Harry and Meghan are so petty and bitter

[BigFluffyHoodie]

They knew that announcing Meghan's new venture would be big news. So they dropped it 45 minutes before William was due to speak yesterday evening. At an awards ceremony dedicated to harry and William's mother's memory.

But that wasn't good enough. Oh no. They then announced the winner of their own awards. While the Diana awards were still going on and Prince William was handing out prizes.

Is there no level this petty, bitter couple won't sink to?!

Yes they may well be bots. I was just correcting the misunderstanding that 500k follows for a brand created by a celebrity with 9m follows is indicative of a drop off. Industry wise, the launch numbers would be considered a great success.

And this thread just reminds me of Harry's book Spare. Thread after Thread claiming nobody would buy the book. The book went on to be a bestseller.

Because libraries were forced to buy it, for example. It's showing up little free libraries and book swaps as people try to unload it. A copy showed up in my laundry room. It's still there.

Are you kidding me? Huge following here.

🤣

@BemusedAmerican That is not why it is a bestseller.
And of course it is showing up in book swaps. Most people do not hang on to books once they have read them.

BookScan for instance doesn’t include sales to libraries in its sales figures – only retail sales count. Not sure how The NYT does it as they keep it a secret. But libraries won’t be tipping the scales; it’s a bona fide bestseller. Although Harry will also make money (pocket change to him!) from library copies if he’s smart enough to register with ALCS and PLR: every loan nets a few pennies, up to £6k a year I think (to stop mega popular authors like JK Rowling bankrupting the system).

First-day sales were 1.4m in North American and UK territories, so of course you’ll see copies lying about – books with huge print runs always end up in free libraries and bargain bins simply because there’s more stock of it. Doesn’t undo that the copies were bought in the first place.

Very few folks would follow the rock will be for men’s skincare though. It’s very different. And those who click to follow are likely genuinely interested .

Many of whom follow the American orchard thing seem to be small businesses, and journos. With some die hard fans who likely are not the demographic she needs to buy luxury jams and some pots etc. also she will have a lot of folks just genuinely nosey. She’s also made it you need to follow to see, which gets the numbers up and captures the nosey.

i don’t think it’s bots, I randomly clicked on a dozen or so at different stages and it does seem to be a lot of small businesses. About 70- 80 percent of rhe ones I clicked were small businesses selling something

The Rock, for example recently launched a skincare brand globally including huge billboards in multiple major cities and heavy promotion to his Instagram followers (he has over 300 million of them) and the brand currently has just under 60k followers on Instagram.

You must surely know you are not comparing apples with apples here? The Rock already had a mass market tie up in place before he launched his product. It was available in 1,900 bricks and mortar Target stores, and online on Target’s website the day after he announced it. And it has its own website too. Given this, his instagram page is not the primary platform to promote the brand, or even access it.

I don’t doubt that Spare sold in huge numbers. What I do doubt is that purchases were made for the love of Harry. People just wanted the royal gossip. Dog bowls etc had been teased, and people wanted to read more salacious details.

You might as well say people are reading about Kate because they love and admire her. Many on here are clearly devouring TikTok etc and even the dreaded tabloids, but it’s because they are hopeful of sad or bad news, not because they are avid royal fans.

@Freakinfraser

Very few folks would follow the rock will be for men’s skincare though. It’s very different. And those who click to follow are likely genuinely interested

Many of whom follow the American orchard thing seem to be small businesses, and journos. With some die hard fans who likely are not the demographic she needs to buy luxury jams and some pots etc. also she will have a lot of folks just genuinely nosey. She’s also made it you need to follow to see, which gets the numbers up and captures the nosey.

My main point was that 500k followers for a new brand launch, from a person with 9m followers, being described as a 'huge drop off' simply isn't correct.

I think if Meghan's new venture is to have any chance of success, some sort of tie in with a retail chain is needed. Not many people are going to seek out 'American Riviera Orchard' to buy pots and pans or 'legume butter' which can be got just about anywhere. Her more dedicated fans might, of course, but I don't think they are numerous enough to keep a business going.

