09/11/2006

L.A. Firm Using A-List Stars to Strike Up the Brand

Britney Spears’ last album might have been Toxic, but her fragrance line certainly hasn’t.

Created by Elizabeth Arden Inc., Spears’ Curious and Fantasy scents contributed significantly to the perfume company’s $955 million in net sales for the 2006 fiscal year. And at the core of the profitable alliance is L.A.-based Brand Sense Partners LLC, which specializes in building brands around celebrities.

Brand Sense Partners has benefited as more Hollywood A-listers use their name power to capture a share of profits in industries from fashion to home décor to food service.

The company creates strategic partnerships between big name stars like Magic Johnson and race car driver Tony Stewart, and corporations, to create products under the celebrity’s brand name. And that doesn’t just mean pasting a pro athlete’s face on the front of a Wheaties box.

When Spears chose to go into the cosmetic industry several years ago, Brand Sense elicited the expertise of Elizabeth Arden to create a product under her own name.

“Instead of endorsing a fragrance, Britney Spears is endorsing her own fragrance,” said Brand Sense president Robert Hollander. “It says ‘Curious by Britney Spears’ on the bottle. It doesn’t say Elizabeth Arden. It is Britney’s brand people are buying.”

Brand Sense has recently taken its approach a step farther, signing a contract with the William Morris Agency. Through the deal, Brand Sense will aid the talent agency’s clients in developing and expanding brands.

“They were looking for a way of bringing attention to their high profile clients who could be brands in their own right,” Hollander said, noting this type of approach allows the celebrity to build a small empire around their name that has the potential to live on after they fade out of the entertainment world.

Brand Sense opened for business in 2001 and creates a detailed long-term business strategy for each partnership it creates. Hollander said that most celebrities who attempt to start a brand and fail do so because they don’t weigh all the elements of their approach. “We see celebrities endorse high end luxury goods and try to sell products in K-Mart at the same time. That can be confusing,” he said.