Keeping Up with Kylie and Timothée: When Two Personal Brands Collide

When you think of dynamic duos, you probably think Batman and Robin or Ratatouille and Alfredo Linguini. Those who seamlessly fit together and almost complete each other for their complementary characteristics. Likely, few people would ever think Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner. Both quite famous for very different things, Chalamet was nominated for two Oscars – most recently for his depiction of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. I must say I don’t know much about him (though I did like him in the Dune series) other than his connection to his girlfriend, Kylie, who I have written about in the past. I’ve been fascinated by the self-made billionaire, and think she is a great example of how personal branding, when properly executed, can lead to new entrepreneurial ventures, expansions and extensions.

Successful personal branding occurs when an individual defines his or her promise and story and then markets it with all the ruthless discipline of a consumer product goods company.

Addictiveness plays a large role in personal branding and can mean the difference between brand growth and stagnation. Highly addictive brands motivate the buyer to come back for more as each new experience builds on the prior one, creating room for new opportunities. They bring attention and stickiness. Kylie had that stickiness with her cosmetics line, Kylie Lip Kits, which later led to the creation of Kylie Cosmetics. Although her prior endeavors involved clothing, this new cosmetics line made sense structurally and strategically with her existing business. But now that she has a new ready-to-drink vodka soda brand, Sprinter, I have to wonder how much she may be diluting her brand by extending into new categories.

These categories also include romance. Normally we wouldn’t think of it like that since it’s people, not products, but since I’m always preaching that people are brands – especially celebrities – this is a valid topic.

Timothée has almost exclusively stuck to acting, though he recently displayed his vocal talent in both Wonkaand his latest film as Bob Dylan. Those are very complementary expansions of his versatile personal brand. He’s also done some modeling work, which is also an extension of his personal brand – his face, fashion, and iconic image are what we know him for.

Kylie has been in the entertainment industry by growing up on Keeping Up with the Kardashians, but she isn’t known for her acting or singing as Chalamet is. But they are both known for their faces (i.e. their image), so there is an alignment there. But they’ve not run in the same circles. Jenner has been linked to rappers Tyga and Travis Scott and Chalamet attended an arts-focused high school and dated the daughters of musicians Vanessa Paradis and Madonna.

So when it comes to Chalamet and Jenner as a duo, I have to wonder: what happens when two discordant brands collide? Normally I’d say something like the Colgate Frozen Pizza debacle – where a brand known for dental care decides to enter into the frozen foods space – would be an example of two discordant brands coming together, but in this case, it’s two people most of us never would have put together. And, yet, for them, their fusing has become epic in terms of brand star power.

Are the values and beliefs of Timothée and Kylie aligned, or are they diluting their own personal brands when they come together?