Marketing for Muggles: The Harry Potter way to higher profits

Stephen Brown
Visiting Professor of Marketing, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, and Professor of Marketing Research, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland (www.sfxbrown.com)

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Mainstream marketing has

become so obsessed with rigor, quantification, and scientific rectitude that it has
lost sight of the importance of magic, mystery, and imagination.
We need to restore the balance
somewhat, and the way to do that is to take a look at the boy wizard who has
captivated the hearts and minds of readers the turned marketing on its head. world over-and

ts the old, old, rags-to-riches story, familiar from countless soap operas, chick flicks, fairy tales, and glossy magazines. A struggling author and single mother who lives in a freezing garret, suffers from clinical depression, and has hardly a bean to her name somehow manages to write a literary masterpiece, in a cafe, over coffee, while her daughter gently sleeps. The opus, however, goes unnoticed by perfidious publishing houses and the rejection slips pour in. Just as she is about to admit defeat and return to her McJob in the typing pool, an astute agent spots the gleam of gold in a tottering pile of textual discards. He leaps into action, negotiates a nearvanity deal with a prestigious publishing house, and the book is eventually issued with nary a sniff of pre-publicity or Sunday supplement hoopla. The public loves it, however; word gets around, sales take off, and it climbs to the top of the charts. A bidding war for the American rights breaks out, a six-figure advance is extracted, the book slays them in the States, and the rest of the world follows suit. The sequel eclipses the original; the sequels sequel eclipses the sequel; and the sequels sequels sequel stops the world in its orbit-a total eclipse of the market. The once impoverished author is not only loved and lauded, she lives happily ever after. Such a scenario, if pitched to a Hollywood producer, would probably be dismissed as too stereotyped, too schmaltzy, too Walt Disney for words. Yet that is exactly what happened to Joanne Kathleen Rowling, multimillionaire author of the Harry Potter books, a series of stirring tales about a teenage wizard who attends Hogwarts, a magical boarding school. Or, to be more precise, thats how her story is portrayed by the mass media. In fairness to Rowling, she goes to great lengths to explode this media-generated myth by stressing her happy childhood, normal upbringing, successful if somewhat directionless pre-Potter career, and, not least, the fact that she is deeply unsettled by the extent of her success. Yet for all her protestations, it is entirely appropriate that a teller of fairy stories should have her story told in fairy story fashion. She is the Cinderella of our times, an exemplar of the new-economy, instant-riches 199Os, the literary equivalent
Business Horizons / January-February 2002

of a Who Wants to be a Millionaire winner. As she wryly observed when asked for a reaction to her amazing good fortune, Think of a stronger word and double it. Thats how amazed I am. Rowling, in truth, has good reason to be amazed, because the facts are truly mind-boggling. To date, she has sold approximately 100 million copies of the first four books in a seven-book series, making her the richest woman in Great Britain, with an estimated personal fortune of $50 million. The books have been translated into 30 languages, published in all sorts of formats-illustrated, Bra audiocassette, adult cover, large print, boxed sets, and so 1 on-and are best-sellers in 120 countries, I especially Britain and America. At one stage during his 98week run, Harry Potter occupied the first four positions in the Nav
York Times Bestseller List.

respectively-to unprecedented heights. A 24 percent sales increase in the childrens book sector as a whole has been reported, thanks to Potterites desperate desire to read something similar while waiting for the next exciting installment. There has been a sharp rise in visitor numbers at magical holiday destinations, such as Tintagel, Cornwall, Knaresborough, Yorkshire, and Merlins Castle, Carmarthen. Boarding schools report a significant boost in applications, both in Britain and France. An extensive secondary literature, comprising fanzines, Web sites, readers, fl companions, I unauthorized biographies of J.K. Rowling, and so on, is developing apace. And book piracy is a growing problem in China,

