The other morning I asked Lil Red (NOW 14 y/o!) what she wanted for Christmas as I have every year for many moons. I KNOW she wants a smartphone. She's been SUPER DUPER clear with me about that. So I cautiously approached her about any NON PHONE gifts she might want and quickly retreated in case I got a repeat performance of her emphatic and impassioned speech about how she NEEDS a smartphone and how EVERYONE else has one and how I just don't UNDERSTAND how important it is....
Now, don't get me wrong. I adore my daughter and she is the brilliant sun around which my earth revolves! HOWEVER, I'm not a spoiler. She has a lot of really nice stuff, she just happens to not have a smartphone. GASP!! The horror! BUT, you know what? She surprised me and didn't go on the smartphone rant! YEAH!!
Instead, she concisely gave me her list. I expected most of this but there were a couple of surprises.
- Clothes (check)
- Makeup (check)
- A giant stuffed animal (really?)
- Disney stuff (we are back on Disney?)
- Anything by Bethany Mota...
Ummm, who?
After the eye roll, I learned that Bethany Mota is a YouTube star who was just on the current season of Dancing with the Stars. Apparently, she has a fashion line. Of course she does!
This got me thinking though... Lil Red has consistently wanted "Anything by (blank)" for years and years.
Early on it was her favorite yellow Wiggles t-shirt, then it was any product featuring her beloved Disney Princesses (we cycle back to this one regularly), Hannah Montana, Justin Beiber (ICK!), One Direction, and now Bethany Mota. Their faces and branding can appear on a wide variety of products too from t-shirts to perfume to school supplies to toothbrushes.
Yup, toothbrushes that SING! GAG! What the HELL was I thinking?
There's a couple of ways celebrities can get their mugs, aka "highly valued images", associated with products and how savvy product makers can utilize the fame of celebrity to sell more stuff. One way is to endorse products and another is to have a licensing agreement. The more popular the celebrity or the better their business manager the more products they are associated with and the more money they all make.
Endorsements are a great way to leverage your marketing and get teenagers like mine to buy your crap-ola, errr I mean, fine-fine products. For example, right now you'll see the lovely and talented Jennifer Aniston shilling a bottled water company called Smart Water and Aveeno lotions, the super SEXY Brad Pitt is selling Chanel and Tag Hauer, and even Queen B Beyoncé has her pix plastered on anything that will hold still long enough. Celebrity testimonials! It's brilliant!
Why drink plain water when you can drink the same water that Jennifer Aniston drinks?
You too could smell like Brad Pitt! Imagine the ladies lining up for you then!
Endorsement are great but what IF the celebrity actually "made" the product themselves?
OMG! Not only can they sing-dance-act they are creative-artistic-design geniuses too?
I use the term "made" loosely because when a product manufacturer licenses a celebrity image or brand it can vary how much creative involvement the celebrity has in the manufacturing process if any at all. There are those like Jessica Simpson and Jennifer Lopez who are heavily involved and there is the extreme opposite like Lindsey Lohan and Kanye West who famously flopped as fashion designers.
This has become so popular that there is an entire industry dedicated to setting up these deals. The problem is it's getting crowded. Really crowded. You have to be first out of the gate to secure the hottest up-and-coming celebrity and you have to make sure it makes sense for the brand and the celebrity.
When it's a good fit for both it can result in HUGE revenues and market growth for both the celebrity and manufacturer. The (rather bizarre) ads for Lincoln cars featuring Matthew McConaughey have been enormously successful for Lincoln and even earned a spoof ad by Ellen DeGeneres. High praise right there!
But when it goes wrong, it goes down in flames. Big, spectacular, techni-color flames! Can anyone say Tiger Woods? His famous car crash, exposé and subsequent lost mega-million dollar empire of endorsements highlights the challenge of marketers who align with often times unpredictable celebrity behavior. That EPIC fall from grace will be retold as legend a hundred years from now!
So our lesson here is grab 'em while they are hot, then use 'em up and toss 'em before their 15 minutes is up!
Now, where the hell do I find a singing Bethany Mota toothbrush?
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