How Charles III Became the King of Retail Marketing

The lessons Meghan Markle could learn as she launches her lifestyle brand As ever

Meghan’s As ever website features a homepage with a photograph of herself and her three-year-old daughter, Lilibet

What are we to make of Meghan Markle’s cryptic Instagram “mood board” and breathless video announcing the replacement of her pretentious American Riviera Orchard line of products with the head-scratching As ever brand? The Montecito princess seems to be struggling to define exactly what she is doing. She boasts of having the “huge” financial backing and clout of Netflix, yet it’s unclear what that means.

Her Netflix lifestyle series, With Love, Meghan makes its debut on March 4, but it won’t have any direct connection to her As ever merchandise. It also turns out that As ever products won’t be on sale for another several months. As Meghan’s business partner, will Netflix actually produce As ever tableware, candles, jars of jam, blankets, and gardening equipment for her to sell online? The streaming giant is rolling out brick-and-mortar stores at shopping malls in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania and Dallas, Texas with merchandise to promote its major hit series such as Bridgerton, Squid Game, and Stranger Things. It’s hard to imagine a With Love, Meghan kiosk selling As ever products in those unlikely settings. After a ruling by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Meghan has already been blocked from marketing As ever clothing because a Chinese company with the same name sells patented apparel to stores including H&M, Anthropologie and Laura Ashley. Now we won’t expect to see As ever aprons suitable for whipping up Meghan-inspired meals.

“As ever essentially means as it’s always been”

Meghan fans point out that she had success as a social media influencer from 2014 to 2017 while she was appearing in the TV series Suits. She developed The Tig, a lifestyle website and Instagram account with more than one million followers. Through sponsored blog posts, commissions on products she sold, and premium features such as interviews with clothing designers, she reportedly cleared $80,000 in annual profits. Her aim, she said then, was to provide “a hub for the discerning palate—those with a hunger for food, travel, fashion and beauty.” Now, she explained in her new video announcement, “As ever essentially means as it’s always been, and if you’ve followed me since 2014 with The Tig, you know I’ve always loved cooking and crafting and gardening—this is what I do.”

Meghan on The Tig, her lifestyle website that sold merchandise from 2014 to 2017

Notwithstanding Meghan’s missteps during the five years since she and Prince Harry left the royal family to build their own fortune in California’s celebrity culture, she still projects emphatic confidence. This time she’s determined to star in a blockbuster feel-good TV series and vault to new prominence as a lifestyle guru along with Martha Stewart and Gwyneth Paltrow. Still, her position feels precarious, with more questions than answers about her prospects. I can’t help thinking of the one person who could guide her through the ins and outs of product development, brand management, and making heaps of money selling high quality merchandise: her own father-in-law from whom she and Prince Harry are publicly estranged.

“I’m a self-made millionaire”

Savvy retail entrepreneur is not the description that springs to mind about King Charles III. But since the early nineties he has achieved remarkable success by merchandizing royal brands and contributing millions to his charities from his profits. By May 2004 he could proudly arrive at the British Embassy in Spain carrying his gift-wrapped products and proclaim to the ambassador, “I’m a self-made millionaire, you know!”

It’s a little-known aspect of his life that is worth examining to see how he did it, who helped him, and where he turned when he faced possible failure. His main brands, Highgrove and Waitrose Duchy Organic (initially Duchy Originals), are impressively profitable, and since becoming king he has created even more product lines, with carefully curated collections at his Balmoral and Sandringham estates.

Rather improbably, his saga as a royal retailer began with an oaten biscuit and a makeshift gift shop in a Gloucestershire garage.