BRAND MARKETING • 1 NOV 2025 • 7 MIN
How Rhode Built a World—The Brand Playbook
Understanding why Rhode skyrocketed, R.E.M. stalled, and Kylie Cosmetics lost cultural traction.
BY MINDY DANG
How does Hailey Bieber’s brand command cultural relevance at a level that seems to eclipse Ariana Grande’s—while Ariana Grande’s and Kylie Jenner’s brands, backed by bigger fame and larger audiences, struggle to land with the same force? The difference isn’t popularity—it’s brand building.
Rhode launched one year after R.E.M. and nearly a decade after Kylie Cosmetics, yet it is the brand that has become one of the strongest marketing machines in the beauty industry—boasting some of the highest ROI and cultural relevance today.
This article compares Rhode Skin, R.E.M. Beauty, and Kylie Cosmetics across three brand-building pillars: visual strategy, creative direction, and positioning / value proposition—to understand what drives their wildly different trajectories, and what creatives and marketers today can learn from them.
Rhode Skin
Hero Product: Peptide Lip Tint
Value Proposition: Skincare-infused makeup
Brand Ethos: Minimal, functional, clean luxury
Visual Architecture: Neutrals, muted tones & sans serif typography
Hailey as the Face, not as the Identity
Hailey Bieber appears prominently across Rhode’s socials, but the brand does not rely on her image to survive. The lifestyle it sells—fresh skin, understated beauty, effortless sophistication—is bigger than any one person. Consumers aren’t simply trying to “look like Hailey”; they’re opting into a broader aspirational lifestyle she represents.
Art Direction That Creates Desire
Rhode takes creative risks where it counts. Its cohesive visual language—soft beiges, greys, clean sans serif typography, and a quiet luxury aesthetic—extends seamlessly across packaging, e-commerce, retail displays, and social content.
While the core visual system is neutral and soft, campaign visuals often contrast this with dramatic scale (e.g., giant sculptural lip tints) and textural cues like fruits, syrups, and glossy surfaces. Food is also a common design motif that enhances sensoriality—viewers can imagine, feel, and smell the flavor, texture, and hydration.
Pairing a neutral core visual system with bold, high-impact campaign imagery creates instant brand recognition while still capturing attention in a saturated digital landscape—subtle, but highly strategic world-building.
So would Rhode survive without Hailey?
All signs point to yes. The brand has strong foundational brand strategy, a clear artistic POV, real value propositions, and a community that buys into the lifestyle—not just the founder. Rhode demonstrates what a celebrity brand can become when it prioritizes storytelling, world-building, and disciplined creative direction.
R.E.M. Beauty
Hero Product: Eye product (in theory, given Ariana’s iconic eyeliner)
Value Proposition: Vegan, cruelty free makeup
Brand Ethos: Dreamy futurism, imagination, otherworldliness
Visual Architecture: Silver metallics, rounded components, space-age aesthetic
R.E.M.’s brand story orbits around dreaming, imagination, and the surreal. On paper, the concept is rich with potential but the execution struggles to create an immersive world and brand.
Where Visual Identity Falls Short
The brand leans heavily into a cold, silver, space-age aesthetic—cylindrical components, metallic finishes, curved silhouettes. Although individually interesting and unique, together they evoke more of a kid’s starter makeup kit than elevated futurism-fantasy. The disconnect between the dreamy brand name and the clinical-feeling packaging weakens its emotional resonance.
Creative Direction That Doesn’t Commit
R.E.M.’s product lineup is bold—shimmery powders, iridescent finishes, playful colors. But its marketing rarely embraces the artistry implied by the formulas. It feels like the brand is torn between its founding roots and the recent cultural gravitation towards the clean girl aesthetic. We see this in their social feeds, which often defaults to everyday glam.
The brand claims space in a niche (creative futurism), then retreats from it visually. This lack of commitment creates a gap between what the brand says it is and how it shows up visually. Its brand story centers about creativity but it’s afraid to take the creative risks to embody that idea.
Lack of World-Building
Because the brand does not lean fully into its conceptual universe, consumers struggle to understand who it’s for. Is R.E.M. a makeup-artistry brand? A Gen Z playful brand? A futuristic luxury brand? At the moment, it’s unclear.
Take out Ariana from R.E.M. and the brand is immediately forgettable.
Kylie Cosmetics
Hero Product: Initially the Lip Kit
Value Proposition: Glam, bold, trend-forward beauty
Brand Ethos: High-gloss, maximal, personality-driven
Visual Architecture: Highly variable; centered on Kylie rather than a brand universe
Kylie Cosmetics represents the opposite end of the spectrum: a celebrity brand that is entirely the celebrity. Its visuals, campaigns, and messaging revolve around Kylie herself—often feeling like a string of photoshoots rather than a unified brand narrative.
No Distinct Lifestyle or World-Building
Where Rhode sells a lifestyle and R.E.M. attempts to sell a dream, Kylie Cosmetics sells Kylie. Collections change frequently with no strong thematic thread, making the brand feel trend-reactive rather than strategically designed. The brand’s initial, explosive success was tied directly to Kylie’s cultural moment. When that halo effect waned, the underlying brand lacked a point of view strong enough to sustain long-term relevance.
Creative Direction Without Cohesion
After its early meteoric rise—capped by a $1.2B valuation from Coty—the brand entered a saturated market where new players delivered stronger identity and storytelling. As Kylie’s personal hype cooled, consumers discovered there wasn’t much underneath the celebrity veneer. While individual campaigns can be visually striking, there is no unifying motif, world, or aesthetic system. This prevents the brand from being instantly recognizable or emotionally resonant in the way more disciplined brands are.
This doesn’t mean celebrity brands are doomed. But Kylie Cosmetics illustrates the risk of building a brand exclusively on star power rather than brand strategy.
These three brands represent distinct archetypes of celebrity-founded beauty:
1. Rhode Skin — The Strategic Brand-First Model
A strong, cohesive identity where the celebrity enhances rather than defines the brand.
2. R.E.M. Beauty — The Underdeveloped Identity
A compelling concept held back by inconsistent execution and a lack of immersive world-building.
3. Kylie Cosmetics — The Celebrity-Dependent Brand
A brand powered by star-driven hype, but without the foundations required for sustained relevance.
Across all three, one lesson becomes clear:
Celebrity is a marketing tool, not a branding strategy.
When the founder’s image fades from the spotlight—or consumer sentiment shifts—only those with a strong brand identity will endure.