Sedge Beswick provides an academic categorization of famous brands. Kind of.
As a founder, investor and someone who has worked in or with the retail industry throughout their career, it seems to me to be a difficult time to start a brand. Without being too gloomy, trade is down across the board for most companies. And yet brands keep coming onto the market. Even with breathtaking campaign budgets. The difference?
There is a celebrity behind the brand.
This topic is big. And understanding how these brands are created (and sustained) is a task for another day. Today, let’s just understand how big the opportunity is. And to do this, I will divide celebrity brands into three categories.
Firstly, there is that random entrepreneurs. The early adopters who saw a gap in the market – and developed the products they wanted but couldn’t find anywhere else. Gwyneth Paltrow’s GOOP falls into this category. It started as a newsletter for friends to share great recommendations. But it had great appeal, and her interests and access were exactly what the well-compensated wellness community needed. And so her $250 million retail, media and experiences empire was born.
Then there is category two, which Brand Ambassador Entrepreneur. The #collab prodigies who know they’re capable of something. And that other people want the thing too. So they bottled it. Even if the competitive landscape is already completely saturated. Carrie Bradshaw was famous for her incredible (mainly Manolo Blanhik) heels on Sex and the City. And so Sarah Jessica Parker launched what has become a very successful – albeit aesthetically well-known – SJP collection. She also has a wine brand. But who doesn’t? Later more.
Most beauty brands also collaborate… “The Rachel” is the most famous haircut of all time. So it makes sense that Jennifer Anniston has a hair care brand – LolaVie, in case you were wondering. Hailey Bieber’s glazed donut skin, nails, eyes and all break TikTok every season. And so Rhode Skin was born. And that is the tip of the iceberg. An exception to this rule is Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty. Because what she did was revolutionary – she launched foundation shades that were suitable for all skin tones for the first time. It was inclusivity done right, and with $100 million in sales within the first 40 days, it seems like the market agrees.
Last but not least we have group three. The opportunistic entrepreneurs. The brand launches are kind of left field. But still brilliant. This is KSI’s prime drink. Cardi B’s Whipshots is that. Her vodka-infused whipped cream can business was valued at $85 million after 1.5 years in business. Ed Sheeran has Tingly Ted’s hot sauce – the ketchup of hot sauces, if you will.
Shireen Hamdy, marketing manager for new growth areas at Kraft Heinz, International, said: “Tingly Ted’s was founded in response to Ed’s dream of making ‘hot sauce ketchup’ and we naturally jumped at the chance to make it happen.”
Ed brought the vision and we had the sauce know-how to bring it to life – it was the perfect hot sauce recipe and one that will help us expand our reach in the competitive hot sauce category expand, which is expected to grow at a rate of 6.3% to $5.4 billion in 2027.
Ed’s superstar status helped it “take off with impact.” Ed and Ted would have more to offer in the future, Heinz assured.
Prominent wine brands (and increasingly tequila) now also fall into category three – although I’m not convinced of their actual sales success. These celebrities are super rich. You bought a vineyard. And now they’re going to sell their wares to us regular people who don’t have wine cellars – the people who buy wine at the supermarket. Usually on offer or as part of a depressing meal deal. Do we need Brad Pitt’s wine? No. Will you buy it? Probably not. Because there is also Kylie, there is Avaline (Cameron Diaz and Katherine Power), Della Vite from the Delevingne sisters. Somewhat surprisingly, there is Maison No. 9 by Post Malone. LVE wines are John Legend’s. Famous for her taste in wine? Absolutely not. The exception to the rule here is Lisa Vanderpump from “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.” The queen of rosé (and manipulation, as the storylines go) is rarely seen without an ice-cold glass of wine in hand. So Vanderpump Wines really makes sense. For me she falls into the second category.
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The obvious benefits of creating or launching a celebrity brand are the immediate, integrated audience and potential customer base it brings with it. This certainly makes the launch campaign a little easier for a marketing department. Presenter and brand founder Frankie Bridge, who originally rose to fame on The Saturdays, explains: “I’ve been creating and sharing my looks on social media for years and constantly asking myself, ‘Where can I buy them?’ and ‘Can I have a link?’ ‘ Comments. I knew my followers, what they wanted and what they were interested in buying, so it seemed like a natural next step to launch FW Bridge, my own clothing line. It’s great to have my own business and use my social channels to increase awareness.”
Likewise, Rochelle Humes has children’s lifestyle brand My Little Coco, RH Talent Agency and Cloudcha Matcha – you guessed it – a new matcha brand. Influencer Grace Beverly has TALA, which made £1 million in sales in just one hour at the launch of the brand’s Autumn/Winter 2023 outerwear collection. In the fake tan space, Molly Mae has Filters and Vogue Williams has Bare by Vogue. The latter, as my Celtic-skinned friends assure me, is the best on the market. So you see, the list is endless.
Building a brand is not just about finding a gap in the market and/or seizing an opportunity. Or give people what they want. For a celebrity, it’s also about diversifying your career. Unlock additional revenue streams – a more passive, consistent income that doesn’t rely on one-off project fees and contracts. And for smart investor types like Ryan Reynolds – a potentially huge payout if the brand is sold down the road.
But that’s not the only way for big names to secure alternative future income. We are now seeing talented people become investors and – because they are not inclined to do things by halves – start their own venture capital funds. That’s exactly what YouTubers The Sidemen did with Upside VC. And what vlogger Caspar Lee has built with Creator Ventures. The cynics among us might see this as earning their place on Steven’s diary of a CEO podcast. Finance bros are cool now. But this talent has money. And an incredible understanding of the zeitgeist. There’s definitely something in there.
We all know the concept: “This meeting could have been an email.” And now we may have reached the peak: “This celebrity brand could have been a hobby.” But one thing I am certain of is the enduring power of Celebrity and the very real impact that influence and reach can have on sales. Which brands will survive? Just like with influencer partnerships, they will be ones that have meaningful, insight-based reasons, where there is an archetypal fit between the product and the person, and which feel completely authentic.
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