When you spend 10 years at Kensington Palace as the personal chef for Prince Charles and the boys, how do you get a better cooking gig? You can’t. So Carolyn Robb became a brand marketer instead. Robb’s company, The Royal Touch, places her regal imprimatur on a choice collection of culinary and lifestyle goods. It just opened a boutique bakery in Japan and has a variety of domestic deals simmering too. Robb set her ladle down for a few minutes to tell us about her plans.
Adweek: The Royal Touch recently introduced a cutlery line in Germany and a cookware collection in South Korea. Any plans for the U.S. market?
Robb: We are in development of The Royal Touch Cake Collection, an exclusive line of gourmet cakes for a supermarket chain. We’ve received much attention for my Chocolate Biscuit Cake that I frequently made for Princes William and Harry when they were young.
While your expertise is culinary, a royal standard can theoretically apply to almost any household item. Can we expect to see, say, royal draperies at some point?
It is our hope to have The Royal Touch Furniture Collection, Paper Collection and Textile Collection within 18 to 24 months. Each genre will be headed by a world-class expert with a royal pedigree.
Well, to that end, you took aboard Sarah Champier, who was Royal Florist for 11 years. When can I order royal roses for my table?
We’re in contact with leading floral suppliers and hope during the first quarter of 2013 to roll out The Royal Touch Floral Collection.
Since you’re staking your own reputation on the brands you anoint, I’m guessing you’re pretty careful about the ones you pick.
We are quite fanatical about our due diligence and approval process. We cannot afford one mistake.
What’s the psychology behind your brand—people hoping for a little royal mystique in their lives?
Customers react for different reasons, including the status factor—allowing consumers to feel a little “touch of royalty.”
It seems like there’s a touch of royalty (or a member of the royal family) in the news every day. Is that basically free marketing?
We are incredibly lucky to enjoy the constant media attention to everything royal.