Reality star and iconic UK influencer, Molly Mae, recently released a new documentary delving into both her personal and professional life. While many fans will be intrigued by her surprise revelations about long term partner Tommy Fury, we’re fascinated by the Maebe business venture, her first clothing line since rising to fame, and most notably the terrible PR backlash that came after her sell out launch.
Molly-Mae is no stranger to negative press, and particularly negative social media comments. Beloved by many, she also faces a level of criticism many would run from. After leaving the Love Island villa Molly famously partnered with PrettyLittleThing and later became ‘Creative Director’. She then launched a fake tan line, Filter, and most recently Maebe.
The clothing line originally marketed itself as ‘mid-luxury’. Accessible prices, but better quality than a high street brand, offering fans a taste of high end luxury for a fraction of the price. The clothing line sold out in just 24 minutes but the reviews that followed later have certainly left a mark on the brand and the potential success in the future.
The documentary highlighted a couple of key issues with Maebe - here’s how we would have handled the PR crisis during this time.
Launching a brand means you need to get your products into the hands of consumers. For this, Molly and her team chose a pop-up store - the perfect opportunity for fans to see the clothing line in person and make purchases ahead of the official online launch. Molly’s launch day however did not go to plan. Fans were expecting a meet and greet and it became more about Molly, and getting a selfie, rather than brand. In hind sight, the event should have had a one hour time slot for a set number of people. Each group could leisurely shop, Molly could then make a quick speech and thank everyone for coming, followed by a group picture that would be emailed to each person within the time slot. Molly is not just a brand owner, she’s a celebrity and security should be a key factor in these plans.
The main culprit fans were upset by was the £140 blazer that was created with poor quality materials and subsequently became faulty. The same fabric was also used to produce other pieces, resulting in a staggering £500,000 loss. An extremely unfortunate and costly mistake, this is one that can only be rectified through fair customer service. However, it’s more important how the brand manages this with future launches. We would select a small group of genuine, highly influential social media stars, journalists and celebrities to test the products for a significant length of time. Following this period of time the selected reviews will then take to their respective platforms to share honest reviews of the items.
It’s not all doom and gloom for Molly and Maebe. She will of course release another collection in the future. Following these lessons, Molly should invest more heavily into her collaborations and build trust via other respected influencers. Word of mouth is a powerful tool so it would also be wise for Molly to host a few smaller, fan based events where she can speak directly to her customers and not feel too overwhelmed with the crowds. For a real 180, Molly should send samples to those who posted the worst reviews and really change the narrative on Maebe!