Imagine you’re the new Head of Brand at Buckingham Palace. (First, you’ll have to imagine that Buckingham Place has something as vulgar as a Head of Brand). What’s the one thing that keeps you awake at night?
Could it be the sense that you are managing decline? That you thought you were joining a great global institution, but the data suggests you might be in charge of the next Debenhams or Tie Rack?
Not only is your nearest equivalent to a Net Promoter Score – the number of people who think it’s important that Britain should have a monarchy – at an all-time low.
But your distinctive brand assets are being seen less and less every year.
After all, at one time, your logo was everywhere. In our pockets. In our purses. In the cup holder of the car in case we needed a pound for a trolley at Aldi.
There she was. The face of Elizabeth. Five distinct portraits over the years, like one of those brand evolution diagrams of the Shell logo in reverse. Instead of slowly becoming simpler and cleaner, lines and age and complexity were gradually added.
Now, of course, our use of cash is in long-term decline. Only one in five payments is made physically. Yes, we’ve seen a blip, as people budget their way through a period of high inflation and wage stagnation. But as the Head of Brand at Buckingham Palace, you probably shouldn’t be cheering on the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
But things look worse than that. Not only are you in charge of decreasing brand impressions overall, but most of those that remain have the old logo on. You do the maths.
There are around 27 billion coins and 4.6 billion banknotes in use in the UK. Every year, the Treasury refreshes the cash supply to reflect demand.
