Kim Kardashian’s latest loved-up Instagram picture may look like, as one Twitter wryly noted, like she was staying in a caravan park in Enniscrone. Yet it’s probably far from a caravan park that Kim Kardashian will be celebrating her latest career milestone.
Yesterday, it was revealed that Kim Kardashian became an official member of the billionaire club. Coty, the US cosmetics giant, has bought a 20pc stake in KKW Beauty, valuing the reality TV star’s three-year-old business at $1bn (€890m).
Alongside a picture of a pepper, a tomato and some flowers, her husband Kanye West tweeted: “I am so proud of my beautiful wife Kim Kardashian West for officially becoming a billionaire. You’ve weathered the craziest storms and now God is shining on you and our family.”
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He’s not wrong: another family member, Kim’s sister Kylie Jenner, reportedly became Forbes magazine’s youngest ever self-made billionaire at 21. The magazine pegged the value of her own beauty company, Kylie Cosmetics, at more than $900m (€800m), while her personal earnings took her net worth to $1bn (the magazine since claimed that while she is no longer officially a billionaire, the now 22-year-old isn’t far off it).
In his book Kardashian Kulture, sociologist Ellis Cashmore has attempted to pinpoint the origins of the family’s extraordinary rise to the top. “They’ve put social media and monetising themselves together in a way that made business leaders, CEOs and professors of management scratch their heads and wonder, ‘how did they do that?’” he says.
All told, it’s not bad going for a family who first rose to prominence under a cloud of notoriety. As a daughter of OJ Simpson’s defence lawyer Robert Kardashian, Kim and her sisters were more than used to life in LA’s fast lane. As youngsters, they amassed a gang of celebuspawns and socialites.
Kim, best known in her teens as Paris Hilton’s sidekick, soon surpassed her pal in the infamy stakes with a sex tape of her own. Rather than slink away in shame after the scandal, Kardashian parlayed the moment into a reality show on E!
“She was ridiculed for being talentless but canny enough to realise that she could monetise that reputation,” Cashmore observes.
“Before her, Madonna, in the 1980s showed how the kind of scandals that Hollywood stars and other entertainers tried to avoid, could be a valuable resource.”
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Mindful of the adage that there’s no such thing as bad publicity, Kim’s canny mother, Kris Jenner, soon built a family dynasty. Filming from their abodes in Calabasas, Keeping Up With The Kardashians was a glossy shot of grade-A escapism.
Of course, several people have made the move into reality TV: not all of them became billionaires afterwards. Yet under Kris’ steerage, each Kardashian member has found their scheme: in Kim’s case, social media endorsements, brand ambassadorships and mobile gaming have been a large art of her earning power.
Beauty clearly is central to the Kardashian women’s personal fortunes. As tastemakers and influencers, they certainly have the attentions of a wide swathe of young women, but their fortunes derive from a specific place.
Kylie, in particular, is a regular user of Instagram and Snapchat, where she posts selfies tagged with the Kylie Cosmetics products that she is wearing. With 184 million followers on Instagram alone, she is mainlining into a massive targeted audience that the giant corporations can only dream of. Kris reportedly brought in e-commerce platform Shopify to reel in the Gen-Z client base. In June 2017, Kim’s line, KKW Beauty was born and reportedly reeled in around $100m (€90m) in revenue in its first year.
These days, influencers and role models are the biggest movers and shakers in the business. Figures like the Kardashians are now the main drivers in a business worth an estimated $535bn (€476bn).
“Social media is an amazing platform,” Jenner acknowledges. “I have such easy access to my fans and my customers.”
In a celebrity culture where youngsters are trying to bridge the distance between themselves and their favourite celebrity, the Kardashians’ products couldn’t come at a better time.
“This is something that advertising theory hasn’t quite got to grips with yet: consumers don’t buy because they think Kim, Kylie, Kendall or any of the others seriously like a product; they know they are being paid for it. But they buy it to reduce the social and emotional distance between them and the Kardashians,” says Cashmore.
One of the most fascinating things about the Kardashians is their enduring appeal, despite the natural law of celebrity hinting that the public should have tired of them by now.
“Let’s face it, the Kardashians should be past their sell-by date,” agrees Cashmore.
“They’re not. In fact, they still seem box-fresh. Love or hate them, you have to appreciate that they have their fingers on the pulse of today’s culture and will probably continue to dominate. We will get sick of them; there’s no doubt about it.
“But as we speak, I see no signs of the Kardashians sinking from view.”
