I noticed lately there has been a lot of controversy in regards to Forbes nominating Kylie Jenner as the youngest “self-made” multimillionaire. While, of course, Kylie Jenner’s background allowed her to become more successful initially, there are a number of things she did that maximized her chances.

Kylie Jenner is a 20-year-old social media personality, a member of the Kadashian family and owner of Kylie Cosmetics. Her company launched its first products on November 30, 2015 which were sold out within the first few minutes. She began with a meager $250,000 and now her net worth, mostly a result of her brand, is over $900 million. That’s nearly an increase of ASTOUNDING 3,600% in terms of wealth.

Now that brings us to the question, how does someone achieve such great success in their company? Her already established fame is no secret, but it takes business savvy to turn that into a Billion dollar brand. Here are three key brand building techniques she used to skyrocket her business to the top and threatening Mark Zuckerberg’s position as the youngest self-made billionnaire.

#1 Turn Adversity into Opportunity

Kylie Jenner, a year before Kylie Cosmetics was created, was suddenly seen with larger than average lips. As her lips increased dramatically in size, it also became a trendy topic as an outbreak of “Kylie Lip Challenges” flooded the internet where the user uses a tool to create a temporary enlarged and puckered lips. In order to build a brand, there has to be some form of association with it. What do your clients think of when they see your brand?

Instead of admitting defeat to all sorts of controversial PR, Kylie decided to use people’s views as a way to shape her brand. She decided on Kylie Cosmetics, which featured, as you can guess, lip products. She capitalized the publicity she was generating into something tangible and rewarding which allowed her to start building her brand. How can you use your clients views to shape your brand?

#2 Keeping Up with Market Trends

Although most ideas or companies that start from publicity do eventually reach a plateau, Kylie did not let that stop her brand. She kept up with current beauty trends, won Allure awards, and advertised her brand on various outlets of social media. Her lip kits were seen on Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and on her YouTube channel as well. Of course, what also helped was that her family was already popular with the show: Keeping Up With the Kardashians and Kylie used that popularity to her advantage. Similarly, when there would be holidays or special events, she used that time to advertise for new products and sales that could gather attention. Instead of straying away into her own bubble, she continued to flow with current society. Is your brand keeping up with the latest trends?

#3 Leverage Social Capital 

Because of her already well-established fame, a lot of makeup artists and beauty gurus wanted some in on her products. She developed connections with various MUAs and kept them on her beauty list where she would release products for them to review – exchanging favorable results for both parties involved. Regardless of what the person would say, the views produced results which in return helped Kylie sell more of her products in the long run.

With negative PR, she addressed the ones worth addressing and for the ones not worth her time, she was still able to sell out her products (example: the $300 brush set). As much backlash she would receive, a lot of her consumers remained loyal, thus minimizing the harm of negative reviews.

However, it is important that you maintain satisfactory client experiences and listen to their complaints, especially if it’s more than a few. Brands that are more responsive and helpful are more likely to have returning clients!

Is your brand engaged with its viewers and consumers? If not, how can you keep up with their expectations?

Turn your dream into a mega successful brand. Get our free guide INSIDE STRATEGIES OF MILLION DOLLAR BRANDS HERE. 

Written by Team Contributor: Juliet Rien