Kylie Jenner’s Genius Branding Strategy That Can Work For You

A few weeks ago Kylie Jenner broke the internet again with the release of her “Kyshadows”. By the way, how brilliant is that name?! Smart cookie that Kylie.

Anyway, I have particularly paid attention to her branding and PR strategy for her entire cosmetics line, because, if anybody knows anything about business it’s the Kardashian-Jenner clan. So I’m going to break down Kylie Jenner’s genius branding strategy that can work for you in 7 steps:

1. pick a creative name

There is a lot to be said for a creative name. Choosing a creative/catchy name takes work and never comes to you on the spot when you need it. So the fact that Kylie keeps killin’ it with creative names for her products means she knows how to brand.

Not only does she pick names that stick but they’re completely unique to her and her products. Nothing is better than when you can brand your own name and that’s one thing Kylie has perfected.

2. show teasers before your product is released

It’s been confirmed that Kylie Jenner is in fact, King of Snapchat and she uses this to her advantage any time a new product drops, like her “Kyshadows”, “Kyliner”, or her special birthday edition makeup. She hypes up the product days/weeks, in advance by showing us sneak peaks, getting us excited, and wearing the product(s) herself.

Sometimes she’ll even say, “I’ve been wearing this for months, it’s my favorite lip color”, which gets consumers even more excited because it’s “Kylie’s favorite” and they’ll do whatever it takes to have what she has.

Kylie also doesn’t exhaust the promotion of her new products, she talks about them in a very calm, almost mysterious way that makes us want to know more. She hasn’t been jaded by the cheesy marketing techniques of every other self-promoter, she’s just a young, cool, trendsetter who’s passionate about makeup.

2. send freebies to influencers

I’ve said it, Gary Vee has said it: bloggers and influencers are extremely underrated assets for your business. Kylie Jenner understands this and sends any new products to multiple bloggers, like a ton of bloggers. The cost of her sending a few free products costs way less than the missed opportunity when you don’t utilize the power of bloggers. #forreal

These bloggers who have hundreds, thousands, and even hundreds of thousands of followers, send one social post about Kylie’s new product and it reaches an audience she hasn’t reached before (yes even with 70+ million followers there are people who don’t follow Kylie Jenner).

The bottom line is if you’re not using bloggers to market your products, no matter what it is, you’re doing it wrong.

4. reward your best customers

When “Kyshadows” launched Kylie didn’t just send the palettes to bloggers, she hand delivered the makeup to her best customers (top spenders). Talk about white glove treatment! Not only did these people become life long Kylie Cosmetics advocates, but it gave other people an incentive to spend more. This small act shows that Kylie cares, (< possible new company name?), and it gets her closer to her fans. Very smart Kylie, very smart indeed.

You should always give something away for free, especially if you’re just starting out.

5. offer limited editions in limited quantities

This is one of the oldest tricks in the books so it amazes me when more people don’t take advantage of it: offering limited edition stuff for a limited time in limited quantities. Kanye does it with all of his Yeezy and Pablo merchandise.

The key word is “limited”. When people here “limited”… they freak. Because Kylie made limited edition products, there was a mad dash to get them because they’d be in high demand because there was a limited quantity of them.

Once she decided to make some products stocked indefinitely, they weren’t as special and people didn’t feel such a need to get all of them because they would always be there. Get it?

6. don’t compromise on quality

I can’t speak for any of the other Kardashian products, but Kylie’s Lipkits are legit. They are as good as any other luxury beauty product which is another part of the reason they’re so wildly successful.

Nothing is worse than when a celebrity/blogger backs a crap product and you only find out it’s a crap product after you buy it. Kylie cuts the crap, literally, and uses only the best ingredients, which she mentioned to us (consumers) several times.

Usually, your product will speak for itself but Kylie went a step further and spoke to us first.

7. charge a premium price

Because of the quality ingredients Kylie uses, she is able to charge a premium price. Notice how the more expensive something is the more consumers want it… interesting isn’t it?

Not only is charging an above average price for a product a smart move from a branding standpoint, but $17-29 a pop for lipstick, with 100,000 sales is… um, a lot. #kingkylie

The isn’t to just slap a super expensive price tag on something because you want more money, the key to selling at a high price is to make sure your product is worth it. That’s why I charge $58 for Build Your Own Style Guide because you get a lot of bang for your buck, and quite honestly I should be charging a lot more, but I like you guys and I know the blogging struggle is real so I priced it affordably for most, expensive for some.

I didn’t go into detail on how Kylie Jenner’s genius branding strategy can work for you because each situation is different but I will help you as much as I can in the comments. In the meantime, take each bullet point and apply it to your own blog/business/product.

Pick a creative name, get people excited, utilize bloggers, engage with your engaged followers, provide limited time offers, offer the best quality, and price reasonably. Boom.

What do you struggle most with? Comment below. 

xx

my favorite kendall + kylie pieces