2. In March of 2019, Forbes had declared Kylie Jenner as the world’s
youngest self-made billionaire. During the time Forbes
announced this, she was only 21 years old with a cosmetics line
worth $900 million dollars that brought her net worth up
amongst her very well-known family. For many years the
Kardashians have be ridiculed for their lack of genuine work and
their rise to fame. Since they are frequently frowned upon, the
announcement of Kylie Jenner making the cover of Forbes as a
self-made billionaire made people outraged. Many felt anger and
were offended to the self-made portion of the title due to the
amount of sacrifices she made versus the amount a
non-celebrity person makes. This presentation will be breaking
down how Kylie Jenner became a Billionaire, where the company
stands in terms of success today, and how the brand became
well known across the world.
Background
Background
3. Beauty Industry
Beauty Industry
Kylie Jenner’s cosmetics line has impacted many people because of her
tactics in marketing. Beauty brands have felt intimidated while young
makeup artists have felt discouraged to launch their own line due to the
mass amount of people who strictly only buy Kylie’s makeup. This has
impacted people by losing hope for themselves due to a large media
star being able to be so successful amongst beauty brands who have
been around for years.
Products such as Clinique do not nearly bring in the profit that Kylie
Cosmetics does because of promotional marketing. Kylie being able to
promote her products due to her name significantly works in favor of
her brand. As beauty brands and everyday artists are intimidated to
start a makeup line as other a list celebrities are not, due to how Kylie’s
makeup line turned out. Celebrities understand the impact their name
has to the attached products, leading them to have launched their own
makeup line such as Rare Beauty (by Selena Gomez), R.E.M Beauty (by
Ariana Grande), and Fenty Beauty (by Rihanna). Rather than buying a
product due to its quality consumers are buying these makeup
products due to the name attached to the brand by a specific celebrity.
5. Purpose
Purpose
The purpose of Kylie Cosmetics was to create a makeup line
for people that was good quality while also were easy to use.
Kylie wanted to give her fans the luxury of having the same
products she uses for their everyday makeup routines. This
has never been done before within the history of cosmetics,
previously celebrities cosmetic routines and products were
unreleased. The cosmetics for celebrities were unknown and
if it was known, it was out of reach to middle class people due
to prices. Since Kylie was a young girl, she was always
fascinated with makeup and felt very passionate about
starting a project. She would see people within the celebrity
crowd and want to know how they created their makeup look
and what products they used. Having the ability to use the
same products as a high list celebrity such as Kylie Jenner
allows one to match the same makeup artistry as she creates
for her photoshoots and marketing tactics.
6. Approach
Approach
Previously in Kylie Jenner’s younger age, it was speculated that she received cosmetic filler
injected into her lips. She had denied these “allegations” for several months and stated that she
had overdrawn her lipstick to make her lips appear larger than they were once before. Later on,
she concluded that she could not hide the matter any longer and told the media that the rumors
were true. Although this news seems very ordinary in our society today, this was a very
controversial topic for Kylie Jenner due to her age (17 years old) and the fact that the filler was
very unheard of at the time. As absurd as it sounds, many media outlets were covering the
confession, this news spread all over the world and even ended up on ABC News. To advertise a
product there typically is a budget, but there was no budget for Kylie because people wanted to
interview her on the manner which worked as free publicity for her name. The tool she used was
her elite status to make appearances on interviews and magazines. Since her lips became the
topic of conversation within the celebrity tabloids, she decided to use the tactic of rumors and
gossip to spread word of her name. The lips were undoubtedly fake which added more fuel to the
fire by saying they were natural. Curious people would look her up to see what the news was
about, and her name grew. As they say news is still news and people are talking about the person
regardless of if it is good or bad. Typically, a company has a layout of how their company will
grow but in this rare matter Kylie allowed the public to do the work for her. The more she was
honest about the fillers and her insecurity to her lips the more people heard about her, growing
the Kardashian- Jenner name all around the world.
After being honest with her fans and social media viewers, she then decided to launch a lipstick
line to help those who felt as she did before having filler injected. This cosmetic gave the illusion
of larger lips with long lasting and fast drying lipstick. Once the lipstick line was announced to be
coming out, everyone remembered her interviews denying the fillers and decided to see what the
makeup launch was all about since she confessed.
7. Launch Plan
Launch Plan
After realizing the three lip kits she originally sold would eventually become
old news, Kylie decided to bring new colors to the cosmetic line. Kylie found
that her lipsticks were so popular she decided to expand and launch more
products for the face. She now has an entire line with products for eyes,
cheeks, lips, and eyebrows. Each area of the face has multiple cosmetic
launches, but kylie has a minimum of three products for each targeted facial
region. As her lipsticks are the most popular item on her site, the second most
high demanding product are her eyeshadows which she makes very
well-known online.
Kylie has a following of 370 million people on her Instagram which is where
she typically posts about her cosmetic line. Often times Kylie shows a sneak
peak of what is upcoming to her cosmetic site this usually is a photoshoot, a
video, or a test trail of the product. She can be seen swatching lipstick shades
and eye shadow shades on her arm to show the pigmentation and how it looks
from the makeup pan to the skin. Kylie Jenner’s name is so well known around
the world she is able to promote her own products and spark interest to the
consumer just through a social media picture. She keeps up with the current
trends and interacts with her audience through her promotions which makes
them feel heard.
