All Her Majesty's brands: 10 brands the Queen can't live without

So far, so good but it’s not often we see Her Majesty tweeting about this brand or the other, or being photographed wearing the latest Louboutin slingbacks.

Luckily the Queen has her own brand barometer, aka the Royal Warrant, granted to people, companies or brands who have regularly supplied goods or services for a minimum of five consecutive years to the Queen, Prince Philip and the Prince of Wales.

As expected, the brands endorsed by the Queen tend to be from the traditional end of the spectrum. And Her Majesty is no promiscuous shopper: some warrants awarded to brands date back centuries.

1. Cars: Land Rover Jaguar

The Queen’s car pool is known to feature Jaguars, VWs and Rolls Royces. But the image of Her Majesty behind the wheel was immortalised in the film The Queen, in which Helen Mirren played the monarch driving herself around Balmoral in a Land Rover Defender. Her Majesty knows what happens under the bonnet too: she trained as a car mechanic during WWII.

2. Media: The Racing Post
The Queen's love of horses and passion for horse racing and breeding is well known. Though she doesn't bet on horses, she keeps abreast on racing news, tips and the latest odds by reading the Racing Post every morning.

3. Chocolates: Bendicks
The Queen is known to dip into Bendicks bittermints on occasion. She awarded the brand a royal warrant in 1962 but Charbonnel et Walker also holds a royal warrant as ‘Chocolate Manufacturers to the Queen’.

4. Dresses: Angela Kelly
You won’t find her brand in department stores but dresses made by Angela Kelly, the daughter of a docker and the Queen’s personal assistant and dresser, are amongst her favourites. The monarch wore a Kelly creation for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in April 2011.

5. Food storage: Tupperware
Though not a royal warrant holder, Tupperware is known to have pride of place on the Queen’s dining table. In 2003 Daily Mirror undercover reporter Ryan Parry masqueraded as a Royal footman and revealed that in Buckingham Palace, breakfast cereals are laid out in Tupperware boxes from which the Queen self-serves. It is not known whether Her Majesty has ever attended a Tupperware party.

6. Household goods: John Lewis
John Lewis is a recent addition to the Queen’s must-have brands, the retailer's Reading branch gaining the royal warrant in 2008. The Queen's grand-daughter-in-law, the Duchess of Cambridge, is an habitue of John Lewis’ King’s Road store, Peter Jones.

7. Kilts: Kinloch Anderson
Scottish tartan supplier Kinloch Anderson provide the Queen with Balmoral Tartan, a design that can only be worn with her permission.

8. Music player: iPod
On the occasion of his 2009 state visit to the UK, US President Obama's gift to the Queen was a video iPod, loaded with photos and video from the Queen's 2007 state visit to the US. It also featured music the Queen likes, such as ‘People Will Say We're In Love’ from Oklahoma!

9. Outerwear: Barbour
The Queen is often photographed in Barbour waxed and quilted jackets, and Aquascutum raincoats, most famously as she viewed the salvage operation after the fire at Windsor Castle in November 1992.

10. Underwear: Rigby & Peller
Upmarket bride-to-be’s favourite knickers and bra store Rigby & Peller was granted the Queen’s Royal Warrant in 1960. The brand’s Knightsbridge outlet specialises in bespoke corsetry.

And three brands that ditched, lost or never had the royal favour…

Benson & Hedges had its royal warrant revoked in 1999 "due to a lack of demand in royal households"

After Eight chocolates and Jacob's Cream Crackers both retain the royal warrant but do not display it on every product.

The Queen is not known to drink Guinness but this did not stop Diageo from mounting a Guinness-pulling demonstration for Her Majesty during the monarch’s historic visit to the Republic of Ireland last April. Unlike Barack and Michelle Obama on their trip to Ireland a few weeks’ later, the Queen declined to sample the black stuff. 

This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk