life lessons learned from the kardashians

By Sabrina Sturchio ‘26
The Kardashian clan has created an entrepreneurial dynasty.  

The family unexpectedly gained popularity with their iconic reality TV show, Keeping Up With The Kardashians. The pilot episode launched in 2007 and  drew in millions of viewers and has led to a successful reign of 17 seasons. 
When picturing the Kardashians, the common view is a luxurious family with lavish lifestyles, however, it remains to be seen where this fame rose from and how the fame and income have been maintained. 
The Kardashian-Jenner sisters grew up with a lot of money, but nothing comparable to the money they have today. Rob Kardashian, was a part of the “dream team” for the OJ Simpson case, jumping his career as a lawyer and public figure. 
 His wife, Kris Jenner had the brilliant idea to turn their luxurious lives into a hit reality TV show, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, where the girls rose to fame. People soon became invested with the lives of “Momager” Kris, and her 5 daughters, Kourtney, Kim, Khloe, Kendall and Kylie.
 From the start of their show in 2007 to today, fans have witnessed a family who many claim to be talentless, turn into marketing masters and business billionaires. 
Anyone can create a business, but what makes these girls special is how they developed their countless businesses and employed unique marketing strategies. 
For example, Kim Kardashian’s shapewear business SKIMS has become popular and profitable. Kim was famous long before launching her brand. She opened a boutique in 2006 with Kourtney and Khloe and found success immediately, later expanding the location and adding more stores. 
Known for her seemingly perfect figure and fashion icon status, SKIMS was exactly the brand for Kim Kardashian. 
Kim started her business by identifying her audience - identifying her fans, what they admired about her, and what they could benefit from. Through this, she realized that her most popular feature was her body. People praised her and consequently, wanted to look like her. 
Next, she designed something that would be groundbreaking at a time when beauty seemed unrealistic. Kim realized that people wanted to look like her while feeling beautiful and comfortable within themselves. 
She profited off of trends, Kim noticed all of the things that people did not like about other products and made sure they were not prominent and recognized in hers. For example, she is an advocate for inclusion, a concept many fashion brands lack understanding of. 
She made sure her products range in sizes and skin tones for every person and body type. Her sizes go from XXS-4X and have over 60 colors. Additionally, she created pieces that suited amputees. 
Kylie Jenner took after her sister and had a similar experience developing a brand, as she eventually became the youngest self-made billionaire. 
Kylie was known in the mid-2010s for her iconic puffy lip and matte lipstick. In 2015, the viral Kylie Jenner lip challenge became a trend. People wanted to get her puffy lips so they put their lips into a cup to suction them and make them puffy.
 After this, in 2016, she launched her first “Kylie Lip Kit.” It included matte liquid lipstick and a lip liner, promising to achieve lips like hers. 
After the lip kit launch sold out within 10 minutes, she decided to expand her brand. She rebranded to the infamous Kylie Cosmetics with various makeup products. 
After finding popularity in this, she expanded her brand again in May 2019, adding an array of skin care products. It soon became a leading skincare brand in the US. 
After Kylie Jenner had her baby, she added a new section of Kylie Cosmetics: Kylie Baby which launched in September 2021. 
Products were created to be similar to Kylie Skin, but are tailored specifically to being safe for babies. Inspired by her daughter’s love of bathtime, she launched things like shampoo, bubble bath solution, and moisturizer.
Both Kylie and Kim have found such success in their products because they understand their audience. Kim has a primary audience of people in their twenties and thirties so shapewear was an easy sell. 
Kylie’s audience is mainly teenagers and people in their twenties, so makeup made sense to promote. 
As trends change within younger generations, both Kim and Kylie follow these trends and release things that appeal to the trends of those people. 
Along with this, they understand where to market and how to do it. Both women stress diversity in their products and use models to prove that they are dedicated to being inclusive, making their products up to societal standards. 
Another way they understand marketing to their audience is where to promote products. Instead of promoting on apps like Facebook, they advertise on apps like Instagram and Snapchat, where their consumers are more likely to see new products. 
The next time you think the Kardashians are talentless, maybe think again. Creating a dynasty from a simple family is no easy task, their fame has taught the world much about entrepreneurship and they have inspired today's youth to aim for success even when it may not be conventional.