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The theme should be tied to the core product. Food, rather than an abstract notion of ‘Hollywood’, should have been the theme.

68 Fashion Café

From catwalk to catfights

Although it eventually proved to be a flop, Planet Hollywood spawned a number of imitators. David Hasselhoff tried to launch a Baywatch Café chain complete with waitresses in red swimsuits. Magician David Copperfield reportedly ploughed millions into a magic-themed restaurant chain which later vanished in a puff of smoke. Steven Spielberg invested in Dive, a submarine-shaped restaurant in Los Angeles with a giant cinema screen, taking diners on undersea voyages. It sank without trace.

One of the most spectacular of these Planet Hollywood-inspired failures was the Fashion Café, launched in 1995 by supermodels Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, Claudia Schiffer and Elle MacPherson. However, the chain, with its main branches in London and New York, struggled from the start. The connection between models and food was not an obvious one, and ‘fashion’ was not a theme that made people feel hungry.

As soon as the disappointing figures were in, the drama really started. Elle MacPherson and Naomi Campbell publicly accused founder Tomasso Buti of encouraging them to invest in the chain only to see US $25 million ‘vanish’ from the account books. Then Claudia Schiffer walked out of the venture, blaming ‘old problems’ with Naomi. ‘Instead of promoting our cafés Naomi only thinks about collecting lovers,’ Claudia told Italian newspaper Il Messag-gero. ‘We agreed to make more presentations for our group, but Naomi is always on a yacht with some boyfriend.’ Naomi wasn’t slow to respond in an interview with The Sun. ‘Greed is a bad adviser,’ she remarked. ‘Claudia is wrong to leave the business. And it’s not true that I have abandoned the promotional side.’

The infighting may have helped to sell newspapers but it did nothing for the brand. Although some branches turned an operating profit most failed to cover all their start-up costs. In 1998, three years after opening, it was time to call in the receivers.

Lessons from Fashion Café

Don’t follow a failing formula. Planet Hollywood was already struggling in 1995 when the Fashion Café was launched.

Have a logical brand association. Models and food didn’t really get together.

Don’t bitch about your colleagues. It will only make the wrong sort of press headlines.

69 Hear’Say

From pop to flop

The UK reality TV show, Popstars, was the first programme to document the making of a band from obscurity to pop super-stardom. The aim was to create a pop ‘brand’ that would not only be able to sell albums and singles, but also a wide variety of merchandise.

Hear’Say was the end product – consisting of brand members Noel Sullivan, Danny Foster, Suzanne Shaw, Myleene Klass and Kym Marsh. Their first hit, ‘Pure and Simple’, released in March 2001, became the fastest selling single in UK music history, with sales of over 1.2 million copies. The first album, ‘Popstars’, also went to number one and a 36-date tour was sold out.

However, as the memory of the TV show started to fade, so did public interest. The strength of the Hear’Say brand suddenly seemed to be in doubt. The band’s second album was a complete flop and they started to get heckled at public appearances.

As the band had been completely manufactured (none of the members had known each other before the TV show), relationships within Hear’Say soon broke down. As a result of constant bickering, Kym Marsh left the band at the beginning of 2002.

After she had left, the band made the mistake of holding a supposedly ‘public’ audition for her replacement only to employ one of their dancers, Johnny Shentall. This generated even more bad headlines.

Then, on 1 October 2002 a statement from their record company Polydor confirmed that the band was splitting. The statement explained ‘they felt they had lost the support of the public and Hear’Say had come to a natural end.’ The band members also told the media