Meghan Markle has more to say on her lifestyle brand… or rather her lifestyle rebrand…
On Tuesday’s episode of her podcast Confessions of a Female Founder with guest Kadi Lee, the Suits alum explained why she really changed her brand from American Riviera Orchard to As Ever. She says now it was because she decided the first name was “word salad.” LOLz! We mean… she isn’t wrong. It does sound like something invented in a marketing meeting to sound vaguely jammy.
Related: Meghan Accused Of Copying Children’s Author For Netflix Show!
She said she “secured As Ever as a name in 2022,” two whole years before going public with ARO. However, she kept the second moniker private thinking she was headed in a different direction with the company. Referencing her partnership with Netflix, the host explained:
“Then as everything started to evolve last year, and bringing in a partner the size that it was, it was just so interesting.”
So she always liked the name As Ever? Hmm. As far as the original decision to name her brand, she says she initially wanted to make the name more simple — but that proved difficult:
“You remember, I said, ‘I like American Riviera as an umbrella,’ and then be able to have verticals beneath it. And maybe have the ‘Orchard’ really small. But when that’s not feasible … suddenly it became this word salad. … I didn’t love that so much.”
It was a mouthful compared to As Ever! That’s why Meg then chose “to go back to the thing” she “always loved” and “protected.”
Hmm. Sooo… this wasn’t about those trademark issues? She made no mention of it on the podcast, but in 2023 she filed a trademark application for her original name but it was denied because businesses can’t trademark geographical locations. Seeing as American Riviera is the nickname for her Santa Barbara town, that was a problem! The 43-year-old eventually made the pivot to As Ever, which has also been met with a lot of controversy over allegations of copying the name and logo. Speaking to People in March, the Duchess of Sussex admitted she’s made “mistakes” with the rebrand, though she didn’t go into much detail.
And yet on the podcast, she chose to look at the positive side of things, recalling a unique side effect of secretly changing the brand name:
“We were able to focus in the quiet and put our heads down and build on something that no one was sniffing around to even see about. It was really just helpful to have that quiet period.”
But maybe if more people knew the name sooner she would have avoided the copycat claims! There are pros and cons to everything…
Thoughts?? Sound OFF in the comments (below)!
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