According to Forbes Kylie Jenner hit her first self-made billions at the age of 21years, beating Mark Zuckerberg who made his first billion at 23years. This fortune was built on the back of two assets, the family reality TV show Keeping up with the Kardashians which has resulted in a phenomenal personal Instagram following of 128million. Kylie is used to celebrity, sister of Kendall Jenner the supermodel, half-sister of Kim Kardashian the voluptuous model and daughter of Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner Olympian and transgender champion. In May 2015 Jenner confessed to plumping up her lips with temporary lip fillers to cover up her insecurities about thin lips, in August 2015 Jenner introduced her idea of the Lip Kit to encourage young girls to experiment with lip colour and lip shape, and one thing led to another.
The youngest Kardashian transformed herself from freckled schoolgirl into polished social-media entrepreneur and make-up connoisseur. Jenner was recently spotted by the speciality cosmetic company Ultra Beauty, the largest beauty retailer in the US. Ultra’s mega-stores combine all the elements of beauty with the ultimate shopping experience in a one-stop shop, cosmetics, skincare, fragrance, professional haircare and a beauty salon; in stores Kylie Cometics products sell out in hours, her devoted customers clamour for a selfie with her.Even Ultra have been taken by surprise at Kylie Cosmetics’ popularity.
Since inception the marketing strategy has largely been through the power of Jenner’s prolific social media presence, Jenner is what is now known as an influencer, through Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and Twitter. Kylie appeals to circa 175million; her social media followers include Ivanka Trump, Beyoncé and Donatella Versace and millions of teens.
The business model couldn’t be simpler to manage and have less overheads (reportedly with only 12 direct employees) everything except ideas is outsourced, manufacturing is done in California with stock held and fulfilment by Shopify, all financial arrangements are overseen by Jenner’s tiger-mother Kris.In 2017 Kylie Jenner lost a legal battle with Kylie Minogue over the name “Kylie” as a trademark in the US, Minogue was seen as the “original” Kylie brand and Jenner as a playing a secondary part in a reality show. Conversely in 2018 Jenner trashed Snapchat’s stock market value wiping $1.3billion of Snapchat’s value with one tweet,posting she did not like their re-designed app. Today Jenner can command a million dollars to endorse a product, largely thanks to her influence on social media.