Meghan Markle announced her rebrand as she switched American Riviera Orchard to As Ever, but she has been given a stern warning by a PR expert
Meghan Markle has been warned there is no more room for error after announcing her latest rebrand.
The Duchess of Sussex revealed she has switched out her American Riviera Orchard branding before it has even had a hard launch. Instead, she is ready to introduce the world to products under the As Ever title.
While she explained the reason was to ensure she wasn’t confining herself to only products in her neighbourhood, a PR expert has admitted the initial soft launch will be viewed as a “huge failure”. PR to the stars, Jane Owen, exclusively claimed to Mirror that the initial branding was “a complete waste of time and energy”.
The new logo for As Ever (
Image:
As Ever)
Meghan recently announced her rebrand (
Image:
Meghan/Instagram)
Jane shared her bold opinion, claiming: “The brand change should have happened before anything was launched. What we saw was a brainstorming process happening in real time. If the name of the brand had been workshopped at all before it was launched the reasons for the change would have happened behind closed doors and not in full public view.
And she advised the former actress to make sure all the products from now on are “amazing”. “If the brand is amazing quality and beautiful no one will care about this early on mistake,” she said. “However there’s even more pressure for the products to be exceptional. There’s zero room for bad quality anything.”
Touching on the name change, Jane confessed she agrees with Meghan, saying it now feels more “inclusive”. “The previous name felt very old fashioned and buried in the Santa Barbara theme,” Jane went on. “Extremely preppy and a lot exclusionary.”
She admitted now she has a new name, there is “no way they can change it again,” saying: “If this doesn’t work it just doesn’t work period. No one is going to give it a third chance.”
While Meghan is yet to release an official product under either brand, her latest has also faced fresh scrutiny from a small business. Her new logo on her newly-launched website, which features Princess Lilibet, has also ruffled feathers, with it said to be shared with an independent clothing brand.
The logo features a palm tree, which is understood to be a nod to Prince Harry and Meghan’s home in California. There are also two hummingbirds, which are thought to be a favourite of the Duke of Sussex. However, the Mayoress of Poreress, a town on the Spanish island of Majorca, has claimed the branding is strikingly similar their coat of arms. Now, the mayor of the town, Xisca Mora has gone as far as saying the logo is a “complete copy”.
A small New York-based clothing firm called As Ever NYC has also waded into the row, breaking its silence on the name – which one fan joked was “royally scandalous”.