The marketing campaign that is 'Harry Potter'

  June 25, 2005 at 8:22 PM ET
  Geri     HPANA (via The Guardian)
  jk rowling


With the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in a few weeks the Guardian newspaper in the UK looks at the phenomenal marketing campaign that has taken place and how and why other brands should take notice.

The article asks what exactly makes a brand like Harry Potter a brand. Is it the fact that words like ‘Quidditch’ or ‘Muggle’ are so common knowledge to many or how much money a specific brand makes? In the case of Harry Potter it would be both. The worldwide sales and translations of the books, tickets and merchandize sales translates into millions if not billions of dollars, dollars that are many a company would wish they had.

The articleopens in new window points to the fact that JK Rowling, the author of the books, has hit on a great marketing campaign whereas others may have been swindled or taken advantage of:

The basic argument is that Rowling, far from being hijacked by the marketing sorcerers who have exploited her innocence, is actually something of a marketing professor herself, even if she has never had a day's academic education in the subject. She has created Harry Potter using branding techniques and the books themselves are full of brilliantly invented brands, corporate strategies, advertising campaigns and every element of the marketing mix. In effect, they make a textbook case for marketing.

But where Harry Potter is a quintessentially contemporary brand is in its adherence to and belief in the idea of story. And what could be more natural for a brand that is itself based on the telling of stories?

A very interesting read.

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