american riviera orchard - what was that all about then?

[Tenmus]

It seems to have gone the same way as their Sussex Royal site. I don't know much about social media or PR, but this all seems pretty odd and ineffectual.

Bullshit probably.

Yes but she's a global name, a royal personage and an international philanthropist. Right?

I can understand that - it's the fact that trademarks haven't yet been granted that makes me think the launch was premature.

If they are ready to launch fully and deferred out of respect for Catherine, then I still think they should be doing some "teaser" hints to show some of the range. The IG page is still nowhere near 1M followers, so a few teaser posts would keep momentum going and sustain interest.

She's all fur coat and no knickers....

I know and it really shouldn’t be. They can do what they want but to keep using titles is a bit hypocritical.
American Rivera Orchard by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex 🙄 Why not just Meghan Sussex. We all know who she is.

Only in her own mind.....

😅😅

😂

So, different opinion here… I am actually looking forward to what the brand will be selling and photos.

I looked at some old Tig archives and liked the photos (especially with the dogs), the recipes (some zucchini pasta that I tried) and the travel stories.

not sure I will be buying anything (likely to be way outside my price range) but quite keen to see what it all is about.

There’s been some reports in the US that Meghan is currently recruiting for someone to head up this venture. Which might suggest that the launch wasn’t just slightly premature, but actually completely speculative? She may be using the instagram site and the attention it's garnered to pitch to investors to fund her, and hence it may be quite a while before anything happens.

@Serenster is that normal with new ventures ?

It’s not at all unusual to come up with a concept and then pitch to get investment just on the strength of the concept. Once done you then get all your ducks in a row, funded by your investors, and launch. That’s normally all done privately behind the scenes though. And you obviously need to have a very strong concept or a real personal pull to investors to do it this way. But there are loads of examples of this - Bobbi Brown did this with her new Beauty line Jones Road, for example. She hired the team and developed her product in the lab for a good two years before she launched anything. That would have needed a lot of money - but as the founder of one huge beauty brand already (that she’d sold to Estee Lauder) she would have had no trouble attracting investors. Another option is the “Dragon's Den” approach where you present your small existing business to investors to get the capital and expertise to grow it.

The odd bit here is launching the brand publicly before you have any of the work behind the scenes done.

If it's about selling lifestyle products with a royal connection, then I think the actual royals have that covered. All the royal residences, plus the Duchy of Cornwall and Highgrove, have gift shops.

What will ARO have to offer that will compete?

Yeah but it's a bit hypocritical making money using your royal name and connections when you've spent the last 4 years slagging the Royals off and saying you're a victim of them 🤔

Terrible name, I think they've lost the plot

Exactly this.

It seems to go against the Sandringham Agreement so am wondering if the delay is due to behind the scenes wrangling ?

All just seems so tacky and pretentious particularly in view of what is going on with the rf currently.

Perhaps the Sussexes are having a rare bout of tact and self awareness and are pausing the orchard jam site for now?

She may be using the instagram site and the attention it's garnered to pitch to investors to fund her, and hence it may be quite a while before anything happens.

I've looked at the instagram and it's just nine photos that together make the name. Like one of those sliding puzzles from Christmas crackers.

Unlikely.

Still hoping it will launch soon. If they have any royal monograms on it, that would maybe breech the agreement.

but I would love beautiful pictures from their home, beautiful flowers and photos of Meghan looking beautiful. And some lovely recipes.

Times are so depressing at the moment. We could do with some more beauty- and some more homemade treats.

Beautiful people, carefully 'curated' interiors and 'homemade treats' are all over the internet. If that's what you like, you could find it with a few clicks. You don't need to wait for Meghan for that.

In fact, I would say the whole concept of 'lifestyle blogs' is very dated now. I'm still unsure where Meghan is going here. What is going to make her stand out in a very competitive market? Launching an empty beige website with no follow up does not seem like a sound business strategy to me.

She's royal, that's her USP.

But what use is being 'royal' when you live in California and are never seen at royal events? Simply being a duchess and being married to the younger son of the king isn't terribly interesting in itself.

She was only a working royal for 2 years and has barely set foot in Britain since finding freedom. If she and her husband had stayed on good terms with the royals and were seen occasionally at glamorous royal events like Trooping, maybe visiting Balmoral over the summer and spending Christmas at Sandringham, then she'd have been able to keep some sort of 'royal' allure. But using her Duchess title just looks silly and hypocritical when she's spent the last few years complaining about her 'treatment'. And in any case, the 'brand' is explicitly tied to California. It's a bit of a mess and I doubt it's the work of any marketing professionals.

Yeah, I'm thinking it breaks the Sandringham agreement, but maybe they don't care.