A Guide to Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO)

Associating an Organization & Brand with a Single Individual (Martha Stewart)

There are few companies and brands closely tied to a particular celebrity, personality, or identity.  Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, and Martha Stewart certainly come to mind; each has successfully built an empire rooted in popularity and fame.  Moreover, because these brands are synonymous with personalities, character and personal history are significant in the stability and success of each.  As Michael Jordan has aged, his basketball game diminished, and his adulterous behavior revealed, his brand has struggled precisely because it had been cemented in sport and family-values.  

Similarly, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia suffers from that which it benefits: the company and the brand are unidentifiable without Martha Stewart.  Stewart erected her empire from a series of publishing, television, and multimedia platforms all intentionally and strategically incorporating Stewart’s name, character, and viewpoints.  According to MLSO’s president and COO, “We’ve made a business out of Martha’s life”.  As the company – and Stewart herself – would eventually discover, this “person-brand dynamic” was a gift and a curse: “the value of the Martha Stewart brand was integrally linked to Martha Stewart the person”.  Consequently, the success and stability of the brand “depends, to a large degree, on the reputation of Martha Stewart”.


    
With segments and productions such as Ask Martha, From Martha’s Kitchen, and Martha’s Calendar, Stewart has made her opinion and character inseparable from the brand; and with products such as At Home with Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart Living, the Martha Stewart Everyday line, the brand is predicated upon Stewart’s persona and taste.  Furthermore, devoted MSLO consumers all mention their adoration for the Stewart lifestyle, referring to Stewart as “empowering” and “inspirational.”  Consumers and devotees of the MSLO brand often emulate the lifestyle set forth by Martha Stewart – this lifestyle extends well beyond the kitchen or the garden, reaching into the heart and the family.  Martha Stewart has made a fortune by selling her “elegant” and “tasteful” lifestyle to an adoring market; and because the brand capitalizes on the personal life of Stewart by affecting the personal lives of millions, it is thus appropriate that she be accountable for personal actions.  More importantly, it is appropriate that the strength of Stewart’s brand in some way reflect her personality and personal activity; it is inappropriate and immoral for a women selling “perfection” and “taste” to not live up to those same standards her company is selling.  With Stewart at the helm, MSLO is the “quintessential lifestyle company” (Hoovers.com) and she must therefore maintain a lifestyle similar – if not grander – than that which she promotes.
 
Two years ago, shares of the publicly traded Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia sold for $35.00; by July of 2002, shares were valued at little more than $5.00.  Factors such as a weakening economy and mounting competition in the publishing, television, and internet industries certainly affected MSLO’s stock, but the brunt of this massive decline can be attributed to Martha Stewart’s shocking ImClone scandal.  Stewart sold nearly $250,000 worth of ImClone stock just hours prior to the biotechnology company’s announcement that their new “anti-cancer” drug had not been approved by the FDA (CNN.com, Martha Stewart Image Coming Under Attack).  Interestingly, Stewart has close ties to ImClone’s then-CEO Sam Waskal and received enormous media attention for possible insider-trading.

Unfortunately for MSLO, a lifestyle-brand rooted in Stewart’s persona and character, the ImClone scandal came not long after other turbulences: Christopher Byron’s biography Martha, Inc. unflatteringly revealed Stewart as an “abrasive” and “alienating” CEO and family member; additionally, MSLO’s most lucrative client – Kmart – filed for bankruptcy just months earlier (CNN.com).  The impact of these problems upon Martha’s brand have yet to fully reveal itself; but, despite her discontinued appearance on CBS’s The Early Show, her resignation from the New York Stock Exchange board, and the removal of her Kmart advertisements, the Stewart brand is in the early process of revival.  Wisely, MSLO focused on implementing strong corporate and personnel foundations around Martha.

Meanwhile, Stewart’s troubles have been dwarfed by a year filled with noteworthy occurrences – major corporate scandals (eg Enron and Tyco), national economic disasters, and imminent international war – and the company has prudently remained quiet, effectively allowing consumers to be distracted by other events.

More importantly, MSLO has since enabled consumers to separate Martha Stewart Living the brand from Martha Stewart the person” (TIME.com, Happy Holidays, Martha).  Realizing that the Stewart brand consists of three main platforms – publishing, television, and internet – MLSO has brilliantly repositioned themselves by focusing on merchandising rather than media.  The Stewart magazines, televisions shows, etc. are most hurt by the scandal precisely because Stewart’s personality is vital to these productions.  Merchandising, however, still has room to grow because the products “offer tangible value beyond their association with Stewart” (BusinessWeek.com, What's Martha Minus Martha?).  MLSO should remain focused on product placement, searching for additional partnerships such as Kmart because merchandising sales continue to do exceptionally well (holiday sales were up significantly).  MLSO should focus their attention and money in merchandising while enabling their media productions to stabilize and therefore ensure advertisers (who confirm advertisements months in advance) that a market for Stewart still exists.  Of course, the complete implications of this crisis are yet to be revealed and depend greatly upon the final outcome of the situation.  Though MLSO has begun to weather to the storm while building a solid corporate structure, their future success requires a resurgence of Martha Stewart’s personal brand.  For the media productions – which rely upon Stewart’s persona and character – to ever rebound and reclaim market dominance, Stewart must remain as a likeable, “desirable spokesperson” (BusinessWeek.com).  Assuming Martha personally weathers the storm, MLSO is equipped and able to again succeed after posting a few quarters of diminishing revenues.

Martha Stewart on eBay

• Martha Stewart Buy Hub
• Ways Magazines Stores (no association with)
• Kuteasabutton Home Essentials (no association with)

I am an eBay employee and this guide reflects my personal views and is not written on behalf of the eBay company