America loves a train wreck. It’s not out of admiration but the kind of gawping the Kardashians enjoy. Which for them leads to crazy money but H&M will need a reality show to get there. I don’t think either of them would go for that. Fingers crossed. Their recent friendship is concerning.

The problem is most of us don’t do retail anymore at all. The landscape has completely changed with the way we shop. I have to drive quite far to find decent retail stores. All the local ones are pulling out, and those that remain are beyond sad inside with respect to merchandise.

I don't necessarily mean a bricks and mortar retain chain. Some kind of collaboration with an online store might work too. I just don't see enough people actively seeking out a beige website with a silly name. The homewares market is already saturated.

That makes sense. But seems difficult to get a big following this way. Chrissy Tiegen kind of thing?

I don't know much about her. There are just so many 'celebrities' with their own brands now, although for most it's just a bit on the side rather than their main income stream. Also, as we can see on this board every day, Meghan is polarising. That might be good for getting clicks on tabloid articles, but it's not going to help shift tablecloths or organic strawberry jam. From what we can see, the 'brand' is very beige and boring, so it remains to be seen how it can achieve broad appeal in a saturated market.

Chrissy Teigen I think had been fairly successful - but she already had three successful cookbooks and a range of pre-mixed baking products out there before she moved into homeware and baking ware. And she’d built an instagram following based on her recipes and her cooking them before she did anything in this market. So she’s built her reputation steadily over a number of years, and her range has expanded as she’s done do.

(I have her first two cookbooks and have made several things from them…)

Any good?

It's hard to know how this business is going to pan out. It's a difficult choice making consumables though if jam etc are going to really be part of it. Unless she gets a tie in with something like a big hotel chain and The Duchess' jam was one of their staples.

I'd have thought clothes and accessories would have been a better option as she's mainly watched now for her outfits etc - like Kate - so her audience is already primed for that.

The kitchen products market seems so saturated with celeb chefs and bloggers in the US - I can't see Meghan being able to compete with someone like The Pioneer Woman for the mass market. And if she goes for super expensive luxury price level I can't see how it would make enough money to be a viable business.

I think Laura Jackson did well with Glassette: curating other people’s homewares into a decent online portal with killer marketing, rather than trying to create her own stuff. But she’d spent years curating her own image to be a homewares expert. I think with Meghan it’s such a strange pivot from The Tig to royalty to podcast and producer to wasn’t she trying to be a philanthropist? Back to lifestyle where she started with The Tig, but with a completely different brand style.

I do think she’s in a rock/hard place situation because she’s not a sought-after actress and has had a looong break from that anyway, she’s hugely famous but not for anything other than being famous any more, but without a key brand point other than royalty, which royals fans hate her for and then republicans aren’t impressed either. She has to do something – she clearly has a zest for doing stuff rather than sitting around all day; but what? I have no idea what I’d do in her shoes if I had that yearning to achieve that she clearly does, but without the direction.

Like pretty much every woman who’s married into The Firm, it was a bad choice.

I'm not sure her, and her husband's, paltry output for Spotify and Netflix support your view that she has a 'yearning to achieve' or 'zest for doing stuff'. They seem to think inking the big deals and making splashy announcements are enough. But they're not.

As you and @Serenster have said, the successful celebrity brands were built up over years. If she is insisting on a homewares thing, and I agree that something fashion related would be better, then I think Meghan missed her chance to start building up her brand during the pandemic, right after they first found freedom. Everyone was stuck at home doing homey stuff, so she could have released 'at home with the Duchess' style cooking videos or something along those lines. Instead she and her husband put their energies into complaining about their 'treatment' and trying to be 'American royals', which simply isn't a thing.

I think, beyond slagging off Harry's family, neither of them really has a clue what they want to do. Everything is half baked, which isn't really a good image for a homewares brand!