Publications
Publications
- January 2015
- HBS Case Collection
The Blonde Salad
By: Anat Keinan, Kristina Maslauskaite, Sandrine Crener and Vincent Dessain
Abstract
In 2014, Chiara Ferragni, a globe-trotting founder of the world's most popular fashion blog The Blonde Salad, and Riccardo Pozzoli, her co-founder and business partner, had to decide how to best monetize her blog as well as her shoe line called the "Chiara Ferragni Collection". A year earlier, Ferragni and Pozzoli 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 and Pozzoli 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
Social Media; Digital Influencers; Fashion Blogger; Brand Authenticity; Digital Marketing; Brands; 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; Luxury; Blogs; Product Positioning; Commercialization; Consolidation; Brands and Branding; Entrepreneurship; Business Model; Fashion Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Publishing Industry
Citation
Keinan, Anat, Kristina Maslauskaite, Sandrine Crener, and Vincent Dessain. "The Blonde Salad." Harvard Business School Case 515-074, January 2015.