Challenges Meghan Markle Could Face Launching New Brand Revealed By Expert

Meghan Markle is busy working hard behind-the-scenes to make her new brand American Riviera Orchard the best and biggest it can be.

However, a brand strategist believes there could be challenges to its success despite Meghan hoping to support it with a show on Netflix.

Meghan Markle Faces Tough Decision On Whether To Make Brand Expensive or Accessible

According to brand expert Lucie Green, Meghan could choose to lean into her royal connections to make the brand high-end.

The downsides to this is that she is sure to be faced with criticisms every time she does this, so for now, we’ve got Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex as the name she legally went with when launching the brand.

How much she could lean into the royal side down the line is something we can’t yet see.

Prior to the brand’s launch, Meghan distributed branded jams to 50 friends and influencers, including Chrissy Teigen, Heather Dorak, Tracy Robbins and Kris Jenner.

Chatting with Fabulous about the 42-year-old’s lifestyle brand, Lucie said: “Positioning will be a tightrope, whether to go very high-end and exclusive or make the brand more accessible.”

“How much she (even obliquely) makes royal references will always draw criticism but dialling that up will likely be appealing to many US audiences, just as Aerin Lauder and Martha Stewart make upper-class references in their brands but have wide audiences.”

Another thing that may hold Meghan back is the way the brand is styled as “American Riviera Orchard.” Lucie believes it would be tough for the “Suits” alum to claim that all products are locally sourced from the area.

Lucie explained: “If the story of the brand is literally about being grown and sourced on the American Riviera, scale could be a challenge — there’s only so many strawberries you can grow in one place. And it seems like the philosophy is very tightly connected to sourcing in the Californian orchards and farms.”

She added: “As the brand grows, and if she wants a mass audience she might need to think about how she communicates how and where this produce is grown.”

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