Marketing is supposedly an American invention. But its roots certainly lay in undiluted marketing practices polished over centuries by British monarchy. Last week, the UK declared four celebratory days, with holidays for banks, schools, public and private offices from June 4-5, to mark 60 years reign of Queen Elizabeth II. Since inception with Alfred the Great in 849, British Royalty has undoubtedly been the UK?s stellar brand.

Take how adroitly royalty managed the 1992 fire at Windsor Castle, the world?s largest inhabited castle. The fire destroyed the castle?s vital historic parts. The question was who would pay the estimated ?60 million for restoration? The Queen suggested taxpayers, but Britain?s parliament under Prime Minister John Major refused as it was a private royal home. British monarchy found an out-of-the-box solution in April 1993. So many people stand outside the huge grilled Palace gates to watch the changing of the Royal guards. Why not raise money from them by opening up Windsor Castle at ?3 per entry, and Buckingham Palace at ?8 per admission for the next five years? The repair finally cost ?36.5 million, the Queen?s personal contribution was ?2 million. What?s interesting is that the public is still visiting Royal residences, only paying double now, ?18 per visit to Buckingham Palace.

While marketing a selling proposition, we always try to find a corridor that avoids the possibility of getting stuck in adversity. People pay good money to learn such marketing theories at Harvard, INSEAD, Columbia and LSE. But without going anywhere, merely by exposing British dynasty loot collected over centuries from various colonies, monarchical marketing found an inventive way to restore Windsor Castle. They simply pumped money from the willing-to-pay public who wasn?t disappointed either. Aside from booty from colonies, although the British and French never liked each other and had clashed in Waterloo, the British didn?t hesitate to beautify Windsor Palace with French furniture. Former French president Val?ry Giscard d?Estaing commented that he saw more French furniture inside Windsor Palace when he?d lunched there with the Queen in 1977 than in France?s Versailles Palace. It is important to know that French furniture and d?cor from the reigns of Francis I, Louis XIV, Louis XVI, and Napoleon have left the grid and benchmark of all time exquisite design sophistication in the world.

Visiting royal residences, the monarch?s subjects continue to smell the British empire where ?the sun never sets.? This marketing jargon means Great Britain continues to prevail in the cultural imagination of their colonised countries throughout the world for the sun to be shining 24 hours in some or other past or present territory of Britain. Even today Elizabeth II, who?s still head of state of 16 nations, knows how to conduct a monarchical mela. In the 1000-boat flotilla on River Thames marking her jubilee, she?d invited the 54 Commonwealth members to keep alive ?the sun never sets on the British Empire? nostalgia. It?s another British monarchical marketing master stroke, from ?looting wealth? to Commonwealth. When you see the Indian flag in the pageant, you don?t know whether you should feel pride or humiliation. They?ve destroyed the backbone of our country?s spirit and moral strength by colonising India for 200 years, yet we are a part of the Commonwealth!

Has monarchy marketing taken a lesson from Walter Disney, who ingeniously built a smelly rat to become iconic Mickey Mouse loved worldwide, selling in both their amusement park and elsewhere in the world? Like selling Disneyland merchandise, souvenir shops outside, royal palaces peddle ornamental crockery, Victorian pillboxes, thimbles, guardsmen?s red dress with furry headgear, and aprons saying, ?God Save the Queen.? Other merchandise ?By Appointment to Her Majesty the Queen? includes cigarettes, tea, whiskey, chocolates, luggage. Aside from exorbitantly priced limited and special edition keepsakes, you even get imperial Russian mementoes made through traditional 250-year-old methods, hand finished using 22 carat gold. Such votives were personal gifts exchanged among Russian, Danish and British royal families. After all, the last Czar Nicholas II and King George V, grandfather of Elizabeth II, were cousins; their mothers were sisters. Countries like Holland, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark and Spain still have monarchs, but it?s the Queen who still rules feudal-style over subjects, not citizens.

If you rewind the entire marketing chapter of mass consumption, it strengthened after World War II. There?s a clear demarcation between luxury and mass consumption goods. Unique luxury products, from garments, jewellery, cutlery to travelling coaches, were created for royalty to flaunt and distinguish their superior class from the masses. European countries like England and France with long history of kingdoms have preserved their code of luxury goods that command premium prices in the world. Inspite of US marketing skills, a luxury product can never originate from USA, which has no royal tradition. The difference from traditional monarchy is that without possessing royal blood, you can enjoy their luxurious life if you?re rich. What?s more, the nobility today, comprising remnants of the disintegrated Roman and other Western empires, are even selling off royal titles, so for sums of money you can become a duke or a countess too.

British monarchy?s marketing machines has been so active that according to BBC, 80% Britons still want the monarchy. It gained a fillip after Prince William married commoner Kate Middleton. However, anti-Monarchists exist too. Britain?s Republic Party says the Royal family is brainwashing common people to stay subjugated and support its upkeep with public funds. ?We are citizens not subjects? is their cry for democracy. ?Parasite go home? is another poster decrying Royal heritage.

In having a president of India, we imitated the British monarchy?s titular head system, but will anybody ever buy a souvenir saying ?God save the President? when that person changes every five years? If the UK Republics have their way and monarchy is abolished, the UK has to rethink the country?s marketing as its biggest brand pull, Her Majesty, would be lost.

Shombit Sengupta is an international creative business strategy consultant to top management. Reach him at http://www.shiningconsulting.com