Since the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday, emotion is also expressed through consumption.
On Amazon, in less than 24 hours, many "
goodies
" bearing his image have topped the sales charts.
This is how a plastic statuette of the queen, the "
Solar Queen
", whose hand moves gently thanks to photovoltaic energy, became the best-selling product in the category of character figurines - ahead a plastic Hulk and a Playmobil pirate ship.
To discover
LIVE- Death of Elizabeth II: follow minute by minute reactions to the death of the Queen of England
The key events in the life of the royal family have generated significant sales of derivative products for decades.
During the reign of George III, as industrial production technologies developed, it became possible to transfer images and symbols onto pottery.
The British then hastened to produce mugs with the image of the king, for the fiftieth anniversary of his coming to power, in 1809. In 1887, the golden jubilee of Queen Victoria will give rise to the production commemorative coins, or even butter dishes bearing the image of the Queen.
Consumer enthusiasm
Long preempted by the crown, the production of goods bearing the effigy of the royal family is no longer solely the result of local and artisanal production.
The products derived from royalty have continued to be declined with ever more creativity by various industries.
A lucrative business: according to analyzes by the Center for Retail Research, admirers of the royal family would have spent more than 400 million pounds on the occasion of the platinum jubilee of the queen, on June 2.
The event, which celebrated the 70 years of reign of Elizabeth II, was then perceived, rightly, as the last jubilee that the queen would celebrate.
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The British would have spent nearly 280 million pounds on various and varied souvenirs - mugs, flags, T-shirts, cushions, biscuits in the shape of corgis or leggings sewn from the face of the queen, for example.
For many brands, these events have become marketing opportunities like any other, and the opportunity to deploy limited edition collections.
Price increase
The death of the queen lends itself much less to marketing recoveries.
The official online store of the crown, which only sells products from British craftsmanship, has suspended its activities since the death of the sovereign to mark mourning and out of respect for protocol.
The teams must also hasten to build up stocks of
goodies
returning to the life of the queen, and to update those which honored the Duke of Cornwall – who became King Charles III.
But the enthusiasm of consumers, which persists despite everything, once again underlines the attachment to material objects of crown admirers in strong moments, and in sad moments.
The Royal Mint, which produces British coins, is experiencing such demand that Internet users, this Friday, had to wait in a virtual queue to access the site.
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The consequence of this momentum is an increase in the price of derivative products around the queen on certain sales sites, obeying the law of supply and demand.
On Amazon, prices are recalculated several times a day, in particular according to the frequency of purchases by Internet users.
The Monopoly game board, special edition Elizabeth II, saw its price exceed 50 euros the day after the death of the queen.
An increase of 42%, according to our observations with the Keepa application, compared to the price charged before the alerts on his state of health.
Ironically, the queen forbade her family members to play this game which she said "
can get too vicious
".