Such was his dominance, indeed, that the newspaper was forced to establish a separate list for childrens literature in order to create space for Old authors like John Updike, Ph and Saul Bellow. In Britain, the Harry Potter titles have outsold everything under the sun, often by a factor of six or seven. They have not only topped every bestseller list, bar none, but the Muggles-Rowlings term for nonmagical folk-are simply unable to explain or make sense of the phenomenon. According to a London Times editorial (Potters Wizardmanship.. . H 2000), there has been nothing like it in Britain since the publication of Lord Byrons Childe Harold and the serialization of Charles Dickenss Pickwick Papers, when massive crowds gathered to await the appearance of each arresting episode. Harry Potterism, as Pate1 (2001) rightly notes, is not so much a phenomenon as an avalanche. There is more to Harry Potter, however, than the raw sales figures suggest. Pottermania is having a significant multiplier effect on the economy as a whole. The printing industry has been forced to work at full capacity in order to meet first-day demand. Overnight delivery services are stretched to their elastic limit during new release date frenzy. The wizards of Wall Street are so taken with the Wizard of Hogwarts that they have spirited the share prices of his US and UK publishers-Scholastic and Bloomsbury,
Marketing for Muggles: The Harry Potter way to higher profits

nals-althoughthe latter are still the bestselling titles since Maos little red book. Even Rowling is getting in on the ancillary act, thanks to the publication of two pseudonymous spin-offs, Quidditch Through the Ages (Scamander 2001) and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Whisp 2001), which are expected to raise 522 million for the UK charity Comic Relief. Although it is an exaggeration to state that when Harry sneezes the economy catches cold, there is no denying the market power of the Potter bubble. Indeed, the economic ante was upped substantially by last Novembers release of the live-action movie adaptation of the first book. Filmed entirely in the UK, the movie had a production budget of $100 million and was directed by Christopher Columbus, whose previous box office smashes include such kiddy classics as Home Alone and Mrs Doubtfire. Forecasting the fate of major feature films is, of course, fraught with difficulty, but it is estimated that, irrespective of its performance at the box office, the movie will gross $1 billion in tie-in merchandise alone. Warner Brothers signed a seven-figure, five-year, two-film deal with Rowling in October 1998, and so far the conglomerate has granted 46 licenses to all manner of memorabilia manufacturers: Mattel, for board games and toys; Hasbro, for trading cards and candy; Electronic Arts, for video games and computer-based ancillaries; Lego, for
7

the eponymous building bricks; and the Character Group for plastic and porcelain figurines. Coca-Cola has also signed a $150 million sponsorship deal, while rumors of everything from Hogwarts theme parks to Harry Potter Happy Meals are circulating. It remains to be seen how many of these will come to fruition, but with three books still to be written and possibly six to be filmed, it is fair to assume that the Harry Potter Effect will be felt for some time yet. Indeed, such is the power of Potterism that a substandard Warner Brothers comedy, See Spot Run, was carried to the top of the American movie charts on the strength of its first look Harry Potter trailer. It seems that even a crippled dog can be given legs by the apprentice wizards supernatural acumen. Remarkable as it is to see Spot run all the way to the bank, thanks to the Potter pyramid selling scheme, it is also true to say that the trials and tribulations of the teenage magician have escaped the economic base and colonized the cultural superstructure. Like the worlds most admired megabrands-Coke, Disney, Barbie, Apple, and all the rest-Harry Potter has attained iconic status. In less than four short years, he has become a license to print money (literally, since a board game employing the Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts of Rowlings coinage is in the pipeline). Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Harry-hawking, however, is the fact that it has been done without proper marketing. Rowlings astonishing commercial accomplishments have been achieved despite a formal marketing plan, not because of it. In this regard, pontificators on Pottermania invariably refer to the purity of the phenomenon, maintaining that it was achieved and sustained entirely by personal recommendation, schoolyard conversations, Internet chat rooms, and sheer consumer satisfaction, enthusiasm, evangelism.. .call it what you will. The normal apparatus of pre-teen marketing-television programs, product placement, soda pop sponsorship deals, and so on-was conspicuous by its absence. Moreover, what little marketing there was was seriously deficient. For the first book, it consisted of a standard Bloomsbury press release and a single review in the Scotsman. Worse still, as sales began to take off, the publisher kept running out of copies and found itself unable to meet the rapidly growing demand. In fact, if ever there was an example of slipshod marketing management, it was exhibited in the initial handling of Harry Potter. Ugly duckling marketing doesnt begin to describe it. Although Pottermania began as a word-of-mouth phenomenon, it did not stay that way. Book IV, in particular, was given the full marketing treatment. Press junkets, television appearances, radio interviews, newspaper spreads, book signings, online discussions, launch parties, and every other trick in the arts marketing armory was pressed into Potteresque service. P.T. Barnum himself would have been proud of the profusion of statistical superlativesthat is to say, the plethora of gee-whiz, well-I-never, Guin8

