Celebrity brands are everywhere.
From beauty and wellness to alcohol, it seems celebrities have tapped into nearly every product category, making brand launches a rite of passage for those in the spotlight.
It all began with allusive collaborations between celebrities and iconic brands – think Adidas x Kanye West and Serena Williams x Nike. The eye-watering profits that eventuated from these collaborations highlighted the powerful influence celebrities hold in driving sales. Evidently, it was only a matter of time before celebrities sought to claim these profits directly, prompting the flood of celebrity brands we now see in the market.
Why are they so successful?
The public-facing nature of celebrity careers, especially those in the media industry, allows for the establishment of large, highly engaged followings with strong loyalty and trust. This significantly reduces the time and recourses needed to acquire, educate, and convert customers, while also reducing marketing costs. By leveraging their reputation, celebrities encourage audiences to associate their personal credibility and image with a brand’s quality and values. Therefore, celebrities can generate excitement and awareness across their personal channels, drive traffic to the brand’s channel, and communicate the brands value through simple association, providing a substantial accelerator to their growth and competitiveness in the market.
However, the benefits earnt by celebrity founders don’t stop there. One of the primary challenges founders face when launching a business is securing capital. While financial recourses are limited for most entrepreneurs, celebrities often have cushioned bank accounts, enabling them to make larger initial investments. This can allow for a broader product range, the hiring of top tier PR firms, increased marketing budgets, and a greater willingness to take on risk.
In essence, celebrities are uniquely positioned to launch a successful business, and many have done so.
Think Rhode, Skims, Rare Beauty, Goop, Lemme, Fenty Beauty and Beis.
These (female-founded!) brands are industry leaders, having reached a point where their financial viability and growth are no longer solely reliant on their founders’ celebrity status or level of public-facing engagement.
So, what separates them from the crowd of other celebrity brands?
Alignment | Product & Personal Brand.
Customers are smart. They can smell (and see) a quick cash grab from a mile away. A brand that clearly aligns with a celebrity’s core purpose has an inbuilt level of authenticity and automatically garners a greater level of interest and ‘product acceptance’ from consumers.
The celebrity’s endorsement of their brand should in fact not feel like marketing, but rather a seamless extension of their personal brand. Take Rhode for instance, Hailey Bieber is renowned for her impeccable style, and overall aesthetic. Evidently, it’s no surprise her brand reflects the same curated image with distinct activations, innovative marketing, and viral products.
A Damn Good Product | Plain & Simple.
While a celebrity’s initial product release, and the subsequent surge in sales, may create an impression of instant success, it’s the reviews that ultimately determine the brand’s true trajectory. Take Kylie Swim for instance, despite staggering profits in the first week, customer reviews across social media soon exposed issues with product quality. As a result, the brand faltered, leading customers to lose trust and become more sceptical of her ventures.
Ultimately, a brand is only as strong as the product itself. If a product genuinely addresses a customer need, stands out as unique, functional, and authentic, it can succeed regardless of celebrity backing.
Think of the product as the cake – it has all the essential ingredients and substance. The celebrity is simply the cherry on top. Without the cake, you have nothing.
Fenty Beauty is a picture-perfect example. From the get-go, Rihanna made a conscious decision to create a line that was truly inclusive through offering a diverse range of shades that catered to all skin tones. With over 50 foundation shades, Fenty beauty has sent a new standard for inclusivity in beauty.
A Celebrity Is Not A Marketing Strategy.
It’s commonplace, and strategic, for celebrities to be the face of their brand in its early stages of growth and expansion. However, the mark of a truly successful celebrity brand is when they can take their foot of the accelerator and let the brand stand on its own – at least in the public eye.
It demonstrates that the brand has reached a point where its core purpose and product speak for themselves. Customers follow the brand for that, the brand, not the celebrity behind it.
This is a ‘pinch me’ moment for celebrity brands. It not only gives the celebrity greater freedom to explore more (yes more) ventures and projects, but also gives the brand more creative license as it no longer needs to leverage off the following and image of the founder.
Skims has mastered this approach. While Kim Kardashian is occasioally featured across the brand’s social media, Skims has successfully evolved beyond its initial attachment to the OG influencer.
The brand has gained a reputation for collaborating with celebrities of the moment – often securing partnerships just before these celebrities break into mainstream stardom or release new projects that reignite their presence in the media. Think Sabrina Carpenter, Tate McRae, Charli XCX, Nicola Coughlan. Skims know exactly how to stay ahead of the curve.