9. Collection
Collection
Kylie cosmetics often launches cosmetics based on an event happening, a great example of this would be
the annual Kylie Jenner birthday collection that comes out on her birthday with a lip kit sale. Kylie and
her team use her own social media to market her new products and publish announcements, these are
pre-planned out in accordance with the dates of release for the upcoming products. One specific
collection had sold out just as quickly as the first lip kit launch and is most expensive now than when she
released it. In 2020 Kylie marketed her Christmas collaboration collection of the Grinch which went
viral. The online marketing for this had so many likes and shares that it was on everyone’s Christmas list
that year. The packaging was aesthetically pleasing to the holiday season and won everyone’s hearts with
the classic familiar character from Whoville. The entire collection sold at $350 a package and will not be
brought back to the Kylie cosmetic site for purchase as it was a limited edition set. After being sold out
people were reselling the collection for $885 due to high demand. As any company would do the data
collected for the Christmas launch was used to project the upcoming sales during Christmas for
upcoming years. This Christmas she could up her prices to receive more profit due to people buying gifts
during the holiday seasons.
Recently she had launched a collaboration with her mother, this contained makeup based upon her
mother’s preference and released September 14th. Before the release she had a teaser for the collection
online on September 4th. She strategically had a 10-day gap between the announcement and release to
make sure people knew it was coming soon and the word would travel. Her announcement included her
and her mother wearing the cosmetics along with comedy videos that were shareable to others online.
Having a sense of comedy to the announcement allows the consumer to feel happy and excited about the
upcoming launch. Typically, people share videos about news or comedy with other online which was a
smart tactic move for Kylie to do. The price of the entire collection is listed as $295 which includes
pressed powder, a blush duo, a lip crayon set, a lip serum, and under eye patches; while her first launch
of lip kits was priced at $40 which came with a lip liner and lipstick. The $255 difference from the first
launch shows how many more products she had expanded to within the years, along with the high price
change for products.
10. Results
Results
Unfortunately for many who were controversial over the wording on Forbes title,
Kylie Jenner was a billionaire but was helped along the process due to her family’s
name. Although people will be closed minded to her business the numbers show how
quickly her cosmetics sold out and how many times, she needed to restock items due
to demand. Her makeup line became so popular she decided to launch more than
facial cosmetics. In 2019 she produced a skin care
line and in 2020 she announced a baby line which brings in two more forms of
profitable income for Kylie’s company. The skin care line and baby line both had
aspects the consumer wanted within a product, both lines are vegan, hypoallergenic,
cruelty free, and gluten free. Her skin care line includes lip oils, cleansers, serums/
toners, moisturizers, masks, and exfoliators while her baby line has soaps, towels, and
a carrier for the products.
As Kylie Jenner is a very busy woman with all of these different lines, she decided to
sell 51% of the company to Coty which was finalized in 2021 for $600 million dollars.
During the period of 2015 to 2020 Kylie was the complete owner of all of Kylie
cosmetics. When looking at Kylie’s profit one can see that she started off strong from
2015 to 2016 with increasing sales. When one looks at the years 2016 to 2018 a major
decline occurs and in 2018 to 2020 a skyrocketing increase occurs due to the
expansion of cosmetic products, new lines other than cosmetics, and selling half the
company.
11.
12. Success and Recommendations
Success and Recommendations
Success can be measured by the amount of time it took to sell the products, the amount of
positive reviews posted online, and the amount of profit the company made. In terms of
success for the company, Kylie became a billionaire with social media marketing techniques
which also helped her company, although she is no longer deemed as a billionaire, we can
learn from her. This tactic has never been used in such a way before and genuinely changed
the advertainment strategy for many other companies. In terms of the company I do not feel
as Kylie should have sold half it to Coty. The recommendation for her company would be to
expand new lines that are not beauty. Kylie has her cosmetic line, her baby line, and her skin
care line yet she has not thought to put together a clothing line, a fragrance, shoe line, or
furniture line. Kylie’s fans love her because of the style she brings into the media, she is young
and likes many trendy things that are popular. As previously mentioned, general everyday
workers do not have the funds as she does to just up and run a business, but Kylie could use
her platform to do much more than beauty products. If Kylie Jenner put together a streetwear
clothing line it would instantly sell out and would be staple pieces within many wardrobes
around the world. Her success from the business got her the controversial title from Forbes
but she could be doing so much more with her name in terms of marketing and business. She
is not expanding in different areas which would create more wealth even possibly having her
reach billionaire status again and allow businesses to take notes on how she can build an
empire just with her name.
13. ● Kylie Cosmetics. (n.d.). Kylie Cosmetics by Kylie Jenner. Retrieved October 2, 2022, from
https://kyliecosmetics.com
● Kylie Jenner. (2021, July 9). INSIDE KYLIE COSMETICS PART ONE: THE BEGINNING. YouTube.
Retrieved October 2, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_IZbsnstZY
● Peterson-Withorn, C. (2020, May 29). Inside Kylie Jenner’s Web Of Lies—And Why She’s No
Longer A Billionaire. Forbes. Retrieved October 2, 2022, from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2020/05/29/inside-kylie-jennerss-web-of-lies-a
nd-why-shes-no-longer-a-billionaire/?sh=2bd19e7c25f7
● Robehmed, N. (2019, March 5). At 21, Kylie Jenner Becomes The Youngest Self-Made Billionaire
Ever. Forbes. Retrieved October 2, 2022, from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2019/03/05/at-21-kylie-jenner-becomes-the
-youngest-self-made-billionaire-ever/?sh=cece6ea2794a
● Simple. (2022, June 29). Kylie Jenner net worth: How she built her cosmetics empire. Retrieved
October 2, 2022, from https://andsimple.co/cases/kylie-jenner-net-worth/
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