ness Book of World Records-type factoids that were disseminated by Harrys hypemeisters and that happily peppered each and every newspaper article or press report on the publishing phenomenon. So pervasive was the promotional razzmatazz that it precipitated a Big-BadBloomsbury backlash. The Goblet of Hype, as the fourth volume was unceremoniously renamed, was loudly denounced for its shameless snake-oil salesmanship, deemed an affront to the anti-commercial ethos of the literary establishment, and condemned for its connivance with the money-grubbing machinations of media conglomerates, multinational corporations, and the capitalist conspiracy. Granted, many open-minded commentators concluded that the attendant hoopla did not necessarily negate Harry Potters grass-roots appeal, or undermine the undeniable brilliance of the storytelling. The marketing, not the market, was to blame. Be that as it may, and notwithstanding Rowlings purported personal dislike of the ostentatious Potter-plugging process, the hard sell that accompanied Book lV antagonized the British literary establishment. Anthony Holden (2000b), in particular, criticized all concerned from his pulpit in the review section of the Obsaver. Harry Potter, he impatiently explained, represented a triumph of puffery over poesy. Bloomsbury, he bellowed, had resorted to advance hype worthy of Wonderbra. J.K. Rowling, he roared, could not write to save her life, was afflicted with a pedestrian, ungrammatical prose style, generated less dramatic tension than an average episode of Neighboun, had produced a tedious, clunkily written version of Billy Bunter on Broomsticks, and had cloyingly sentimental storylines that were cliched, unimaginative, and unfailingly predictable. Whats more, she was personally responsible for the infantilization of British culture and owed her success to Bloomsburys mendacious marketing department, with its disingenuous spin doctors, devious strategic planners, and not-so-hidden persuaders. Naturally, neither personal animosity nor-heaven forbid! -professional jealousy played any part in Holdens attack on Harry Potter. To the contrary, he wished the royalties-replete author well, while urging her (in a sadly cliched, unimaginative, and predictable expression) to take the money and run.

any Potter, then, succeeded despite marketing, whether it was too little in the early days or too much as the series caught fire. Or so it seems. Closer examination reveals that Harry is more than a mere passing marketing fad, more than just another in a long line of initially innocent, subsequently oversold, eventually abandoned preteen obsessions. Harry is different, not merely by dint of his seemingly universal appeal, nor by

Harry Potter pricked a peck of pickled Ps

Business Horizons / January-February

2002

the unprecedented scale of his success, nor, for that matter, by the fact that Pottermania is based on a book-a comparative rarity these days. Harry Potter is different because the books are as much about marketing as the outcome of marketing. They deal with marketing matters, they are full of marketing artifacts, they contain analyses of marketplace phenomena, and they provide insights into the contemporary marketing condition. They are not merely a marketing masterstroke, they are a marketing masterclass. The first and perhaps most obvious point to note about Harry marketing is that the books refer to almost every element of the marketing mix, as well as aspects of buyer behavior, environmental conditions, marketing research,

