Teeny-bopper titans

NEW YORK — Starting this fall, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen — the twin actresses-turned merchandising moguls — will have some young celebrity company in store aisles.

Eighteen-year-old actress and singer Hilary Duff and 13-year-old Dylan and Cole Sprouse — twin actors and heartthrobs for the prepubescent set — aim to mimic the success of the mary-kateandashley brand, with plans to bombard stores with a host of products from clothing to home decor. And experts say they expect there will be plenty of other young copycats hoping to turn their celebrity status into merchandising power among preteens and teens, as did the now 20-year-old Olsen twins, who parlayed their star power into a reportedly billion-dollar international brand, spanning cosmetics to clothing and rugs.

“Success breeds competition,” said Marshal Cohen, chief analyst at NPD Group Inc., a market research firm in Port Washington, N.Y. The mary-kateandashley brand has been an eye opener, he said, and “everyone is going after what appears to be a successful formula.”

Duff, who shot to fame as the title character the TV series “Lizzie McGuire,” will be coming out with products aimed at preteen girls this fall. The merchandise, from clothing to room decor, will sell under the label Stuff by Hilary Duff in discounters like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and mid-tier stores such as Kohl’s Corp. They include hot pink fabric handbags and cropped black jackets.

The launch comes 10 months after Duff became CEO and head designer of her own fashion and lifestyle company. To help secure her footing, she hired Robert Thorne, the Olsens’ former manager — and until early last year the CEO of Dualstar Entertainment Group, the Olsens’ entertainment business — to spearhead her merchandising empire. The goal: to generate retail sales worldwide of more than $1 billion in two and half years, according to Thorne.

“Mary-Kate and I are proud we have paved the way for others and wish everyone as much success as we continue to have,” wrote Ashley Olsen, in an e-mail to Associated Press. The Olsen twins became co-presidents of Dualstar when they turned 18.

Meanwhile, the Sprouse brothers, who star in the Disney Channel’s “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody,” are targeting their merchandise at preteen and teen boys, with a new magazine called Sprouse Bros. Code, which hit newsstands this month.

Calendars will be out this fall at discounters like Wal-Mart and Target Corp. Next spring, there will be young men’s clothing and grooming products like hair gel and deodorant sticks. Dualstar’s CEO Diane Reichenberger declined to name which stores will sell the products since discussions are still ongoing.

Company officials declined to offer sales projections for the Sprouse business or the mary-kateandashley brand.

“The minute I saw them they looked like a brand,” said Susan White, brand manager for the Sprouse twins. She met them in 2002 and signed them on as clients a year later. Last year, she introduced them to Dualstar, which forged an exclusive relationship as part of an overall goal to develop other personalities.

It’s a lucrative market: According to NPD, for the year ended May 2006, apparel sales rose 7.4 percent to $12 billion among the 7-to-12 age group and 13.9 percent to $25 billion for ages 13-to-17.

Still, stars who have established their celebrity status at a young age have their own big challenges: attracting new generations to their products while legitimizing themselves to older customers as they grow older.

Constant reruns of the Olsens’ “Full House” on Nick at Nite and ABC Family cable channels have helped them lure new generations of fans, but their marketing power with customers in their late teens and older remains unclear. Their teen line, tested during the back-to-school and holiday 2003 seasons, was short-lived. Under the stewardship of Reichenberger, they are sharpening their focus on the fashion, beauty and home decor businesses.

Meanwhile, the Sprouse twins will have an added challenge of marketing to boys. According to White, while girls place a priority on brands, boys are immersed in the experience — focusing on snowboard pants that dry quickly, for example. White is also tapping into the Sprouses’ strong fan base among girls, who are expected to buy products for their boyfriends.