Ivanka Trump’s name has never been so newsworthy, yet her namesake fashion company appears to be showing signs of distress

This weekend, she and her family accompanied the President on a visit to a school in Orlando, with the First Daughter front and centre in all the photo opportunities; from the shots of her accompanying her own children down the steps of Air Force One to pictures of her crouching to speak with pupils at St. Andrew's school.

Ivanka had opted to wear a striped skirt which was later revealed to be an upcoming style from her eponymous collection. But despite this, and all the other money-can't-buy moments of exposure that she has been able to offer in the last few weeks, the $100 million lifestyle empire that she built off the back of a 2007 fine jewellery deal has come under fire from several angles in the few weeks since Donald Trump moved into the White House.
Major department stores have dropped it, audiences have boycotted her products following the #GrabYourWallet campaign, and Ivanka was forced to distance herself from the company after her own ethics were questioned, when she wore and then promoted a bracelet from her collection in the new First Family’s debut TV appearance, in the days after the election.

Frustratingly, the 35 year-old had something quite good going on. She had developed an aspirational lifestyle destination built around the concept of #WomenWhoWork, offering polished clothing and wholesome advice to American women who are trying to have it all.

“We are proud that our business is growing rapidly and that our brand resonates strongly with women who are inspired by our messaging,” Abigail Klem, Ivanka Trump’s Chief Brand Officer, told The Telegraph back in November, just after the election. ‘Over the past year many more women have discovered and become loyal to the brand, leading us to experience a significant year over year revenue growth.’

Ivanka lived and breathed her brand’s image and became her own best poster girl - said striped skirt being just the latest in a long line of products from her own line that Ivanka has worn in recent weeks, from another $89 skirt to $2,900 earrings and $135 black heels. It's something that American retail expert Carol Spieckerman says, has now made it impossible for consumers to distinguish between the brand and the woman, even after she has halted ties with the company.

“The lifestyle branding premise behind Ivanka’s label is in jeopardy,” explains Spieckerman of the reason that Ivanka’s business has been hurt so badly since the inauguration, noting that much of her target customer base will be women who have felt offended by Donald Trump’s statements and standpoints. “The women’s marches put the stake in the ground but arguably were survivable. Ongoing controversies surrounding her father’s actions will continue to impact Ivanka’s brand, though.”

Even if fans haven’t been turned off by Ivanka’s new political role, they might now be confused as to who is really running the brand without her as its official face. A few weeks before the inauguration, and following her decision to take a leave of absence from her company, Ivanka chose to make the Instagram page @IvankaTrump into her own personal account, taking the 3.1 million-strong following that she and her team had built up with her. It’s a choice that has left her namesake company having to start from scratch with a new @IvankaTrumpHQ page and zero followers, and was a risky move for a brand that has placed so much importance on crafting its perfect image on the platform. In the months since, @IvankaTrumpHQ has amassed 43,000 followers on its own - an impressive effort, but one that is still far from the super-brand it was before.

Speikerman suggests that confusion over the separation may just be temporary, but that other recent controversies will have had a more lasting impact on Ivanka’s target audience.

“My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by ‪@Nordstrom. She is a great person — always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!” President Trump tweeted on February 8th, the day after US department store Nordstrom dropped the Ivanka Trump line. Nordstrom retaliated, explaining that poor sales performance had been the sole reason for their decision, and the Wall Street Journal released unflattering claims that sales had been down 70% year-on-year. Arguably, the original story may have blown over a lot more quickly if the President hadn't chipped in to defend his daughter - an instinctive fatherly reaction, no doubt, but one that raised more questions about the family's business ethics.

In the same week, Donald Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway also violated government ethics rules by urging viewers to “Go buy Ivanka’s stuff,” in a television appearance. “I’m going to go get some myself today,” she told the audience. “This is just a wonderful line. I own some of it. I’m going to give a free commercial here: go buy it today, everybody, you can find it online.”

“These controversial endorsements from polarizing figures like Kellyanne Conway, and the tweets from her father about her brand, undoubtedly have caused more damage [than good]” says Spieckerman of the reaction. “Ivanka may have technically distanced herself from the brand but the optics around her ongoing connection to her father, to include pictures of her in various parts of the White House, reinforce the link and in the end, the brand backlash.”

Further department stores Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman have since dropped the Ivanka Trump lines, but other retailers like Amazon and Macy’s are still holding strong. To steady the ship in the short term (and from a distance) Ivanka needs to keep projecting a likeable accessible image (those Instagram accounts will no doubt go into overdrive) and hope that consumers will stop seeing her company as a convenient place to direct their discontent.

“Ivanka could attempt to take her brand in another direction after Donald Trump leaves office,” says Spieckerman. “But she will have many headwinds to fight until that happens.”

If she can avoid embroiling her brand in further controversy and keep that polished persona intact, then her brand might just survive the next four years.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk