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Case
| HBS Case Collection
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January 2015
The Blonde Salad
by
Anat Keinan, Kristina Maslauskaite, Sandrine Crener and Vincent Dessain
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Abstract
In 2014, Chiara Ferragni, a globe-trotting founder of the world's most popular fashion blog "The Blonde Salad," had to decide how to best monetize her blog as well as her shoe line called the "Chiara Ferragni Collection." A year earlier, Ferragni, together with her team, had already made a decision to transform her blog into an online lifestyle magazine and to build its positioning as a high-end brand. It meant that "The Blonde Salad" envisaged to only cooperate with a limited number of luxury fashion advertisers, inevitably reducing the blog's revenues. Ferragni considered changing the revenue-generating model by incorporating an online market place within "The Blonde Salad," but which strategy and timeline would she need to achieve her aim? Should Ferragni's shoe line, a separate company with a different ownership structure, be merged with "The Blonde Salad" or was it desirable to keep the two apart?
Keywords: luxury;
social media;
digital influencers;
fashion blogger;
brand authenticity;
digital marketing;
Brands;
entrepreneurship;
start-up;
fashion;
shoe;
Chiara Ferragni;
celebrity endorsement;
celebrity management;
lifestyle brand;
digital brand;
new brand development;
branding;
Instagram;
online followers;
fashion blog;
marketing partnerships;
brand portfolio;
luxury brand;
Louis Vuitton;
Dior;
designer brands;
Authenticity;
Business Model;
Blogs;
Product Positioning;
Commercialization;
Consolidation;
Luxury;
Brands and Branding;
Fashion Industry;
Apparel and Accessories Industry;
Publishing Industry;
