The Kardashian-Jenner sisters get a lot of
hate for supposedly having no skills.
You don't sing, you don't dance, you don't have any...any talents!
Kendall Jenner is here. I'm not exactly sure what she does...
But they’ve built a business empire — with
revenue coming not just from their tv show,
but also fashion and makeup lines, mobile
apps, games, and endorsements.
Kim Kardashian's net worth is $85 million,
she made $52.5 million last year
They’ve stretched fifteen minutes of fame
into nearly a decade, and figured out how
to monetize their every move.
How? Well, they understand something about
marketing that most companies don’t.
Advertising surrounds us...and we’ve become
experts at tuning it out.
People are very, very good at recognizing the source and
the persuasive intent. We’re so used to
that, we immediately ignore it. That’s why
the majority of advertising is really not
successful.”
Communications professor Dr. Jennifer Lueck
thinks that businesses trying figure out how
to make money online should take a lesson
from the Kardashians.
Most celebrity Twitter feeds are overtly promotional. They're full of corporate-looking ads and tweets clearly
written by PR handlers
Compare that to Kim Kardashian’s feed...she
whines about jet lag and asks her followers
what TV shows to watch and whether to embarrass
her husband
Kim: "Guys, I've hired a new glam team"
It is a dynamic that comes
very close to perceived friendship, but it’s
completely one-sided
Communications scholars call this Parasocial
Interaction. The researchers who coined the
term in the mid-1950s used it to describe the feeling of friendship
and closeness people felt with TV personalities
they had never met.
It's almost like when you're at a concert and somebody is singing and that person is looking into the audience
and you feel like they're looking at you, and they're singing at you
A reality show like Keeping Up with the Kardashians
is fertile ground for the beginning of a parasocial
relationship, and
Kim and her sisters nurture it by speaking
to their fans on social media like they’re
friends.
"Hey guys, it's been so long!"
"How pretty are those?"
Ooh! Ooh!
And it probably doesn’t hurt that this includes
a fair amount of nudity
So, when Kim and her sisters hawk products,
it doesn’t feel like an advertisement.
"I'm obsessed with the app Jet Smarter"
It feels like a recommendation from a friend.
A richer, better-looking friend who’s getting
paid thousands of dollars to tweet about swimsuits
and teeth whitening.
The Kardashians every digital tool
imaginable to make millions of people feel
like they know them, and make millions of
dollars for themselves in the process.
And you don’t have to approve of them or
even like them to acknowledge that’s a talent.
