We’ve been looking at where the deep pocketed will safely expend their wealth in times where spending flashy cash isn’t cool and petrol thirsty motors don’t really fit with the recent Copenhagen’s agenda and here it is, the Aston Cygnet!

Now Aston Martin is without doubt still wound licking at the sales fall off in the last year, but kudos for the innovation here.

If things appear in market as planned for early 2011, for £20k you can get behind the wheel of the Cygnet. Now this is some £10k more than the Toyota IQ, the car the Cygnet is built upon, but there’s an interesting catch…

To buy one, you must already own an Aston Martin. They state that many of their customers already own a small car like an IQ, so this is Aston’s way of servicing their needs and taking steps to lower the companies emissions CO2. This is interesting because they’ve found a way of creating an accessory for a real Aston, which in this guise shouldn’t damage the core brand’s image.

We believe this sort of innovation trend around ‘Micro Luxury’ is just emerging, but something we’ve been tracking before the economy dropped.

In actual fact, other than Mini and more recently Fiat 500 and this year’s Audi A1, the choices for interesting design led small cars have been extremely limited.

Prius undoubtably carried the torch for perceived eco-motoring, but there has always been a gap for luxury drivers looking for a compact, urban, eco car, but with high quality design and styling specification.

What will be interesting is to see how and to who the Aston is marketed (if at all) and whether a decision is taken to push the rollout beyond Aston owners if the launch is met positively with purchasing demand.

We’ll be tracking micro luxury closely into 2010, incorporating ethics, styling, and rationalised over indulgence.

The other thing worth a mention is the concept of ‘restricted purchase’. We’ve seen this trend driving exclusivity in products with high loyalty cues like designer toy sales and rare books/ records, but moving out to a premium price point via a luxury brand feels pretty innovative. Again another area we’ll be reporting on as luxury brands begin to seek new ways to reinforce the exclusivity of their sales propositions.