Brand: Victoria Beckham

Brand Beckham is one of the most recognized global brands of the past 20 years, as much as David Beckham is a huge part of that brand, it is his wife Victoria that captured more than just the eyes and the hearts of the public, the world came to know her as a superstar, one of the members of the iconic British female group Spice Girls, her brand then was shared with 5 other girls and because her spotlight was not as brighter than the others, Victoria would always look for opportunities to stand out, from an early age she knew she wanted to be famous, well the music gave her that but it wasn’t until she met David that her definition of fame took a turn, she couldn’t escape without at least 20 photographers looking to snap the money shot that would grace the front covers of British tabloids, she instantly became the second most followed person in British press history after Princess Diana.

With her name and relationship splashed across all the papers, Victoria was still trying to solidify her brand outside the Spice Girls, ventured into the fashion world, her face was already the gold mine every designer wanted to cultivate– Karl Lagerfeld, the creative director of Chanel gave her an opportunity as an ambassador for the brand, which was the biggest shock to the fashion industry, a brand like Chanel usually stays clear of people with public lives like Beckham family, what was surprising was her decline of millions for the job, she instead requested that she spends time with Karl, learning the ropes of how to run a successful fashion brand from the  best. She continued to used her years as an opportunity to learn and test her target market, she already had quite a guaranteed following in England, women would imitate her fashion looks and go as far and try to get themselves associated with football players, just so they have the standard of like Victoria was living.

The start of their empire rested on how well her relationship with David was going their brand was two for the price of one, their love and their family values truly kept the lights on at home. The world would sometimes forget that they both had successful lives before each other, they become more influential on the global scale because they were living fairy-tale like life, seemed impossible—it was almost perfect and it was displayed for everyone to see. In the early days of their merchandising, they become center the biggest cheating scandal, David’s long-term assistant went to the papers an confirmed an affair, in which herself and David had going on while Victoria was left behind in England, after David had been signed by Real Madrid and had to move to  Spain months ahead of his family. She had the most shocking reaction, she went public with the denial of the rumors, and this made her unpopular with other women. They blamed her for setting a precedent for other women to stay in broken relationship just to maintain a way of life.

In retrospect, a lot of women can now identify themselves with her as woman, not as the girl that they perceived to be a shopaholic and self-obsessed. This is mostly due her visibility as business woman, girls want to be her, because she is blazing trails and breaking chains in the fashion world and everyone feels like they were somehow virtually part of her story since everything was played out in the press. She now gets to introduce a side of herself that was ignored by the media, she went from adored superstar and then hated Wife of a footballer and then 360 turn to a revered business woman.  Other woman in her class, the other wives of British soccer players and those from faraway lands looked to Victoria for leadership, Cheryl Cole who use to be married to Ashley Cole, one of David’s football friends—had idolized Victoria since childhood, the two have similar backgrounds since Cheryl also comes from a musical group and married a big football star. The media would always create a rift between these wives just portray Victoria as obnoxious and self-obsessed, that was the tradition of the press when it came to women, their husbands where on the same team and were good friends but the women always got the short hand of the stick. Victoria was smart in the way that in years before settling with the idea to be a full-time designer, she learned how to use the media to her advantage, her company is has only been operating for ten years in the coming year but she has outperformed most of the other brands that come before, the value of the brand that started out as a pair of over-sized sunglasses reported a value of £200 million and already has a growing footprint in markets outside of England.

It is safe to say that success was her destiny, she believed in the power she has a woman, an artist and business woman. Her setbacks were massive and played out for the entertainment of others, but what is amazing about this Essex girl—is that she continues to be driven, not only as business success but as wife and mother. Her awkward steps to world domination are nothing short of legendary, without a doubt; it was a matters of time until she received her Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her contributions to fashion. It all seemed like they were just another celebrity couple; they didn’t fit the traditional British couple portrayed in those pompous films, so naturally everyone assumed it was going to meet an inevitable ending; instead the both of them changed how we judge public relationships. Victoria was always going to succeed in whatever path she had chosen, even when the world continuously threw hate and judgement on her about everything—she was never pretty enough or she was too thin, she took it because that is the price to pay for fame and fortune.