- Hailey Bieber just sold Rhode, her skincare and beauty brand to e. l. f for $1 billion.
Dang. Girl, I hope you got a prenup. The crazy thing is she only launched it three short years ago, which is like half the age of my YouTube channel.
Now I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, yeah, well Alex, it's Hailey freaking Bieber. She has the fame, the funds, and the followers.
That is not realistic for the average business owner. And you would be absolutely right. Obviously being famous is a perk, but that doesn't mean that we can't learn a thing or two from this billion dollar deal.
From the branding to the product strategy, the partnerships and the launch timing, there is a lot more going on than just celebrity authority. So what did Hailey and her team do, right? Because yes, I am aware fully that she did not do this alone, but it is her brand.
And as marketers and business owners, we can def take a page from her playbook. So let's break it down. Hey Posse, what's up?
It's Alex and I am really excited about this video because as you know, I love dissecting great brands product launches and marketing campaigns to show you how you can replicate some of the same strategies in your own business. Now, I will say it again. Obviously being famous and having a massive following before you launch a product or business is going to give you a competitive advantage.
So don't come at me in the comment section or tell me that it wasn't Hailey, it was her team because it is her brand. But let's not forget that fame, fortune and followers do not guarantee success. There have been plenty of celebrity brands that have flopped in recent decades to name a few.
Because at the end of the day, celebrity or not, you need to understand great branding and marketing. If you wanna stick around and you guys know I am here to help you do just that. I make marketing tutorials on everything from branding to email marketing to social media strategy, messaging, and so much more.
So if you are not already part of the Posse here on YouTube, you know what to do. Hit that subscribe button below and ring that bell to be notified when my next video goes live. And now to the good stuff.
What did Hailey Bieber do right when she created and launched Rhode? And more importantly, what strategies can you adapt in your own business and marketing? Let's start with the first and probably most important move she made.
Number one, sell an identity, not a product. Rhode isn't just a skincare line. Rhode sells a feeling, a lifestyle, a whole ass identity.
You are not just buying a serum, you are buying the clean girl aesthetic. That dewy, minimal, effortless cool girl with the glow energy. Yes, you're that kind of girl that looks like you drink three liters of water a day and sleep eight hours every single night.
The term glazed donut skin went viral in 2021 because of Hailey, and yes, you heard it. She's also started the glazed donut nail trend too. In an interview with Vogue, she literally said, I want skin that looks like you want to take a bite out of it.
I mean, that is marketing gold. And she didn't just talk about it, she embodied it. Her Tiktoks, her IG selfies, her no makeup makeup looks, and it absolutely caught fire.
Experts credit Rhode's success to this identity first branding. According to Northeastern University, Hailey's clean girl aesthetic resonated hard with Gen Z. And if I'm honest with millennials too.
So what is the takeaway for you to apply here in your own business? Well, built a brand that speaks to how your audience wants to be perceived, A persona, a vibe, a value system. They wanna embody one that is reinforced every single time they purchase your product or service.
In Rhodes case, it was that clean girl aesthetic. All right, moving on to number two, solve one problem. Most brands make the mistake of doing too much too fast too soon.
It is that age old problem of trying to solve or be everything to everyone. But remember, when you try to help everyone, you end up helping. No one.
This is marketing 1 0 1. Doing it all is simply not very memorable, but having a very specific brand promise, like dewy, delicious skin and a nourished skin barrier. I mean that's memorable, that's unique.
At the time, Rhode launched, not many brands were focusing on this one concept of having a nourished skin barrier. To be honest, I had never even heard that term until a few years ago. And now everyone is talking about it.
It is absolutely brilliant. So sure the product likely helps your skin with a lot of other problems too, like maybe acne or fine lines and wrinkles, but Rhode only focused on this one thing. And that one thing really helped the brand stand out, especially in the beginning.
Not only that, but Rhode's, initial product line only had three products: a serum, a moisturizer, and a lip treatment all designed to work together for that one promise, a glazed donut skin barrier. Now of course, today the brand has more products and it even expanded into makeup, which was always their plan from day one. But they knew that if they came out with all of these offers overnight right away, it would make less of an impact.
So they started small and they tackled that one problem first. They grew a fan base and then they began to launch new products and expand. It was absolutely genius if you ask me, and that is exactly the lesson that we marketers and business owners can take away here.
I know you wanna do a lot, but don't try to be everything to everyone, especially in the beginning. Start with one hero product or offer that solves one clear problem for one clear avatar. Let simplicity be your strategy.
Pretty refreshing, right? All right, next up is number three, anticipation, scarcity and exclusivity. Yet it's a three in one here.
And here is where the marketing nerd in me gets super, super excited. When Rhode was ready to roll out new product lines, they were super, super strategic about it. They didn't just launch and hope for the best.
They built serious anticipation, did exclusive brand collabs and released limited drops of their new products like the Strawberry Girl summer campaign that they did with Krispy Kreme. And this was a collab that was actually secured before the brand even launched. And months before announcing the collab and the drop of her new lip treatment, Hailey was already online posting photos about Strawberry Girl Summer.
She sparked an internet frenzy before the launch even happened. Strawberry nails, strawberry makeup, strawberry, literally everything. I'm sure you saw it.
And this well thought out and carefully planned launch strategy wasn't exclusive to just strawberry summer. Hailey dropped hints like this for nearly every single one of her product launches in honor of her birthday. She launched a limited edition vanilla cake peptide lip treatment, or what about the limited edition launch of her cinnamon roll lip treatment?
Each new release built up serious and I mean serious anticipation long before anyone could even buy anything. So that when they did drop, well, it's safe to say people really wanted it clean. Girls were flooding into Sephora, like the walking freaking dead.
