Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are “not in a good position” as their Archewell brand has become “completely lost” among the bombshell claims made against the Royal Family, an expert has warned. In early 2020, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped back from royal duties when relocating to the US and months later in October of that year, announced the establishment of Archewell. The group includes the couple’s non-profit charitable arm, The Archewell Foundation.
Harry and Meghan have focused heavily on driving awareness of Archewell over the past couple of years, gaining worldwide recognition for their efforts.
But recent bombshell claims against the Royal Family, both in the couple’s recent Netflix documentary series and Harry’s new memoir, Spare, has left one marketing expert baffled over what has happened to the Archewell brand.
Pauline Maclaran, Professor of Marketing and Consumer Research at Royal Holloway University of London, has warned it has been “completely lost” among the furore of the Netflix series and Harry’s book.
The expert told Express.co.uk: “Harry is certainly not going the right away about this. What is getting lost in all of this is the Sussex brand – what is the Sussex brand?
“We know they are not allowed to use Sussex Royal anymore so they set up the Archewell Foundation, with Archewell Productions and Archewell Audio. The deals with Netflix and Spotify tie in with all of that.
“But within all this furore and all of the discussions, all the talk is about the Sussexes, Harry and of course, the ‘Spare’, which are all sort of sub-brands that are floating around.
“You don’t hear a thing about Archewell and it seems that Archewell is getting completely lost in all of this other stuff.
“The Netflix documentary series and Harry’s book, it is very hard to see how they tie in with the aims of the Archewell Foundation, which are to inspire, unite communities and generally focus on compassion.”
READ MORE: Friend of King Charles, William and Harry dies ‘suddenly
“That’s not a very good position going into the future. Archewell is completely lost in this.”
Professor Maclaran added: “You now have Penguin Random House’s branding of the book Spare and Harry has been promoting his book through interviews, so there is huge recognition of Spare and Harry, but not of Archewell.
“That is not good for the future of Archewell and the question for me is: What is the Sussex brand?
“It’s getting lost and the Sussex brand, we presume, is still the Archewell Foundation but has been completely overshadowed by the branding of Harry’s book.”
The marketing expert advised Harry and Meghan to “now back off” as they have made clear what their position is with certain issues they have concerning the Royal Family.
She has urged them to once again focus on building the Arcehwell brand, which they had done so well previously, but warned that can’t happen if they continue to set themselves up as the “rebel royals”.
Professor Maclaran concluded: “Harry and Meghan should now back off. They have stated their position and they need to move forward.
Look at really concentrate with building up Archewell, with productions such as Invictus and other worthwhile causes where they can go forward into the future establishing themselves as a strong progressive humanitarian brand, which I think was their original aim.
“But they can’t do that if they set themselves up as the rebel royals as the two sides conflict.”
