CONSOR asks – Who Benefits from the Royalties of the Royal Family Brand?
A royal wedding… ahhh… so wonderful… so much celebration.. .so much happiness… so much shopping! The amount of royal wedding merchandise and Will & Kate souvenirs is amazing. If so inclined, one can decorate their entire home with royal wedding themed items and stock their pantries with royal wedding foods.
Consumers don’t have to look far from the royal family itself. Highgrove Enterprises is the brainchild of HRH Prince Charles, which runs shops and a website, and whose profits are donated to the Prince’s Charities Foundation. Perusing the Highgrove Shop website, we found the following royal wedding merchandise: decorative pillows, plates, cup and saucer, a pillbox, champagne flutes, a tankard, whisky tumblers, a royal souvenir guide, a chocolate wedding heart, and an engagement jigsaw puzzle. Although it is interesting to note that there are no Will & Kate products on the Middleton family business website. One would think that the Middleton website which, being a party planning business, would be the first place to shop for wedding mementos.
Search for more royal wedding merchandise and you would be amazed at what is offered. Just think, you can buy Will & Kate bobble head dolls, gnomes, ties, coasters, a GE refrigerator, toilet seats, and a comic book. Plus if you have the time, browse through the 6,037 “royal wedding” products available on Amazon. If you want to relax and take a royal afternoon tea break, infuse your hot water with a Prince William tea bag, and nibble on cake emblazoned with an edible image of the couple, a Dunkin’ Donuts Royal Wedding Donut or some of Prestat’s limited edition Royal Wedding Truffles. If you prefer a heartier adult celebration, gulp down some Kiss Me Kate beer, which may eventually lead you to use some Crown Jewels “love sheaths” (yes, they are condoms). Get a room! No really, book the Royal Opulence package at The Churchill Hyatt Regency in London for a mere £30,000, but you get the whole weekend. And if all this just makes you nauseous, go grab an airline sick bag, aptly called “throne up.”
At a quick glance you would think the royal family would be making a mint in royalties. But not so. The royal family doesn’t license out the royal family brand for such commemorative events. Rather, there are set guidelines for the public use that merchandise should be in “good taste.” Honoring those guidelines may have been overlooked in many of the products mentioned above.
Whether or not you support the idea of the monarchy, the nuptials of Will & Kate will likely benefit the royal subjects. Estimates are as high as $1 billion in increased tourism and merchandise sales, which is nothing to raise your noses at during the current recession. Given the constant media attention to the wedding, plus all things British, should provide a long-ranging economic boost for Brits tired of unemployment and a sagging economy. Plus they do get an extra holiday.
The brand of Will & Kate is a positive economic influence. Consumers want to believe in the fairy tale story of the commoner marrying the prince, and shopping for Will & Kate branded goods is solid evidence the tale is true.
CONSOR says who cares about the royalties!!! The British community will benefit from marketing of the royal family brand, and that is the role of the monarchy — to look after the well-being of the British people. Congratulations to Prince William and Princess Kate. May they live happily ever after.