sticks (The Bluebottle, A Broom for All the Family), detergents (Mrs Skowers All Purpose Magical Mess Remover-No Pain, No Stain), and outfitters (Gladrags Wizardwear-London, Paris, Hogsmeade). Pricing figures prominently, both in general (the sheer expense of sending a child to Hogwarts school) and more specifically (the exact cost of objects, such as dragons liver, in Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts). Value-added is not forgotten either, as the Knight Rider Bus reminds us (the flat fare to London is 11 Sickles, but 14 gets hot chocolate and 15 a hot water bottle, plus a choice of colored toothbrush). Logistics also gets a look-in, albeit in the form of Floo Powder (a magical mixture that transports wizards, Santalike, to chimneys of their choice), Portkeys (graspable objects, such as old shoes and empty cola cans, that ferry groups of holders very long distances), the Owl postal service (color coded, naturally, by breed and distance), and of course the emblematic Hogwarts Express (an old-fashioned steam train that takes pupils to and from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry). Consumption-rich anniversaries and holidays are just as evocatively described (Christmas and birthdays especially, though a St. Valentines day extravaganza features in HPII), as are personal selling (when Harry gets fitted for his wand and uniform), promotional gimmicks (the Weasleys win-a-holiday-toEgypt, courtesy of a newspaper competition), and, of all things, Harry Potter-ish marketing crazes (Hogwarts pupils collect Pokemonesque wizard cards, which are swapped and traded incessantly).
Although

Harry Potter is different because the books are as much about marketing as the outcome of marketing.. . . They are not merely a marketing masterstroke, they are a marketing masterclass.
and many more. In Book IV, for example, one character is preparing a market research report on cheap continental cauldrons, most of which fail to conform to UK safety standards because of their unacceptably thin bottoms. Another aspiring importer wonders whether there is a niche in the UK market for flying carpets, the minivans of the wizarding world, only to be brusquely informed that the British will never give up their broomsticks (even though carpets were once the English conveyance of choice). Broomsticks, in fact, provide Rowling with a wonderful vehicle for exploring buyer behavior. Every phase of the purchasing process is described in detail, from the consumers desperate desire to acquire new and improved models, through the information gathering phase where impartial consumer reports are consulted, to the heartbreak of a broomstick owner whose pride and joy is written off in an unforeseen accident: He didnt argue or complain, but he wouldnt let her throw away the shattered remains of his Nimbus Two Thousand. He knew he was being stupid, knew that the Nimbus was beyond repair, but Harry couldnt help it;
he felt as though hed lost one of his best friends. (jkwn HEW)

Advertising likewise, is incorporated in the shape of huge hoardings, akin to electronic scoreboards at football stadiums, with constantly changing sales pitches for broomMarketing for Muggles: The Harry Potter way to higher profits

