The Queen: The world's most valuable celebrity brand

Research conducted by Statista in 2021 had shown that the Royal Family is regarded as the fifth biggest “corporate brand” in the world, beating the likes of Nike, Coca-Cola, Disney and Microsoft. The Queen herself is deemed much more powerful than Oprah Winfrey — who conducted the infamous and explosive tell-all interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle — Beyoncé, Kim Kardashian and even Bill Gates. In fact, the Queen’s “personal brand” is regarded as 16 times bigger than Beyoncé’s, six times the size of Kim Kardashian and Bill Gates, three times bigger than Oprah’s, and 23 times bigger than that of the Beckhams! Beat that.

The Royal Family as a universal brand is estimated to be worth around £71 billion, with the Queen’s personal brand worth an astonishing £35 billion — it makes the Royal Family the UK’s most valuable brand by far, beating the likes of Marks & Spencer and Shell by miles. “The Firm”, as the royal household is often referred to, is equally impressive for the longevity of its popularity, even through major scandals and upsets. With a financial contribution of £1.7 billion to the UK economy every year, the Queen’s brand has more articles written on it than Nike, Ferrari and Coke combined.
 

The True Royal documentary, Elizabeth at 95: The Invincible Queen, says there isn’t anyone on this planet that hasn’t heard of Queen Elizabeth, she’s iconic, and she’s immortalised even though she’s still living. There was a fascinating article in Forbes last year that the Queen as a brand has developed “brand immunity” — she is “unbreakable” and “invincible”. Despite the controversies surrounding the royal family, including Meghan and Harry's exit from the UK and Prince Andrew’s scandal, the Queen’s image remains firmly intact. The article in fact compared the Queen’s brand to Coke and the incident in 1999 when the Coca-Cola Company publicly acknowledged contamination in Belgium that led to the biggest recall in its 113-year history, but the brand quickly recovered. Coke had built some serious brand immunity over the years, and people started trusting it again. Forbes said the Queen too has similar “brand immunity”.

The Queen also enjoys tremendous cultural currency. The Queen’s face is on postage stamps and currency worldwide, giving her an obvious head start over other celebrities. Her brand continues to be talked about and referenced within culture. It remains relevant. The Queen shows up in street art courtesy of Banksy and others, and on buses and bus stops. Her name and image are used in all sorts of iconography. Continued cultural relevance, despite 70 years on the throne, is an indicator of true brand strength.

The Queen, the Forbes article added, benefits from a serious halo effect from brand Britain, brand Royal, and the Royal family at large. Halo effects play on the “cognitive bias” of consumers. They buttress and enhance brand loyalty. Halo effect strategy has been successfully used by Apple and most luxury brands for years. Favourable experience with a product of a brand invariably leads to a positive bias towards other offerings from the same stable. The same has kind of happened with the Queen too over the decades.

Look at it another way. Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook come in at ranks one to four; at number five was the Queen. The four brands that beat her are modern, tech savvy, newly created brands and 50-60 years, or more, younger than her. Yet, at 95, she’s neither seen to be old-fashioned, nor anachronistic, nor fuddy-duddy.

Having been the Head of State for 70 years, it’s not a surprise that Queen Elizabeth II is currently Britain’s favourite member of the Royal Family (45 per cent), according to research agency Ipsos. The Queen is seen to be traditional by 53 per cent Britons. Britons say the Queen is a symbol of what is good about Britain as well as a good representative for Great Britain on the world stage (both 41 per cent). The Queen is someone who unites people across Britain (39 per cent) while around a third describe her as powerful (35 per cent), capable (33 per cent) or as someone who has sound judgement (29 per cent).   On nearly all of these attributes she has a stronger image than all other members of the Royal Family.

By the way, the Duchess and Duke of Cambridge — Catherine and Prince William — were in second (32 per cent) and third (28 per cent) place, respectively, while Princess Anne is Britain’s fourth favourite member with 18 per cent choosing the Princess Royal.

To me, Queen Elizabeth’s biggest strength is that she doesn’t say anything wrong. The Queen has perfected the art of saying enough, but never saying anything that might offend. After 70 years as sovereign, her people have barely the vaguest idea of what goes on in her head. Being the planet’s most relentlessly public figure and among its most impenetrably private, at once uniquely familiar and entirely unknowable, is a paradox that never loses its power to intrigue.

The writer is managing director of Rediffusion