Brands close to Kate gain royal endorsement

Brands chosen by Kate Middleton need to use PR to maximise that royal association as excitement over her wedding to Prince William mounts, according to research commissioned by Marketing Week.

Burberry trench coat? Check. Links of London earrings? Check. Whistles blouse? Check. These are just some of the brands royal bride-to-be Kate Middleton has been snapped wearing and have made it onto the wishlists of many followers around the country.

They are also on a list of brands compiled by Marketing Week for an exclusive survey of 1,000 UK consumers conducted by Lightspeed Research to investigate the growing reach of the “Kate effect”.

Sales of products connected to Middleton are indeed staggering. The £650 Burberry trench coat she wore last month sold out within a day, as did the navy blue Issa dress she donned for the official engagement press call last November. The blouse from Whistles and dress from Reiss she selected from her own wardrobe for engagement portraits have both recently been re-released to meet demand. As for the Links of London earrings Middleton bought some time before the photos, the catfight that broke out in a New York store over the last pair says it all.

While Middleton’s status as a fashion icon is confirmed by the survey results, brand awareness of these labels has been mixed. “Pretty”, “stylish” and “fashionable” are the words most associated with Middleton, with 71%, 54% and 41% selecting these descriptions from a list.

Just 7% say she is “boring” and “plain”, although when broken down by age, this shoots up to 15% for the 18 to 24-year-old demographic.

However, this demographic is more likely than their older counterparts to have bought a brand because it was associated with Middleton. Indeed, 9% of 18 to 24-year-olds admit to having done so, as do 10% of 25 to 34-year-olds, and just 3% of 35 to 44-year-olds.

“Younger people seem to be more influenced by role models and follow through on their purchase desires,” says Lightspeed EMEA marketing director Ralph Risk. “They tend to be more able to relate to and associate with Kate as a person.”

Women register a higher brand awareness than men, with Burberry topping the list for both. When selecting from a list of brands, 26% of women in the survey say they associate this brand with Middleton, compared with 18% of men and 22% overall.

However, despite the surge in sales, there is less of an immediate connection for other brands in the survey. Twelve per cent of female respondents associate the Whistles brand with Middleton, compared with 10% for Issa, 7% for Reiss and just 1% for Links of London.

Lightspeed’s Risk suggests that while these brands appeared in official royal engagement pictures, Whistles and Reiss perhaps fare better than Links because of the media attention the re-release of the blouse and dress have attracted.

Column inches declaring Middleton’s latest accessory as a must-have are now commonplace, and 39% say they read about Middleton and a brand in a newspaper. She is also cropping up on fashion blogs the website Coolspotters.com has a section dedicated to listing items she has been seen sporting but just 4% say they have seen her on a blog or website, highlighting that her biggest impact is still through traditional media channels.

Brands that haven’t been worn in public by the bride-to-be have cottoned on to her selling power by publicising lookalike products for a budget price. Sales of a £22 Asda version of the Burberry coat reportedly jumped by 300%, while Peacocks reported a 95% rise in sales of a fascinator hair accessory in a similar style to one she was seen wearing. QVC and Ernest Jones have both produced replica engagement rings and TK Maxx is to follow Tesco’s lead in producing a wallet-friendly copy of the now famous Issa dress (see The Frontline, below).

It seems that the public, however, are less likely to pick up on a famous connection when it’s not as authentic. Just 2% of people in the survey associate Middleton with Tesco and QVC, and 4% with Ernest Jones, despite their attempts to cash in with royal-inspired merchandise.

Other brands benefit from a royal halo effect. Royal Doulton and Fortnum & Mason both hold royal warrants, and both score 17% in the survey.

And while secrecy still surrounds the identity of the designer of the wedding dress that Middleton will wear on 29 April, names such as Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood score 12% and 10% respectively, as both have been mentioned in the whirlwind of media speculation.

Lightspeed’s Risk claims that because members of the royal family are not allowed to endorse brands in the same way as they are able to support causes, an organic brand connection can be even more powerful than a conventional paid-for partnership. “There is a feeling that if Kate is wearing something she is actually recommending it,” he says.

But Risk warns that brands should consider the other side of being linked with a royal personality. While 19% of women said they would be more likely to purchase items they saw Middleton with, 14% of men would be less likely to buy jewellery that had the same connection.

“A significant minority of people are not royalists and some are decidedly anti-royal, so there could be a backlash from these demographics. Brands have to be aware of that, and not alienate people,” he says.

Similar caution should be exercised when considering the respondents who feel it is appropriate for royals to promote brands, he adds. A total of 36% feel this way, and this figure rises to 44% among 18to 24-year-olds. However, Risk says the majority still say it is wrong for members of the royal family to be used as brand ambassadors. This, he notes, is the biggest difference between royalty and celebrity.

Unlike conventional celebrities, brands cannot randomly send Middleton gifts in the hope that she will be photographed with a product. Her identity has been further protected from commercialisation following a royal decree banning brands from using her full name to sell products.

While brands must leave it purely to chance as to whether the princess-to-be will give them her approval, marketers can still use PR and social media to publicise the fact Middleton is wearing or using their brand.

The nation might soon recover from royal wedding fever, but as Sophie Barrett from Links of London points out, the evolution of Kate Middleton into a style icon will continue to have an effect on brand desire for some time.