Lynnderella Scandal - Opinion of the Marketer

Hi Ladies,


Initially I wasn’t going to write a blog post about the entire Lynderella scandal. But I stumbled upon her eBay store over the weekend and saw that she sells her polishes as an auction. Moreover, people are bidding and willing to pay more than $50 for the bottle. I wasn’t surprised….I was shocked!!!

I’m not going to go into the details of Lynnderella’s “gift” policy to her brother or other people. It’s not my right to judge and I don’t know her brother’s situation.

My post is more about her being a brand, an artist and a designer.
Most of my career I’ve been studying and working in marketing. And for me things she could have done to ruin her brand she did. Usually, people pay extra money or buy products for several reasons:
1. Exclusivity
2. Quality
3. Customer relations
4. Creativity

Lynnderella polishes were exclusive from the start. Limited labor gives limited supply and creates an opportunity to raise the price. And let’s all agree…we would pay anything to get any of her polishes. But what we see now is not a right way to reach prosperity. It’s called supply deficit or, simply saying, manipulation of the number of produced polishes to sell it for the higher price. Let’s all wake up…people are thinking whether to buy Unicorn Pee for $50, but are blindly bidding and paying much more to get Lynnderella’s polishes. Ask yourself…Are these polishes so unique? Ask yourself…. Is her new collection one of a kind? Haven’t you seen this from other indie brands that released almost similar polishes before she did? Nobody told her that she is copying them.

Quality is another issue. If you read my blog you know that I’m an indie junkie. I’ve tried a lot of Etsy and Facebook brands. Their quality surpasses the quality of the Lynnderella polishes. Why? They care what they put into their polish. I’m not even talking about the “Bleeding Glitter”. I’m talking about overall proportions of the glitter to the base. Lynnderella polishes are chunky and hard to settle. They have always been like that. For the person that states: “it took decades of self-work, research, training, study and paying attention to processing visual information to be able to create Lynnderella's lacquers", it is a sloppy work. She thinks that she is still the Queen of the indie nail polish market, but there are much more humble and talented people that started their brands.

The thing that was a turning point for me is more about the attitude. Although everybody understands that small indie brands sell nail polishes for profit, we still get the feeling of the community while purchasing from them. We know that if we ask, they will answer. If they have a problem with supplies, they will tell us. It’s a two-sided communication that makes brand more personal. Lynnderella’s attitude towards her customer…hmmm….what can I say, we all feel the ignorance I guess.

It is sad to see that a great brand has fallen. She started the new era of the nail polish, almost disrupted the entire industry….almost. I don’t think most of the people who are disappointed in her behavior will buy again. Lynnderella should really think about putting her Shiny Golden Crown in the closet and appreciating her customer. Without doing so, her so-wanted prosperity will be very short-term.

P.S. I don’t feel I will ever want to wear my Lynnderella polishes again. I’m not planning to sell them either. I’m thinking of giving them away, for people who do not have such strong feeling about the entire story. I’ll keep you updated.