No, she isn't! The customer is queen. Let me therefore use the term 'monarch', which applies to both king and queen, instead.

Is the customer the monarch? A monarch is by definition an individual, who rules and controls a country for life or until abdication. Does the customer rule and control a brand for life or until abdication?

In my opinion, the metaphor is flawed. There are hundreds, thousands, even millions of customers, i.e. would-be monarchs. Presumably all of them each have one voice with all voices being equal and, being would-be monarchs, they would all want to rule and control. Knowing the human race, I am inclined to say 'what a mess'. On the other hand, the larger crowds of people become, the more important it becomes to 'organize' them. Fortunately in today's world that often means in a democratic way. This applies to football teams, voters, consumers and others. 

As any politician will tell you, the grassroots democracy is a great principle, but it does have its limits. You can't have a plebiscite each and every time you have to decide something. The parliamentary democracy aims to solve this problem with elected representatives of the people voting and the principle of the majority vote applying (depending on the topic, a simple majority or an absolute majority or a two-thirds majority are necessary and on rare occasions even plebiscites are possible). The problem is of course that the elected representatives of the people are organized in political parties with different agendas. Walking the party line and voting for something that's in the public interest is unfortunately not always one and the same thing. Looking at the political systems around the world, we quickly realize that none of them are flawless. But in my opinion the parliamentary democracy is the best system we have come up with so far. What is often neglected however, is the fact that the democratic value of this participatory system depends on the continuous engagement of each and every individual. Voting once every few years is not enough.   

What's true for politics is also true for brands. Brands have to develop and implement a system of democratic representation with rights and duties. It is imperative to esteem the 'customer' as a member of the brand family and to integrate her and him into the process of value creation, may be via a 'brand parliament'.

Declaring every customer a monarch is not the answer. Just try to imagine thousands, if not millions of monarchs, trying to wield one scepter :-)