Amazing how much a personal brand can be worth. David Beckham (personal fortune about £87 million) has made around £20 million from his (Coty-made) scent 'Instinct'. He endorses watches, sunglasses, fashion of all sorts and who knows what's on the cards in the States? So far he's managed to side-step 'incidents' that could have harmed the earning-power of his brand but it will be interesting to see how long he manages to do this. So many temptations are thrown in the path of world-class football players. It's easy to fall down a really big media hole.
In the early 90's manufacturers, and designers in particular, were falling over themselves to get Princess Diana to wear or use one of their products. Just one shot of her in a certain car or collar would create a national rush to buy it. It was the opposite with poor old Fergie. Designers lived in fear of her wearing one of their creations. There was a news story at the time that tried to put a figure on how much it was worth to manufacturers for one of the royals to be seen with their product. I can't remember the exact figure but for Diana it was around £100,000s a time. Charles was way down in tens of thousands. Fergie was a minus figure.
Wouldn't happen now, though. She really has found (or been given) a much better style and seems more at peace with herself. Although I did glimpse a magazine she was in recently where she was extolling the virtues of motherhood inside while sporting fishnets and a riding crop on the front. Hmm. 
Kate Moss is another interesting one. The fuss over Burberry and Hilfiger taking her off their lists because of the cocaine story only seemed to do her good. As with David Cameron, the general response was 'so what'? Given that she's a supermodel it was followed with 'of course she is'. Bad PR for the retailers. Surprisingly good PR for Kate.
But surely more damaging, long-term, to her brand is her continued relationship with one of Britain's least attractive men, the pathetic excuse for a rock 'star', Pete Doherty. You have to ask yourself (and people are asking more and more) what is wrong with a woman - any woman, but certainly a beautiful, rich and famous woman - who spends any time with pork-pie Pete, let alone months and months? Questions are also being asked about who's looking after her 3-year-old daughter while she's out every evening having it large with the Pilsbury Dough-boy.
This steady drip-drip effect of press photos of the two looking wrecked, comments in the press and on the Net about her as a mother and pretty much any coverage of Doherty's latest antics will ultimately damage her brand completely. Even if her looks survive the drink and drugs for a few more years, the brand image won't. It's only a matter of time unless she wises up.
I hope she does. I met her back in the 90's when she hadn't been around for long. I was covering some vacuous 'model party' for the Express (sad but true) and she was there. She seemed perfectly pleasant, unlike nightmare Naomi Campbell who waved an imperious "no interviews!" at me as I moved towards her. As if I wanted a word! I wonder how much her brand is worth to non-designers? I suppose she could endorse boxing gloves, or anger management classes or perhaps scratch pads for cats?
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