Rebrand, Restructure, Harry and Meghan 2025 version

[Thedom]

The Era of Joy didn't last long.

This is going to be interesting, it's going to be a full on PR onslaught for the next few months, and then we will have Harry launching his very own 'commercial project'.

Clearly an article straight from the Office of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, giving an exclusive to the DM.

archive.is/ufM7K

I’ve just had a super quick look. You can’t find any As ever products on Ebay. None. Not one. That’s highly suspicious.

I looked at other new brands that had the ‘sold out’ storyline at the launch. So Blake livelys haircare products….you can find them. Beyoncés new hair line, which also sold out, you can find her products too, not many though.

Wow, I knew the numbers would be small but this makes no sense. The numbers sold must be minuscule.

Seems like the whole thing is just some marketing/ fishing for data campaign.

Can anyone remind me what RF occasion the launch of asewer “coincided” with? Was it the end of Kate’s treatment, or W&C wedding anniversary? I’m sure there was something that they tried to upstage… meaning that maybe it was never about the business it was only ever about some pathetic stealth ambush attempt on the RF to grab headlines from them. We all know they really are that childish.

@AtIusvue the only thing I can think of is that maybe Ebay don't allow food to be sold on their site. However, you would have thought the As Ever packaging, especially the cardboard tube for the jam, would end up on there.

Was it Catherine's or George's birthday? It was earlier this year.

She definitely sold some stuff, as non Sussex stans also ordered items (like Brittany from Royal News Network) just to see what they were like.

Good point. The whole thing is a joke. I can’t understand how their seemingly capable staff aren’t utterly embarrassed by the whole facade.

maybe they are and that’s why they’ve called a halt to it all… maybe every time there’s a new head of comms there’s a new idea

Thats true about the food angle. But people will sell anything. I feel the packaging would be put up at least.

She would have to show investors the accounts before they parted with their money.

Hailey had a leading NYC dermatologist called Dr. Bhanusal on her Advisory Board. He has a very successful track record of launching and selling products with other companies before working with Hailey. I would be willing to bet that he is the one with the knowledge about lip skin to develop such a good product and not Hailey.

Rhode products were dramatically launched, sold out and then suspiciously quickly restocked. Hailey and team ensured broad distribution of her products via specialty beauty stores such as Sephora where people could actually see and touch the product, as a complement to the cost-efficient online store. That is down to solid operations people...not a football team of comms people.

Hailey had almost three years of sales data for E.L.F to review so that they could make an offer to acquire Rhode. And more importantly, I am sure the IP was very well patented.

It goes back to the basics. Managing staff. Listening to expert advice. Understanding the business.

Rhode Review

Although you can get Betty Crocker cake mix, so you must be able to sell food items somehow

"We planned for a year" is also daft.

You don't do supply chain like that for consumables/short shelf life stuff. We always ate leftover consumables after the peak in my company, it was a cheap kickback to staff!

As for a Diana doc, Harry will be able to be convinced by anyone that it's really respectful and correct to do Diana's story, as his version of the truth is very malleable.

Have definitely seen "trending" food items purchased elsewhere on there (also packaging, which is a headscratch)

(Mournful about the pistachio Easter egg from Waitrose I got DH last year. £70 odd buy it now at one point! It was a huge disappointment anyway, he didn't like it and he eats anything 😂)

@chevronshoes I think you're thinking of ARO's launch, on the same day William and Harry had an important event for the Diana Awards.

So she’s pausing (abandoning) a business, that looks like, only sold a tiny number of units (inferred from small number of social media posts/no listings AT All on eBay)

This whole thing looks so suspicious. I can’t figure out what’s the game plan.I had always thought it was just a quick money grift. Cash in on marked up tat to sell to the Sussex fans. But that’s not it clearly.
Others could be right, she’s creating an illusion to try and get investors or sell the business.

I agree. HB and all these successful women have built solid foundations and actually taken advice from specialists in the fields, not experts in smoke and mirrors publicity.

But I don't think any of this sensible business stuff matters to Meghan. None of the interviews in COAFF involved this sort of bread and butter business advice/analysis. It was all about "showing up". All about working "so hard" -represented by stuff like being up all night thinking about packaging peanuts - and getting the just rewards for this "hard" work (ignoring the fact that many, if not most, hard working entrepreneurs fail). It was all about superstition, omens, manifestation. It was all about being lifted up by family who love you so much, and being deserving of such lofty, extraordinary levels of love makes you bound to succeed. It was all about magical thinking.

Now the likes of Jamie Kern Lima and the Spanx lady were very much into that too, all the quasi religious, woo, love stuff, but that's not how they got their products into the $1B bracket. So to an extent, they can spout that woo shite to rationalise their achievements in line with their faith, rather than go into all the mundane details, which may well also be unseemly, underhand, unglamourous and ungodly, as big busuiness tends to be.

All Meghan ever sees in anything is the finished product - the $1B business woman with the life of spirituality, adoration and international acclaim. As with the RF and the senior ladies she has tried to copy, she never looks at the years building up to where they eventually landed, all the shitty reality and actual grit of it all - and the years and years of patiently building a brand and a reputation and real, organic affection for whatever it is you are selling, whether a product or yourself. She doesn't have it in her to do this, so she will dump As Ever and flit to the next thing, whatever that may be.

Oh yes, that's true! So there shouldn't be a bar to the products being on eBay and certainly the empty packaging will be acceptable - sold on as keepsake boxes for your love letters and jam jar vases for flowers.

@MrsFinkelstein Brittney's products turned up very late, despite her having paid extra for express delivery and tracking. I wonder if the delay was caused by MM's team sifting through orders and sending stuff out only to the "right" people? I wonder if, in some way, her order identified her channel, which is a popular royal one (even if mostly critical of MM), and she was classified as "media" (she is an accredited journalist), so sent the products. I am sure I have read that there are ordinary punters who paid their money but were subsequently told the products are sold out and are still waiting on refunds.

MN needs a tin foil hat emoji! 😂

We’re behind the times. Seemingly she’s ‘restocking’ in June. We’ll see how fast that line sells out! More tiny batches I suspect.

But again, Atlusvue, no investor with sense is going to stump up on the basis of a bit of self-aggrandising PR ... they'll want to know if the bottom line is sound, and it seems that couldn't be further from the case

So one week she gives an interview saying she's shelving As Ever until 2026. Gets a load of negative press for that and then announces an immediate, miraculous re-stock. She's all over the place.

Exactly, you can’t make head nor tail of what actually is going on with the business.

Maybe she was expecting a Waitrose/Duchy Originals type deal. Without the brand history and organic credentials.

I think you and Meghan both @Atlusvue !

So many resources, such little success. The whole thing is bewildering.

I think this is exactly what she thought would happen.

C flogged the Duchy brand to Waitrose when it started making him a loss.

If Rachel's hoping for a similar deal she's probably going the right way about it 🤓

Daily Mail scored the lot and ran an article:

https://archive.ph/Cq5Ph