Indian celebs should attend B-School to succeed in business: Why celebrity brands struggle after initial hype
Lomani Amitabh B Pour Homme Perfume sells on Amazon for Rs 1,299 for a 100 ml pack. Legend 1942 also sells an Amitabh Bachchan range of men’s perfumes—Heritage White and Flamboyance Black. The price is steeper at Rs 3,750 for a 100 ml bottle.
The “1942” in the brand name, in case you did not make the connection, is Bachchan’s year of birth. A new range was launched a couple of years ago, on his 80th birthday. Unfortunately, the perfumes don’t seem to be anywhere close to being the hot sellers that one would expect from Big B.
They exist, but without much fanfare or franchise —a pale shadow of the legend they represent. I visited Nueva, Virat Kohli’s restaurant in Delhi. It was nice but it wasn’t exceptional. There is also One8 Commune now open in multiple locations. I have read mixed reviews of the restaurant, and those that have been there have provided only lukewarm feedback.
Kohli, of course, also has athleisure, fragrances, footwear and more under the One8 brand. But is the brand vibrant and top-of-mind for consumers? My guess is, not exactly. Wrogn, too, is a Kohli brand. It has been around for almost a decade. But it isn’t really rocking either.
Now contrast this. Globally, Rihanna, Reese Witherspoon, Kim Kardashian, Selena Gomez and many others have succeeded exponentially with their self-authored brands. Jessica Alba’s Honest is today a $1 billion brand as per Forbes. Drew Barrymore’s Flower Beauty sells $50 million annually in retail. Bethenny Frankel sold her Skinnygirl Cocktail to Jim Beam for $100
