What Taylor Swift Should Learn About Luxury
The richest female musician is...? Plus a quirky cyber creature and the value of unrealistic goals
Wonderfully snowy conditions during a ski day last week
Hello hello,
Did you know that spring arrives on March 19th this year - nearly there!
And also around the corner is our new baby, expected by the end of this month. If I disappear for a few weeks, don’t worry.
This week we’ve got stories of luxury brands, a quirky cyber creature, and the value of unrealistic goals.
The Richest Female Musician Might Surprise You
Taylor Swift may be in higher demand than a bee among a meadow of freshly bloomed flowers, but one female musician is 50% wealthier (and it’s not Beyoncé).
While Fortune estimates Taylor’s net worth to be $1.1 billion, the top spot for personal wealth goes to Rihanna, with her co-ownership of Fenty Beauty, a business valued at $2.8 billion dollars.
Rihanna launched her brand in 2017, in partnership with the world’s largest luxury conglomerate - Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, aka LVMH. The brand provides inclusive products for a range of skin tones, launching with 40 shades, later expanding to 50 shades.
The larger story of LVMH proves even more interesting, and I’ll just offer some highlights. I strongly endorse the barely-not-an-audiobook LVMH Episode on The Acquired Podcast (3hr30m).
It’s the story of the world’s richest man, Bernard Arnault, and it begins with Dior.
In 1949, Christian Dior started his French fashion brand featuring luxury fabrics and it takes off. The brand grows for decades, but after the founding designer died in 1957, a decline begins and continues until bankruptcy in 1981.
At that time, Bernard Arnault is working in the family business of engineering and construction in France. At the age of 35, he puts together $15 million in partnership with a bank, to buy Dior from the French government for $40 million in 1984.
He then executes mercilessly in cutting and improving efficiency to grow Dior over four years.
This part blows me away.
In 1988, just four years later, he leverages $800 million in ownership to buy a stake in Louis Vuitton (LVMH), eventually taking over the entire business.
In four years, he turned $15 million into $800 million, which means an annual growth of 170%.
It is deliciously ironic that despite the US's GDP-above-all culture of competition, the man who won capitalism is a French corporate raider. — Ben Gilbert (Acquired)
More examples of powerful luxury branding:
1) Tiffany doesn’t want to sell to mothers
In 2020, LVMH purchased the long-standing brand Tiffany, and quickly made a splash. They ran a marketing campaign to reach Gen-Z called “Not Your Mother’s Tiffany.” They showed models wearing things you’d never expect in a Tiffany ad, including Beyoncé posing with a 128-carat ring and in front of a rarely seen Basquiat painting in Tiffany blue. Ultimately, no one was insulted because even mothers want to be cool like their daughters.
2) Why you don’t insult famous rappers
When the owner of Cristal was asked publicly, “What do you think about black rappers drinking your champagne?” he responded, “I'm sure Dom Pérignon would love to have their business, they can have it.”
To which Jay-Z led a boycott of Cristal and ultimately bought his own brand of champagne, renaming it Ace of Spades. And Jay-Z later sold the business to LVMH for a cool $600 million.
3) The Rule to Predict a Brand’s Future Lifetime
Steve Jobs and Bernard Arnault became friends in the early 2000s, and they were particularly close as Jobs worked on opening Apple-owned retail locations.
Supposedly Bernard asked, “Do you think people will be using iPhones in 20 years?”
Steve’s response captures a valuable brand lesson: “I don’t know. But I know they’ll be drinking Dom Pérignon at that time!”
This connects to the concept of the Lindy Effect - an idea or technology will be relevant as far in the future as its current age. So a 100-year-old best-selling book will probably matter for far longer than last year’s Pulitzer Prize winner.
The brands under the LVMH umbrella have a long history of cultural significance, something very difficult to create without decades of brand recognition.
Worthy & Remarkable
The LOOI robot turns your phone into a “quirky cyber-creature,” and I think the weirdness is wonderful - also from Portland!
I would not expect anyone to want a hoodie with pockets for an iPad, two notebooks, and all sorts of cables, but the NOMADE travel hoodie has raised over $200k.
I saw the North Face Reel Rock 18 films last week (fun!) and here’s one from 2023 - Seb Bouin climbs Supreme Jumbo Love - with cool shots of the rock formations around Las Vegas.
Climbing and Flying from Cerro Torre in Patagonia - this is wild (and fun and scary looking)!
One Thing from Me
I am giving Tim Ferriss' influential The Four Hour Workweek another read, a book that reshaped my worldview and career path.
As they say, “No man steps in the same river twice,” and I find totally different insights today.
One thing I keep coming back to is the idea that unrealistic goals can be easier than realistic ones.
If the payoff is mediocre or average, so is your effort.
And unrealistic goals provide the adrenaline infusion necessary to get anything started, which requires passing all the obstacles and roadblocks along the way.
The level of competition is thus fiercest for those “realistic” goals, paradoxically making them the most time- and energy-consuming. It is easier to raise $1,000,000 than to raise $100,000.
— Tim Ferriss
Do you have any project ideas or personal challenges? Consider 10x-ing your goal and see what kind of creative solutions it inspires!
Alternatively you can shorten the timeline to see how far you can progress in 24 hours, which is more apt when you have a newborn coming soon…
Unrealistically,
Jono
PS - another list of my favorite internet-sourced Shower Thoughts
