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Joanne Kathleen Rowling unemployed unknown wrote a story by magical words of a boy with magical powers in seven parts. Struggling to find a publisher and only made a meager $3640 went on to create a brand Harry Potter a series of seven books . a series of six movies seventh in making about 350 million copies sold about $10 billion dollars of business done all in a span of 13 years
Brand Creation
Philosopher s Stone a 250 page novel which she took for publishing and was rejected by many publishers on the grounds that market was not ready for such books . Finally managed to strike a deal with Bloomsbury (U.K. based publisher) which knowing a little that it was going to publish what would soon become the most sought after children's book ever. The books first print run a paltry 500 copies and the book was not appreciated by critics at that time.
Bloomsbury articulated marketing efforts made the sales pick up WORD OF MOUTH the marketing strategy acted as the biggest reason for the growing reader base . Word of mouth is reference of passing information from person to person which includes communication from face to face telephone email and text messaging.
Word of Mouth
buzz
Social media
blog
viral
Cause influencers
The word of mouth publicity was supported by marketing the book in media by Bloomsbury through group of journalists and by covering it in a popular British television program Blue- Peter These all marketing strategies helped the book to make popular and as a result Scholastic(US based publisher) picked publishing rights for $105000 . Scholastic marketed the book for adults by changing the cover design to enhance the appeal.
Due to increased demand for books Bloomsbury adopted a Denial Marketing strategy where it deliberately withheld the crucial information. Denial Marketing : Where a certain information of the product is kept secret for sometime so as to make the interest grow in order to boost sales. Scholastics Marketing Strategy included Circulating sample copies to critics,childerns The hardcover were released with high quality paper and graphics.
Due to these efforts Chamber of Secrets was published in 130 countries in 25 languages and 5 million copies of books were sold . Due to these marketing strategies the advance orders had reached over hundred thousand. This success made another media giant Warner Brothers jump onto the opportunity make Harry Potter a global brand. Warner Brothers acquired the worldwide film and merchandising rights .
Hasbro (Cap Candy): US based world leader in Children s and family entertainment products
Enesco Group Inc.: US based world leader in the gifts and collectibles industry.
can develop gifts and collectibles based on the characters of first three books.
Oddzon: US based leading children s toy maker. Springs Industries: US based manufacturing of bedding.
Warner Brothers turned down other licensees like Burger King, Baskin Robbins, etc as they did not want the brand to be cheapened by associating with products like burgers, candies, etc. Warner Brothers used the Controlled marketing strategy to sensibly roll out the product and not to flood the market. They determined the strategies and timing on a market by the market basis.
Oddzon:
Novelties Apparel
Spring Ind.:
Beddings
Enesco s Group:
Gifts and collectibles Items.
Cap Candy s:
Flavor Beans (Mentioned in the book)
Book based merchandising was for less number of consumers but movie based merchandising was designed to appeal to the mass market consumers. They introduced the products in their own studio stores.
Less is More
Warner Brothers was following the strategy of Less is more by launching less products in the department stores, specialty stores, gift and book stores to capture demand in the holiday season. In this strategy, products based on the movie were launched six to eight weeks before the release of the movie so that consumers would want more by the time of the release of the Harry Potter movie.
Indirect Marketing
In 2001, Warner Brothers signed Coca-Cola as the sole global beverage and food marketing partner for the Harry Potter Movies at the price of $287 million. Agreement was limited to create global literacy campaign and reading program to complement the reading interest among children world over. Coke gave the coupons to its consumers to purchase certain books. Coke gave 1.5 million books to various US libraries and gave 100,000 $4 coupons for kids to buy books. The program was run in 14 countries.
High Expectations
Although Harry Potter movie helped the merchandise sales, many felt that marketer s expectations was high which raised a question that whether the movie would be able to live-up the high expectations of the people. Further addition to the craze for the brand was a direct result of Warner Brothers controlled marketing campaign decision which used the principal less is more
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