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The Crown as a corporate brand: Insights from monarchies

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Abstract

This paper explores monarchies through a corporate branding lens. It is based on extensive field interviewing of individuals with knowledge and experience in what we (not they) term ‘managing the Monarchy as a brand’, including senior members of the Swedish Royal Court and the Swedish Royal Family. It also draws from literature regarding monarchies across a range of disciplines beyond management; we found no previous brand-related literature on the topic. Our conclusion is that the monarchy, as an institution, is very much like a corporate brand, including amenability to being managed in a manner analogous to that for a corporate brand, especially one with a heritage.

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References

  • The phrase ‘managing the brand’ and related terms are ours alone, and not those of Royal Court officials or Royal Family members. This paper draws on material contained in: J. M. T. Balmer, S. A. Greyser and M. Urde (2004) ‘Monarchies as Corporate Brands,’ Working Paper 05-002, Division of Research, Harvard Business School.

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Acknowledgements

By gracious permission we were granted many audiences with Their Majesties King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia, and with Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Victoria, and with senior members of the Swedish Royal Court, especially the current and former Marshals of the Realm Ingmar Eliasson and Gunnar Brodin, and the Head of Information and Press Department, Elisabeth Tarras-Wahlberg. We also thank others (whether quoted in this paper or not) with personal perspectives on the monarchy and its activities for their time and insights, including an anonymous member of another royal family. We are grateful to Paul George, former vice chairman of the United States Olympic Committee for information on royals active in Olympic sports. In addition we are grateful for reactions and ideas from faculty colleagues and from the Reputation Management practice group at Opinion Research Corporation. This research was self-funded by the authors.

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Correspondence to John M T Balmer.

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Balmer, J., Greyser, S. & Urde, M. The Crown as a corporate brand: Insights from monarchies. J Brand Manag 14, 137–161 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.bm.2550031

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