insights from the british monarchy - BURA - Brunel University

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Recently, the British Crown appears to have recognised the imperative of
seeing the institution through the eyes of the public. The statement made by
Queen Elizabeth II in 1997 on the occasion of her 50 th wedding anniversary is,
perhaps, one of the most remarkable of her reign:
‚Despite the huge constitutional difference between a hereditary monarchy and an
elected government, in reality the gulf is not so wide. They are complementary
institutions, each with its own role to play. Each, in its different way, exists only with
the support and consent of the people. That consent, of the lack of it, is expressed for
you, Prime Minister, through the ballot box. It is a tough, even brutal, system but at
least the message is clear for all to read. For us, a Royal Family, however, the message
is often harder to read, obscured as it ca be by deference, rhetoric or the conflicting
attitudes of public opinion. But read it we must.‛ (Cited in Hames and Leonard
1988)
Normative advice regarding the management of the Crown as a Corporate
Brand:
(a) A distinction needs to be made between the legal ownership of the monarchy as a
corporate brand (by the dynasty and by the apparatus of the nation state) and its
emotional ownership by the general public. The Crown’s corporate brand power is
dependent on the latter and there are important obligations that flow from this.
(b) Customs and traditions need to be considered so that they remain meaningful to
the crown’s brand community. This may mean that some traditions are ended,
altered, re-instated or although retained are reinterpreted by key stakeholders.
Theoretical Insight:
This critical incident supports the theoretical contributions of Lawer and Knox who state
that, in part, an effective corporate brand requires customer involvement (the public in this
case) and fostering knowledge-creating customer partnerships. Balmer (2008) in his
corporate branding mix includes relevance and responsiveness as key corporate brand
management determinants; both were very apparent in the above critical incident. The
‚Latin School of Thought‛ in marketing (Badot and Cova 1995) is also salient in terms of
our comprehension of the Crown as a brand since it argues that marketing management
should, in part, be focused on the creation of social ties between individuals via an
individual’s membership of a corporate brand community. The British Monarchy very
much appears to fulfill this role.
Managing the British Monarchy as a Corporate Brand: Normative Insights
A principal aim of this article was to provide some normative insights in
terms of managing the monarchy as a corporate brand. The six critical
incidents examined in the case history revealed the significance of continuity
(maintaining heritage and symbolism); visibility (having a high public profile);
strategy (anticipating and enacting change); sensitivity (rapid response to crises);
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