US. Elizabeth Arden and Britney Spears have joined forces to develop Spears-branded beauty products. The first item – a fragrance – is set to be launched this autumn into Arden’s US domestic department store doors, before being rolled out worldwide next spring. Make-up and skincare will follow sometime within the next two years.
Spears joins screen legend Elizabeth Taylor and current queen of Hollywood Catherine Zeta-Jones, who promote Taylor-branded fragrances and Arden’s flagship brand, respectively.
“Britney is an ideal partner on many counts,” commented Elizabeth Arden president Paul West. “She is an incredibly talented young woman whose career is still very much on the upswing – witness the fact that she’s selling out upcoming concert dates in hours, and has a number-one single right now. Britney has huge appeal both in the U.S. and abroad. She’s very ambitious – and she’s applying her considerable drive into making this the best brand it can be. We’re very excited to be working with her.”
The Spears/Arden deal was brokered through Brand Sense Marketing, an integrated marketing and licensing firm which is based in Los Angeles. The terms of the deal were not announced, although industry sources suggest that the contract, thought to be for five years initially, will be royalty-based. A 5% royalty could net Spears anything from US$10 million to US$25 million.
The target market for the Spears brand will be 17 to 35-year-olds – younger than that of the company’s Arden and Elizabeth Taylor brands. “We think that Britney will draw in a whole new group of consumers for us,” confirmed West.
The announcement is in keeping with the recent rash of celebrity/beauty signings. Designer Tommy Hilfiger, a licensee of The Estée Lauder Cos, recently joined forces with pop diva Beyoncé Knowles to promote a new women’s fragrance (The Moodie Report.com, 27 January). And just last month Unilever Cosmetics International signed red-hot rising star Scarlett Johansson to be the face of its new Calvin Klein women’s fragrance, which is set to launch this autumn (The Moodie Report.com, 17 February).
