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

🤣🤣🤣

It is so going to be the scent of Diana, her favourite flowers with lots of love.

It's a shame that the brand name Polo has been taken since 1967. What a shame! But yeah, how the might have fallen eh? Our dear old HRH Prince Hazza flogging things like a latter day Del Boy? Whatever next?

Honestly , I can’t see Harry actually selling any products at all , I’m assuming it’s going to be something different!?
like travalist ( or whatever it’s called) or better up , so no actual products .
meghan may do perfume I suppose but it doesn’t seem to tie into the products she is interested in at the moment.

They may fear getting nowhere near any future negotiations if they piss her off by ditching her now..

She can’t be making them any money at the moment but she provokes reaction and debate like few other people, so maybe worth hanging on for the inevitable big stories to come (whether triumph or disaster). The doc series did well after all, and there is a big hole in their slate where The Crown used to be, and a sector of audience to service. The actual RF will clearly not be going anywhere near Netflix, so this is their only chance if they want to keep developing a rep as the home of the juicy Royal stuff. It’s obviously pretty exploitative to be hanging on for more unhappiness or a divorce, but that’s tv for you.

I was in the PR game for a very, very long time ; albeit at a much more staid end of the spectrum ( gov comms, legal) than the celebrity stuff.

I am now old and ill and my line of business always led me to incline to be risk averse in my profession, so take this with that caveat.

I really really hope these new advisers have old heads on their ( to me) young shoulders.

Working effectively with clients like those two will require a lot of human insight, résilience and above all wisdom.

I was told as a baby PR regarding apparently stellar collèagues never to mistake confidence for compétence - or on the other end of the scale, humility for weakness. Very old fashioned view now. But true.

I do wonder if Netflix see more value in the conversations that include the word Netflix than the rating themselves. Polo did bad at ratings but it also failed in generating noise, the same cannot be said for WLM.

The other thing about Netflix is that it’s not as if they have tons of great content at the moment, imo. Their bar right now is lower than Apple’s, for instance, who can afford not to have to bet on the likes of Meghan having another moment.

I think that the Netflix contract is up for renewal in September. I suspect that another season of Meghan is the best case scenario for the Sussexes.

Interesting, the original version of that article was free but has now disappeared behind a paywall.

Bless them, at least they’re making money for the DM.

Forget-me-not!

He could genuinely use Windsor, as it’s a place name so can’t be copyrighted. I guess HRH would be too on the nose? Ditto Majesty and Regnant! Scion of Windsor? Legend (of Aviation)? 🤣

The US is undergoing significant economic turmoil and the share of income allocated to necessities (food, shelter, utilities, transportation) has expanded to discretionary portion of income has been sharply compressed. Add to that people are feeling economic uncertainty so are saving more and spending less overall.

The small "c" conservatives who still have income to spend are being targeted by everybody. Giant consumer goods companies and mass market lifestyle brands such as Martha Stewart and Johanna Gaines are M's competition and M is simply non-existent in most of this market. While M is a household name in the UK as she married into its most prominent family, but M just does not have the same name recognition in the USA.

H&M are minnows lost in the vast sea of celebrity. Even worse, both H&M are targets on the conservative right from Trump's disparaging "His wife is terrible" to the mockery from various prominent podcasters and tiktokers who sit on the right and are watched by H&M's target households.

Americans do not aspire to victimhood. The middle-aged market loves the hero that made it against the odds think Maverick in Top Gun recovering from losing Goose or Danny in Karate Kid injured but still fighting through the pain to win and most famously Luke Skywalker taking on the Evil Empire.

All the comms in the world can't spin straw into gold. And I just do not see anything working for the pair in the US market as H&M's image of whiney victims is well and truly fixed in the minds of consumers wherever they have name recognition.

1. Granular operations = buying sugar for the spreads, cookies and crêpes.
2. Why wasn't a person employed to work out how to get products out before the launch? An operations director, for example.

An additional factor is H's status. The Heritage Foundation is still pushing for public release of his visa application. If he lied about his drug-taking, deportation or incarceration await. Tricky for Trump, who won't want to jeopardise his state visit to the UK. Lots of ifs, but potential drama ahead - Meghan and children abandoned, pap shots of visits to jail, Trump the Clement.

I think had they made better choices after leaving perfume/cosmetics/fashion collaborations for Meghan would been a possibility and a good choice. It would certainly have made more sense and probably money than the flower sprinkles empire.

Definitely. But that ship sailed in 2020 and they weren't on it.

Unfortunately there is still a large market for their self obsessed, self pitying and self righteous guff

It would definitely have been a better choice, but the fashion influencer field is already massively overcrowded. Meghan doesn't have an obvious niche, nor does she have the type of profile whereby what she's wearing will be seen in the type of glamorous setting with which designers want their clothes to be associated.

Being photographed at some C list 'award show' isn't quite on the same level as waving from the balcony of Buckingham Palace.

I forsee a unisex fragrance, HerMaphrodite.

Ginger Whinger isn't taken.

Lili
For women

Archie
For men

Archewater

As ever 48-hour antiperspirant

Edited for typo

Envy for the aftershave, surely?

And I’m sure a microbrewery would make some bitter for him.

or maybe

Deity

Fox

Exile

Phoenix

Spare

Grudge

“ Rank “ for men .

Penhaligons do the original bluebell scent. I don't suppose they can stop him merching something similar . ( I love their Artemisia and the Highgrove one)

Maybe he can team up with Van Cleef for a new version of the Mummy scent mentioned in Spare. It's one of those heavy 80s inside elderly relatives' handbag ones so maybe they could do an update.

😂

Rank for men! Brilliant. : D