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Brands & Merch
Elizabeth Arden buys Bieber and Minaj perfumes
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 14 June 2012
Cosmetics giant Elizabeth Arden has expanded its portfolio of celebrity-endorsed perfumes by buying the rights to the Justin Bieber and Nicki Minaj fragrances from Give Back Brands LLC. The deal will cover the Biebster’s existing overpriced-smelly-fluid line ‘Someday’, and the planned follow up ‘Girlfriend’. The core teams who have worked on the Bieber and Minaj perfume brands to date will remain, but with marketing and other back office support provided by Arden.
Confirming the deal, a memo to Arden staff from CEO E Scott Beattie said: ”We are pleased to announce that today we signed an agreement to acquire the licenses for the Justin Bieber and Nicki Minaj fragrance brands from Give Back Brands”.
He continued: “We’ve been keen observers of Justin Bieber’s fragrance and his participation in it. When you look at the combination of Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift’s Wonderstruck [an existing Arden product], together they accounted for half of the US growth in fragrance last season. Our growth agenda allowed for a certain amount of acquisitions and when this became available we recognised it was a great opportunity. It made sense to us given the size and breadth of our celebrity portfolio”.
The exact terms of the deal, and what Give Back Brands, Bieber and Minaj will each receive from the acquisition, aren’t known, nor is what the arrangement means for the charitable element of the GBB perfumes. Bieber originally made much of the fact that he’d allied with a not-for-profit for the launch of his first perfume product which would donate its profits on the fragrance to children’s charities because, as the GBB website tell us: “We believe that the future of humanity lies with our children”.
Forbes notes that when first launching ‘Someday’, Bieber said: “‘Someday’ is the idea that we can change the world, make our dreams come true, and even be with the one person that means everything. Giving back has always been incredibly important to me, but let’s be honest… I wanted to create a fragrance for my female fans that I can’t get enough of [and] that I want to get next to and I can’t stay away from. I know they’ll love the scent, but also the opportunity to support some amazing charities. It’s a gift that gives back”.
Whether a cut of the profits will continue to go the charity, and/or whether the brand acquisition will give GBB a big one-off payout that can be handed over to the causes it supports, isn’t clear. Though for certain, Arden is not a not-for-profit that believes the future of humanity lies with our children. Well, presumably it does believe that – it being something of an indisputable fact – but the company doesn’t make it its business to routinely support the kids with every product sold.
