Some of us will view the nuptials of Prince Harry & Meghan Markle as an excuse to celebrate a royal event and share the day either watching on television, online or with friends & family. Others will prefer to save their energies for the FA Cup Final later in the afternoon. Whatever your views on the Royal Family, Meghan Markle is not only entering one of the most famous families in the world but also one of the most successful global brands. The Royal brand generates annually upwards of £1.8bn to the U.K. economy (Brand Finance 2017) and Meghan herself is expected to generate £150m for British fashion brands over the next year (Ibisworld 2018).
St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, the venue for the Royal Wedding
Yet the Royal brand is not just a twenty-first century invention. Previous generations of royals have used their brand to leverage value in some less orthodox ways. Queen Victoria is hailed as championing the Scottish Highlands as the romantic tourist destination of well-heeled Victorians of the nineteenth century. Prior to that George III, raised the profile of Brighton as the Regency destination of the eighteenth century. More recently the current Royal brand has adopted a more overtly commercial stance extending their franchise to include multiple product lines from tea towels & cushions, celebration china & visitor experiences to the royal palaces. However, it is the secondary brand associations that generate the most income. When the Duchess of Cambridge steps out in a new outfit, within minutes the product line can be sold out, due to the speed and interest on social media.
So what value will Meghan bring to this hugely successful global brand? Interestingly she brings to the brand something that many commentators of the wedding of the year have overlooked. Unlike her contemporaries & predecessors, past Duchesses and Princesses, she brings a highly successful acting career. With the ageing population in the UK, the Royal Family needs to reconnect with Generation Z (16-25 year olds), and Meghan may be the person to do this. A quick chat with members of this generation shows the chasm in comparison between Meghan and her royal contemporaries. Views such as Meghan’s successful career and her broader life experiences, her ethnicity and her obvious contemporary beauty connects her with this generation more strongly perhaps than her future sister-in-law. So this is her brand strength. She is strong articulate and intelligent. Unique and authentic.
So what are the dangers this Royal brand could face? One is over-exposure, which always devalues a premium brand. The other is over extension into excessive product lines and mass commercialisation and linked with this a lack of exclusivity and authenticity. If Meghan wants to become more than a fashion icon she will need to navigate these brand waters carefully.
Official Engagement Photo https://twitter.com/kensingtonroyal/status/943813005770395648
On Saturday Meghan will enter this world. She will step out in a wedding dress worth thousands of pounds and instantly Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp & Facebook will go into overdrive. Images of the first glimpse of the dress will go global across the digital stratosphere and Meghan will become one of the most talked about human beings on the planet. Whatever your view on the Royal Family, the firm is now a brand. Managing this Royal brand online and off will be a challenge, but with her experience in the commercial world of TV and media Meghan should be better placed than most to deal with this – we wish her and her future husband well, health and happiness and a full & meaningful life growing the Royal brand.
Vicky Roberts, Senior Lecturer in Staffordshire Business School
As a lecturer, nothing gives you more pleasure than to see your students shine. On Monday 19th March I could not have been prouder of our students, as we welcomed honorary doctor of Staffordshire University, Sarah Willingham to the Business School, as one of the judges of our Willingham’s Winners competition. Sarah has a string of accolades for her contributions to business and in 2016 was named one of the Sunday Times 500 most influential people in Britain. She is probably best known for her appearance on Dragon’s Den, but there is nothing dragon-like about her – a “Stokie” born and bred, Sarah is down-to-earth, full of good advice and a business role model for students.
vehicles have certainly taken the brunt of adverse publicity – resulting in a very significant drop in purchase of both new and second-hand diesel-powered vehicles we must take note that their petrol-powered cousins are no angels. They might not emit harmful particulates, but they are very capable of emitting a noxious cocktail of other harmful agents which accumulate in the atmosphere with potential for adverse impact to health. Just this last week we have seen headlines posting the rise in incidence of lung cancer in non-smokers, overtaking other forms of the disease for the first time – where cigarette tobacco was always previously posted as a primary causal attribute.
not used for c.20 years! We know the oceans have become increasingly contaminated with micro-size plastic fragments. They have infiltrated the food chain in which we place so much reliance as the world population increases. The arctic region has now been highlighted as contaminated as has the deepest reaches of the oceans. 
those of the entire previous century and it is still increasing despite the rhetoric. We have now reached Co2 emissions of c.40bn tonnes/annum. In 2014 the IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change) stated that in order to reverse this trend our entire reliance on fossil fuels may need to cease by 2100 otherwise we could experience irreversible climate change such as sea-level rises of over 1m coupled with melting of the ice caps and ocean acidification affecting the food chain, crop failure affecting c.3 billion people, catastrophic extinction events and rising temperatures. The highest recorded temperature ever recorded was reported in Death Valley (appropriately named) – a staggering 57.6 degrees C on 10.07.13. We are also witnessing a hitherto unprecedented increase in world population where having reached c. 1bn around 1800 – just over 200 years ago we have grown to a staggering 7.5bn today adding the last 1bn in just over 10 years. We are on course for c.9-10bn by the middle of this century.