The branding effect of the danish royal family
Today the crown princess of Denmark gave birth to twins – first a little boy and afterwards a little girl. The family of the crown prince and princess now holds 4 kids, congratulations from here Frederik and Mary, kids are a true blessing, and 4 of them must be so rewarding for you.
Now I think it’s nice to live in a fairytale kingdom, where we have a queen, princesses and princes and a royal court and everything. I couldn’t really imagine Denmark without it, and I also think it’s one of the best ways to brand Denmark and gain mindshare amongst the general public in the world. Making them know that there’s a tiny kingdom all the way to the north, where there lives a happy royal family, that does the kingdom incredibly well. it’s the first time ever that twins are born in the direct line to the throne in Denmark and that makes it quite a sensation.
For a long time, the different parts of the royal family has done a very good job in representing Denmark in other countries, most notably to me has been the branding effect that princess Mary have had for danish fashion brands in the world. I mean even though she’s a princess now, I think people can relate to her because she’s really good at listening and she seems genuinely interested in everything she does – actually I think that Mary is the princess that is doing the best for us, she has a very commercial focus and I bet that she in-some-unmeasurable-way is incredibly good for export and danish business.
Today the twins are making headlines around the world, and I think it’s something that everybody can relate to, not something like a crisis because of cartoons, or a silly video representing danish women in a not so nice way (karen26 anybody?) I think the branding effect of the twins and denmark today, is the same as the laudrup brothers when they where playing football. I travelled at that time, and everytime I talked to people and they asked me where I was from, and I said “Denmark” – they said “excellent football players – laudrup brothers” with a big smile. It was common knowledge. I think a lot of us are going to be asked about the twins for years to come – it just becomes something of common knowledge.
There’s a huge discussion these days about what we get for the money we pay the royal family, which is quite a bit – still I think, compared to the branding sensations they have been doing over the last couple of years (especially thanks to you Mary=) that commercially, it’s a bargain. One thing I don’t always like, is the way that the media is portraiting the royals, I mean sometimes they don’t seem human at all.
For everything it’s worth, I love fairytales, and the royal family is a great one. it makes me feel proud being danish again- not a lot of things does these days. Especially not after the government that has been running our country for the last 10 years or so. So I will mingle in the blessings of my people towards the crown prince and princess today and say: extremely well done! congrats and.. you rock =)