Our regular column shining a light on retail trends takes a look at how brands and the world of licensing marked the coronation, and the impact that it had.
We know retailers like to jump on a seasonal event but the efforts they went to to mark the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla were epic.
But were they just jumping on the bandwagon to boost sales, or do they really love the Royal family? After a wet and freezing March and April and a slow start to spring-summer-shopping, you can’t blame them if it was the former, and honestly, who cares?
Their efforts made a huge impact, turning consumer indifference for the Coronation into all-out hysteria, further feeding the demand for Royalty-themed products. So much so, in fact, that the Centre for Retail Research predicted ahead of the event that overall extra spending would amount to £1.4bn in total with £250m on souvenirs and memorabilia alone. What an impact.
Let’s dive into the hype and explore the madness.
So how did brands mark the Coronation? Well of course there were the usual commemorative tea, biscuits and bunting but getting a lacklustre nation truly excited needed far more creativity and it appeared in abundance. In fact, it felt like every category and every retailer was involved.
From Heinz releasing Kingchup and caterpillar cakes wearing chocolate crowns, to Aldi launching a robed version of its cuddly Christmas carrot and the book range Little People, Big Dreams releasing a King Charles edition in stores, creativity was overflowing.
And get this – a tea bag company even created a new version of the National Anthem with the sounds of kettles boiling and teaspoons stirring. Another fantastic initiative was that of Tesco which, for 4 and 5 May, opened a pub – The King and Castle in Farringdon – to celebrate, with all proceeds going to youth charity The Prince’s Trust.
Sticking with supermarkets, it was great to see so many focusing on British produce and sustainability with their royal ranges, so as to beautifully align with King Charles III’s own values. However, we do have to wonder how much unsold stock was wasted after the Coronation weekend… non-perishable items seemed to linger in stores for weeks.
So many of the wonderful Coronation-related products were the result of fantastic brand licensing efforts. Historic Royal Palaces launched a special edition gin with licensee Gin in a Tin, not only giving consumers a souvenir tin to mark the occasion but also a handy way to enjoy a tipple when out and about on the big day.
Another was Ravensburger UK’s collaboration with award-winning artist and illustrator, Eleanor Tomlinson which created a unique 1,000-piece puzzle to celebrate the crowning of King Charles III.
But of all categories, we believe publishing won the race in the licensing world. Mr Men Little Miss and Paddington both launched Royal editions, and there was even a Peppa Pig and the Coronation book. This was a genius move by the children’s brands and their publishers to get kids as excited about the Coronation as their parents.
If you are a royalist or very much not, there is no getting away from the fact that retailers (and all of us in the licensing world) love any excuse for a ‘limited edition’ or celebration product. These events and new products bring people to store, they get consumers shopping and we need that more now than ever.
But could anyone have foreseen the impact the Coronation efforts would have? The Coronation saw 18 million of us tuning in in the UK, while sipping our champagne and eating our Coronation quiche, and as already mentioned, we spent £1.4bn on royal products.
So what can we learn from this? As a business that believes in only producing products that fill gaps at retail, perhaps during events like the Coronation that happen once every few decades, that ‘gap’ is very, very large and the more creative you can be with your product ideas to charm the nation, the more of an impact you will have.
Now, just how much longer do we have to wait for Mattel’s launch of a King Charles and Queen Camilla doll range? Surely it’s in product development now… we hope!
Hannah Redler is co-founder of Spotlight.1888, which was created in November 2021 to help brands and licensees with retail services, and retailers with licensing strategy.
Based on an extension of The Point.1888’s retail-first model, whereby new products are created based on the gaps seen at retail as well as what it thinks the brand’s target demographic might like, Spotlight.1888 works directly with retailers and brands to help them fill the gaps themselves using the agency’s retail team expertise.
