The Rise of The Nice Popular Girl Influencer (And Demise of The Mean Girl)
Both Alix Earl and Hailey Bieber came across my TikTok feed yesterday, specifically in regards to their impact on a woman-owned small business (two different woman-owned small businesses.) And it's a great time to talk about your personality re: your personal brand and what we're seeing as the rise of the kind, beautiful, popular girl and the demise of the Mean Girl influencer.
It’s been lightly trending on TikTok that Hailey Bieber isn’t as nice as she seems. But a strong case-in-point is the copyright infringement lawsuit from the brand Rhode.
Rhode is a clothing brand that share a name with Hailey Bieber’s skincare brand. (She knows: She tried to buy the name years ago and the clothing brand declined). She won the copyright infringement lawsuit, because they’re in different categories. However in a statement they released summer of 2022, they're saying her using the name is detrimental to their brand. And when we think about: visibility, brand recognition, search engine optimization, a variance of resources and celebrity— Haley Bieber is going to eclipse them when you search for Rhode. (In fact, when I google Rhode, Rhode Skin does come up above the clothing line—as does the paid Rhode skincare Google ad, which shows me they’re aware and outbidding for this keyword).
So Hailey is being portrayed as someone who, in addition to her “Nepo baby” T-shirts, really doesn't care about her impact on this small business.
Let's contrast that with Alix Earle and a post that came across my feed yesterday. It's a small business owner for the brand Evry Jewels and there’s a screenshot of her sharing “Alix Erle blew up our small business.” She did a TikTok about how Alix wearing their jewelry was beneficial, because now they're getting all of these orders.
Alix’s star is rising and TikTok’s like this make people love her even more.
From a marketing perspective, it really evidences how important authenticity and the spirit of your brand is to your reputation in 2023—including if you're an influencer.
This marks a shift: When we think about original Instagram style, aspirational influencer marketing, where everything was gorgeous and polished, and everyone had presets on their photos, it was really aesthetic first.
But—and Alix Erle is absolutely gorgeous and stereotypically so undoubtably—but we've moved into this moment, especially now, especially post-pandemic especially when we're craving connection—where someone like Alex Earl, because she's getting ready with you, feels like a friend. And, because the net impact of what she's doing is uplifting businesses and is helping other people: She's not just a pretty, cool girl. She's a nice pretty cool girl. And that's why people are so eager to support her right now. Whereas even if you're a hot celebrity married to a hot pop star—if there's Tiktok after TikTok or post after post of the things that you're doing that’s hurting other people, it's going to adversely affect your brand and your brand value.
