I’ve noticed one trend about some celebrities, especially Nigerian celebrities who branch off into other business ventures, either real estate or fashion lines. They use the influence they have and the money they’ve made off the fans to set up their businesses. However, when they open it up and begin sales, it would be so expensive that patronizing them would be nothing but foolishness.
Their products are always so overpriced to the point that you just can’t buy them, even if you do have the money. The only people who end up buying from them are fellow celebrities and most of the time, it’s only a PR stunt, because buying such expensive goods would boost your online cred.
Imagine having a favorite celebrity, and wanting to support their career but you can’t do that because they’ve made it so damn expensive! One might argue that maybe the fans themselves are not the target market, but that doesn’t make sense. For someone who owes their success to fans, you should at least consider them when you make such business decisions.
And then, judging how only a tiny percentage of the population are celebrities, and even a smaller percentage are engaged in other businesses, one wonders why they all keep following this same trend. Shouldn’t the idea of selling products be to sell as many as possible? If it’s affordable and you have a strong fanbase as a celebrity, you can be sure that whatever you put out, your fans will definitely patronize. Focusing only on celebrities as clientele really limits your clientele.
But then, it just might not be about the sales. It may be something more. You know, like those shops you see at the mall that sell the most mundane things. Their shops are always stocked, but you never really have customers in there. Yet, they never go out of business and they always have fresh stocks. I’ve heard talks about how such shops are fronts for money laundering, trying to disguise ill-gotten wealth.
A similar thing can be seen in Abuja, but especially the real estate. There are so many beautiful homes built and magnificent estates. They’ve all been completed and ready to be lived in. Yet, nothing happens. They just sit there, empty and lying fallow. They’re not rented out and they’re not sold. What is the point of building an estate only to leave it empty and not have it make back the money you poured into it? You see? It doesn’t make sense!
In this day and age, people are ready to do a lot to make money, and because they make the money in ways that are not so clean, they’re forced to pull all these elaborate schemes. Now, am I saying that some celebrities are involved in all this? That’s not what I’m saying… I’m saying instead, that I’m seeing a pattern here. Now, I might be very wrong, seeing as I don’t roll with a lot of celebrities like that.
I guess that in all, it is what it is.
