Khloe Kardashian’s Good American Clothing Brand

You’re famous and fabulous. Congrats!

Go ahead - stick your name on a product! Any product will do. Then sit back and enjoy the show. It’s called “Dancing Dollars Do The Conga Line Into Your Bank Account.” Care for champagne while you watch?

SPLASH. That’s me, throwing water in your face.

Sorry, had to do it. Here’s a towel. Now listen up carefully, because I’m only going to say this once. Or definitely not more than ten times.

Big names don’t guarantee a big brand.

Look around. See that roadkill everywhere? It’s dead brands that thought a celeb name was enough to catapult them to safety and riches on the other side of the road. And then BOOM. The Mack truck of reality mowed them right down.

“But what about…?” Shhh...I see you raising your hand and the confusion on your furrowed brow (relax those face muscles, Sweetie; it’s tricky to get Botox during a pandemic.)

The answer is: Yes. Plenty of celeb brands ARE monster hits. No denying that.

But the ones that rocket to superstardom all have one thing in common:

Total. Celebrity. Commitment.

How do I know this?

Well, Grasshopper, I’ve spent many years working directly with celebs and influencers to build product brands that are an extension of their personal brands. (*strokes long white beard.)

This celeb-brand building work typically involves one of two different paths:

Partnering with an existing well-known brand and creating a spin-off product for the celebrity, or
Developing a brand from scratch with hand-picked manufacturers and other partners.

When I smell that a celebrity or influencer is just looking for a vanity label, I lace up my Golden Goose sneakers and run like the wind.

Because I’ve seen how celebrity brands implode when the commitment isn’t there. I’ve still got the debris in my hair to show for it.

If you build it, they won’t come

What may work in baseball fantasy movies starring Kevin Costner does NOT work with brands. You are not standing in an Iowa cornfield. With that “If I build it” attitude that smacks of toxic positivity, I promise that you are standing in a cold warehouse staring at rolling racks bursting with unloved product, doomed to waste away because you can’t even give it away.

Why? Because when it comes to creating a successful celebrity brand, it’s not enough to build it. You have to be obsessed with your own product.

Here’s the thing: too many wannabe celebrity entrepreneurs wouldn’t be caught dead wearing their own brand. Not when it means ditching their usual high-end luxury labels for a night.

Sometimes it’s not even the fault of the celeb or influencer. Their stylists get in the way.

I’ve seen young influencers shamed into ditching their own creative personalities. Stand out? Take a risk? Horrors, no! Many stylists/managers/overlords just want their clients to get in line with the other cookie-cutter robots wearing the same stylist-approved brands.

Even when those clients have already developed their own brands. AT GREAT EXPENSE to the funders, some of which I brought to the table.

Picture this: you’re an investor who has sunk piles of money into a line of bags designed by a big influencer. The product launch event day arrives, inventory is stocked in all of the key stores, and you’re waiting with breathless anticipation to see a return on your investment. And then you see “your” celeb photographed everywhere carrying...Gucci. EVEN AT THE PRODUCT LAUNCH EVENT.

Yes, these are the moments when I need a restraining order on myself, so that I don’t throttle my clients.

Celebs and influencers: you need to use your products. Wear your products. Talk about your products. Post about your products.

Whatever you do, don’t be embarrassed about your product. DO NOT write your brand off as a “little hobby” on one of the major late-night talk shows (ahem).

You must make people believe the authenticity of your commitment to your own brand. And I don’t care how many Oscars you’ve won, you can only pull off this kind of performance when the feeling is legit.

Otherwise, people just won’t buy it. Figuratively and literally.

A tragic tale (for yours truly)

Funny story with a sad ending (for moi):

I’m at the Beverly Hills Hotel lunching with the beautiful Jessica Alba, who tells me that she wants to launch a baby line. (Oh, don’t I wish I had said, “Yes, let’s do it!”) But unfortunately, I tell her I think it’s a tough sell because she isn’t a mom yet.

By the time Jessica launched the Honest Company, after she did have children, she had all of the ingredients for success:

She had a specific reason and purpose to be obsessed about her brand
Consumers could believe her passion because it was directed from such a personal perspective
There was a genuine gap in the marketplace that she was filling
She worked her tail off to make it successful

The only thing Jess didn’t have was me as her partner. Get out the Kleenex; I told you this was tragic.

Commitment, not coasting

Sorry, folks: there are no shortcuts with celeb and influencer brands. You have to do the work. Just because you’re famous doesn’t mean you can coast on your name.

Jessica Simpson doesn’t coast. She used her first reality show to launch her massively successful shoe brand, but she didn’t just slap her name on any product. Jessica identified a niche in the shoe market and found a product that truly answered a need in the marketplace.

At the time, the product had no competition because it opened up a new market. Jessica put all of her energy and celebrity behind making the brand a giant hit in hundreds of categories beyond just shoes. And that, my friends, has made her a little-known gazillionaire.

Gwen Stefani doesn’t coast, either. Her LAMB line has been a bonafide fashion hit. This is no accident. Gwen is painstaking about every detail of her products. She cares deeply about the excellence of her brand. She’s earned mad respect in the fashion world and has the success to show for her passion and work ethic.

Lindsay Lohan wasn’t a coaster when we partnered to launch the designer leggings line 6126. Like Jessica Simpson, Lindsay and I leaped in to fill a gap in the marketplace.

At the time, leggings hadn’t yet revived from their Flashdance glory days of the 90’s, and we smelled an opportunity. Lindsay was a focused entrepreneur and backed the brand with the full power and energy of her celebrity. Because of her dedication, the brand blew up and became a huge hit.

And the bonus was that we brought leggings back. Hello, comfort. Later, jeans.

Lindsay Lohan with her 6126 brand.

The 4 rules

For brand partners, celeb spinoff brands are still a great way to get household exposure and make imprints with the media and consumers.

And for celebs and influencers who want to be entrepreneurs, creating a brand can be an incredible way to extend a personal brand into something even more lucrative.

But you MUST make sure that all of the important elements are in place. Here’s your MANDATORY hit-list:

Make sure the brand and celebrity are the right match
Make sure the products feel like an authentic extension of the celebrity/ influencer lifestyle and personality
Make sure there’s a genuine market for the products that are being developed
Make sure the celebrity/influencer is truly invested in the success of the product

Forget the shortcuts, just focus on these secrets. There’s no conga line that’s going to shimmy into your wallet.

It’s time to get to work.

And P.S. - If you’ve got the right attitude and need help with that work, call me. I promise I won’t throw water in your face.

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Little-Known Secrets of Successful Celebrity and Influencer Brands