Fans had to virtually line up for restocks of these lip products to the point that they sold out in minutes. I mean, even Kim Kardashian had to call in a favor with Bieber herself to get a hold of the peptide lip treatment. So what is the takeaway for you to apply here?
Well, major brand collabs aren't necessarily in the cards for the average new business owner. What is repeatable here is the idea of strategically planning a product campaign months or maybe even years in advance. And don't just think about the initial launch, like when you go ta-da, here it is, it's ready.
Think about future promotion opportunities, partnerships, and opportunities to build anticipation. Map out a long product timeline where you slowly drip out content, drop clues and craft campaigns using scarcity and exclusivity. All right, next up, number four, make the brand the main character.
Now, one of the smartest things that Hailey did here was to not make Rhode all about her. When she first launched the brand, she told Allure Magazine that her biggest dream was for someone to pick up a Rhode product and not even know it was hers. Now why do you think that would be if it was in fact her fame and her following that allowed her to make such a big impact right away?
Simple. She knew that if Rhode was ever gonna grow beyond just another celebrity brand, it had to stand on its own. It couldn't just be Hailey's skincare line.
It had to become a brand that people trusted, loved, and shared regardless of who was behind it. And that mindset influenced everything about how Rhode showed up and what their marketing and branding did. The branding is really minimal.
The packaging is muted neutrals that you know, look expensive, but they actually are really affordable. You want these products on your bathroom counter because they say something about you, not the person who founded them. Even the product names really leaned into the identity of the brand, like glazing milk, peptide lip treatment barrier restore cream, or pocket blush.
They are clear, purposeful, and totally aligned with that clean girl identity that Rhode has claimed from day one. Now, this doesn't mean that Hailey isn't the face of the brand, it doesn't mean she's a total ghost when it comes to the marketing and no one knows who the founder is. No, of course she still shows her face in the marketing.
And of course she still posts about Rhode's products on her personal Instagram account. The point is that the brand isn't Hailey. It really does stand on its own.
And that is exactly how you go from influencer product to a billion dollar brand. Now, and this is really important. This isn't something that every single business can or should try to replicate.
If you're a freelancer or a one person show as a service provider, your brand probably is and should be you. Your personality is your brand's personality, and that is not a bad thing. There is a really big difference here between building a personal brand versus building a product brand.
So this tip involves a bit of nuance, and if you need help building your personal brand, check out this video right here. I will link to that in the description box below. Now this next tip is something that I believe everybody should be doing.
Number five, user generated content. So in my opinion, this is where Rhode really, really got it right. Their best marketing material wasn't the product ads that they ran.
You can see that their ads, just like the rest of their branding, are actually pretty darn simple. Not much marketing genius at play here. I mean, besides those killer product names, the marketing gold for Rhode really came down to the millions of shares, tags and shoutouts they got on social media, the TikTok girlies, the beauty bloggers, the Gen Z skincare lovers, everyone wanted to show off their glazed donut lips and dewy skin and minimalist bathroom shelves.
And Rhode made it really, really easy for them. From the shareable product names to the aesthetic packaging to the viral campaign, hashtag the whole brand was built for social media. It was built for sharing and clean girls wanted to share it.
Why? Because every time they shared it reinforced their sense of self-identity. User-generated content like this creates way more brand trust than brand advertising ever will because people trust people more than they trust brands.
So what is the takeaway for you to apply here in your own business? Make your brand shareable. Give your customers a reason to post about you, your product or service, not just to use it.
Make your customers the hero of your brand, the character in their own story, not just your product. And remember, people are never gonna want to share your ad. I mean, we don't share ads, but we do wanna show off something that makes us look good or feel good and reinforces how we see ourselves and how we want other people to see us.
Again, this all comes back to helping your customers step into the identity they desire and then making it easy for them to show off that identity to the world. So did Hailey's famous husband, modeling career, and large social following help establish her brand? Sure it did.
I'm not arguing with that, but that is not the whole story. Rhode's marketing was smart, simple and strategic. They made a lot of great decisions that you can absolutely replicate in your own marketing initiatives.
So give me a thumbs up below if you enjoyed this video and got a thing or two out of it. And if you love branding breakdowns like this, make sure you comment below and let me know which brands I should do next. And make sure you check out this video where I analyze the absolute hold that Taylor Swift has had on pop culture and everything she has done right.
I will see you next week with a brand new video. Until then, I'm Alex. Ciao for now.
Alright guys. If you enjoyed that video, make sure to check out the next one from me right here, and you can click right here to get a free gift. Taylor Swift, whether you love her or hate her or are completely indifferent to her, there can be no denying the impact and influence that she's had on our culture, the economy, and even politics.
She's won 14 Grammys holds the record for the most albums to debut at number one consecutively/ In a single Instagram post, she drove over 35,000 new voter registrations. Her Eras tour has become the highest grossing music tour in history. And speaking of the Eras tour, it hasn't just made her a ton of money.
The tour has literally contributed an estimated $5. 7 billion to the US economy. Her romance with NFL player Travis Kelsey has even boosted the NFL fan base viewership and revenue generating an estimated $331.
5 million in equivalent brand value for the Kansas City Chiefs. That's crazy. And jersey sales for her man's spiked by 400% after she first appeared at the games.
Oh, and did I mention Taylor herself recently reached billionaire status clearly after two decades of continual influence and showing up for her fans. She is not just an artist. She's also a brilliant business owner, marketer, and branding genius.
So no matter what your opinion is on Taylor Swift, there is a lot we can learn from her and her marketing team as we strive to create our own brands that rally fans just as a loyal and die hard as the Swifties. In this video, I'm gonna break down seven things that can help you create the Taylor effect in your own marketing and branding initiatives. Are you ready for it?
Keep watching.
