Sarah Drumm is a freelance journalist covering small businesses, start-ups, and new consumer brands. She is a contributor to Canvas8 and published a report on the popularity of direct-to-consumer brand communities for Thingtesting.

In a hyper-connected world, it feels like everything previously ‘insider’ is more available than ever: from behind-the-scenes access to the lives of public figures to travel experiences immersing people into worlds previously deemed unattainable. But while people embrace this community-based inclusivity and unprecedented access to their icons, they still yearn for touches of exclusivity to define their status.

As the age-old understanding of exclusivity is eroded, people are redefining status for themselves using a broad range of factors beyond solely economic ones. This new iteration of status is often based around increasingly niche and local signifiers – from luxury dupes to the rise of members clubs and closed-community spaces based on shared interests. Status is becoming a mode of belonging and connection with like-minded people.

People are erecting walls of their exclusive communities, relying on more subtle markers of identity. This is apparent with middle-class people fetishising working-class aesthetics, athletes turning to niche sports like padel, and social media groups organising around niche interests – spawning companies. As status-defined micro-trends on social media accelerate, brands face a challenge to keep up. If previously certain legacy items were automatically associated with exclusivity, now people are much more trusting of the UGC-defined vision of what status means. More than ever, speed, knowledge, inventiveness, and being plugged into the community determine what – and who – is in.

Insider Status

Dave Grossman is the founder of MilesTalk and Yourbestcreditcards.com. He’s an expert on rewards cards and has spent 20 years traveling the world in first and business class using air miles and points.

United States

Money

Credit cards and loans

Travel and Leisure

Lifestyle

The Motley Fool

Bankrate

Interview with Dave Grossman conducted by the author

Emarketer

PYMNTS

One Mile At a Time

TravelAge West

Deloitte

CNBC

Vogue Business

Despite inflation, affluent consumers continue to spend on luxury travel experiences – and even greater numbers are using the American Express Platinum Card to do so. Why has the card maintained its enduring appeal, and how is it adapting to luxury consumers’ changing tastes?