Oprah looking to launch organic food, beauty products: reports

The mighty media maven Oprah Winfrey is getting into food and beauty it seems, according to the New York Post.

The Post reported that the billionaire has a handful of applications to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Organization for Oprah-branded organic foods and health products.

The article said records showed seven in total under the names “Oprah’s Organics”, “Oprah’s Harvest” and “Oprah’s Farm”.

Among the products Winfrey looks set to make, taken straight from the filings, are organic salad dressing; organic sauces; organic beverages; frozen organic vegetables; organic soups; and organic snack dips.

Beauty products include soaps, bath and shower gels and skin care for face and body.

Winfrey’s spokesperson told the Post that these trademarks “were filed for Oprah’s farm on Maui to enable the farm to grow and distribute produce on Maui and throughout the Hawaiian Island.”

But a Forbes article questioned that given Winfrey’s reach and influence: Why would she confine an organic food business to Hawaii? Others said simply that Winfrey is protecting her brand as it expands, so no one else can get the trademark.

While Oprah's name will get consumers to buy the product first; it's the product's quality that will have them coming back for more, said Craig Garthwaite, a professor at Northwester University's Kellogg School of Management to Forbes. He pointed to the success of Paul Newman's Newman's Own salad dressings that are popular not because his face is on the bottles, but because they taste good.