeconomic data, evolving consumer behavior, and first-hand qualitative insights from affluent Indian consumers.
Worthbury: Looking ahead, how do you envision the future of luxury hospitality as AI, virtual experiences, and demographic shifts reshape guest expectations? What advice would you offer to someone aspiring to lead in this fast-evolving space?
Eleonora Cattaneo: Looking ahead, the future of luxury hospitality will be shaped by the integration of AI, virtual experiences, and evolving guest demographics.
New generations of travelers are seeking hyper-personalized, meaningful interactions—expecting intuitive service that anticipates their needs while still preserving the emotional connection.
A prime example is Aman Resorts, which discreetly leverages AI-enhanced CRM systems to personalize guest stays, from preferred in-room amenities to curated local experiences, often before the guest even arrives. Despite their analog aesthetic, this behind-the-scenes technology enables Aman to deliver the kind of invisible luxury that feels both effortless and intimate.
The future will belong to brands that can balance innovation with empathy, and understand that true luxury lies in anticipating needs, not overwhelming with novelty.
For those aspiring to lead in this evolving space, my advice is to develop both technological fluency and deep human insight—the future will belong to brands that can balance innovation with empathy, and understand that true luxury lies in anticipating needs, not overwhelming with novelty.
Worth sharing
A book worth reading: Luxury Brand and Art Collaborations: Postmodern Consumer Culture by Federica Carlotto of Sotheby’s Institute of Art (Routledge 2024)
A luxury leader worth knowing: Miuccia Prada for having turned a personal project (Miù Miù) into a globally successful brand.
Your definition of ‘worth’ in one sentence: Worth is the emotional and cultural value a brand or object holds—not just for what it costs, but for what it means.
Three qualities that define a great luxury leader: Cultural intelligence, aesthetic foresight and infinite empathy.
At Worthbury, we celebrate the luxury leaders shaping the industry. Our Leaders of Luxury series brings you conversations worth reading with those worth knowing, offering exclusive insights into their vision and impact.