Rihanna: A Singer or a Business Woman?
4 years, 0 songs, $1.7bn net worth: How did Rihanna do it?
Rihanna is now worth $1.7 billion. Not having released a single playlist since 2016, she is now a billionaire.
How she dunnit?
Well, she became a business woman.
She diversified from singing to launch her own fashion company (Fenty), cosmetic brand (Fenty Beauty), and a lingerie company (Savage X Fenty).
But, the real music lies in Fenty Beauty, which started in 2017.
Where’s her fashion company you ask?
Well, even the girl with the Midas touch cannot turn everything into gold. In fact, Fenty (the fashion brand) had all the right ingredients for success.
Bernard Arnault, the CEO of Louis Vuitton, the richest man on Earth, held a 50% stake in the company. Now, marry the faith and money of Bernard Arnault with Rihanna’s global popularity. One could just not go wrong, right?
Naah. Don’t read further.
Stop, and think: what could have gone wrong?
Maybe the brand did not appeal to the masses? Well, it did. In fact, the brand was launched to promote inclusivity for a wide variety of styles and sizes (the ideology became so popular that it came to be called the Fenty effect!).
Maybe the products were too expensive? You got it!
The timing of its launch also added to the brand’s miseries. 2019. Just before Covid took over the world.
Even though the consumers resonated with the idea of the brand (Fenty Beauty, the cosmetic company, was launched on the same brand tenets and it was a big hit), the high prices led to its closure during the pandemic.
Maybe the brand would have found its groove. But, the pandemic did not give it the chance to do so.
And here’s where Fenty Beauty was different. Staying true to its ideology, Fenty Beauty offered 40 inclusive foundation shades, which sold out in days. And it was far more affordable than the fashion company. It became popular at a time when other make-up brands offered options only for a handful of skin tones.
Now, now. Rihanna wasn’t the only one to capitalise on her social media presence. There were prominent players (read: Kardashians) in the market, with huge dominance. But Fenty Beauty beat them all.
Well, celebrities fighting for the top spot isn’t the most intriguing part of the trend. What’s interesting to note is that more and more celebrities are entering the world of business.
The idea is Celeb-Preneurship. The old celebrity business model is changing. Celebrities are no longer just a face behind a brand. They are becoming the brains too.
Why just have the ad fee? Why have the cherry over the top when you can actually have a piece of cake, or even the whole cake itself! The Celebrity Entrepreneurship model can work out in other formats too:
Equity for Endorsements: Here, Celebs ask for a stake in equity for promoting the company. But is lending their face to a brand enough to get them a seat on the equity table?
Regular Investment with minimal or no endorsements: These are mostly investment avenues for celebrities, without commitments of promotions. Did you know Justin Bieber is invested in Spotify?
Creating their own Venture Capital firm: For funding startups! Yes celebs do that. One prominent example of such an arrangement is Bryant Stibel, a $100M Venture Capital fund started by basketball legend Kobe Bryant.
While all these models do not require much time by celebs, running their own brands is definitely not a piece of cake. To handle the complexities of a business alongside the constant pressure to deliver creative marvels is a massive feat.
It could become a trade-off between creating art and creating business. Maybe this is why Rihanna has not released an album since her business ventures took off?
Which celeb-preneurship will succeed in the long run?
Only time will tell…
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