Rowlings feel for marketing minutiae is epitomized by a perfect parody of the cheesy correspondence courses found in the small ads pages of tabloid newspapers (Feel out of step in the world of modem magic? Find yourself making excuses not to perform simple spells? Ever been taunted for your woeful wandwork? There is an answer!), her true genius is reserved for the Ps of Product and Place. The books are chock-full of brilliantly conceived brands and new product concepts, Her magical mirrors dont simply reflect, they remark on the viewers appearance (Tuck your shirt in, scruffy! Youre fighting a losing battle there, dearie). Her clocks do more than tell the time; their dials announce Youre late and the hands indicate ones whereabouts (at the office, in mortal peril). Her snapshots are animated, since the photographed objects understandably refuse to stand still (Well, you cant expect him to hang around all day). Both books and chess pieces have minds of their own (the former fight among themselves, while the latter give advice on appropriate moves). Garden gnomes are more than mere lawn art, they are the real thing: irritating pests that have to be forcibly uprooted, kicking and screaming all the while. Cauldrons, conversely, are self-stirring socks scream when they get too smelly; ink changes color as one writes; exploding Snap is an ever popular card game; revealers are like erasers in reverse, insofar as they
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expose what was written and rubbed out; gobstones, a schoolyard pastime akin to marbles, squirt foul-smelling fluid at losing players; Hogwarts list of banned objects includes Screaming YO-YOS, Fanged Frisbees, and EverBashing Boomerangs; and Christmas crackers erupt like Vesuvius, showering the combatants with a cascade of free gifts-white mice, wizards hats, non-explodable balloons, grow-your-own-warts kits, and many more besides. However, of all the product categories described in the books, confectionery is by far the most fully realized. Rowlings remarkable array of candy ranges from Cockroach Clusters, Jelly Slugs, and Canary Creams to Chocolate Frogs (with the wizard card collectibles), Sugar Quills (perfect for sucking surreptitiously in class), and her piece de resistance, Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans. As the brand name implies, these come in euq conceivable flavor, including chocolate, peppermint, marmalade, toast, coconut, baked bean, strawberry, curry, grass, coffee, sardine, sprouts, spinach, liver, tripe, earwax, booger, and vomit. Aptly, their advertising slogan is A Risk With Every Mouthful. Even more aptly, perhaps, the concept has actually been brought to market by Hasbro subsidiary, Cap Candy, although the real world flavors are rather less out12 than the magical originals. Above and beyond the brilliance of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans, the author excels in her astonishing ability to convey a sense of place. Again and again, Rowlings remarks on retailing environments, or analogous servicescapes, are so perfectly expressed that the reader really feels what its like to be there. Copyright restrictions, sadly, prevent extensive quotation; suffice it to say that Rowling reserves her most powerful place-imparting powers for Honeydukes candy store in the village of Hogsmeade, adjacent to Hogwarts school: There were shelves upon shelves of the most succulentlooking sweets imaginable. Creamy chunks of nougat;
shimmering pink squares of coconut ice; fat, honey-colored toffees; hundreds of different kinds of chocolate in neat rows; there was a large barrel of Every Flavor Beans, and another of Fizzing Whizzbees, the levitating sherbet balls that Ron had mentioned; along yet another wall were Special Effects sweets: Droobles Best Blowing Gum (which filled a room with bluebell-colored bubbles that refused to pop for days), the strange splintery Toothflossing Stringmints, tiny Black Pepper Imps (Breathe fire on your friends! ), Ice Mints (Hear your teeth chatter and squeak! ), peppermint creams shaped like toads (Hop realistically in the stomach! ), fragile sugar-spun quills, and exploding bonbons. tj?om HPIII)

ed looking glass that reflects ones deepest hearts desirefame, fortune, fantasies, or whatever-as does the modem marketing system. The Mirror of Erised (desire spelled backwards) is a wonderful reflection on, and an arresting symbol of, twenty-first century consumer society and the all-consuming power of possessions, products, and property. As Hogwarts headmaster AJbus Dumbledore rightly observes, This mirror will give us neither knowledge nor truth. Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible. In the third book Harry is bewitched by a top-of-the-line broomstick, the Firebolt. He spies it in the display window of an exclusive dealership, where he is literally stopped in his tracks by the most magnificent broom he had ever seen. So enraptured is Harry that the teenage magician returns time and again to stare, agog, at the precious, per-

Evocative though such descriptions are, it is important to appreciate that Rowlings representations of marketing phenomena are not uncritical enciorsements of commercial life.
feet product. Consumed by commodity fetishism, he is completely bowled over by the objects power and, even though he already owns a perfectly good broomstick, only just manages to resist temptation. The Firebolt also figures prominently in the fourth book albeit in its capacity as the Irish Quidditch teams broomstick brand of choice. Quidditch is a magic-mediated team sport, an airborne amalgam of basketball and hockey, which is subject to all manner of marketing razzamatazz and beset by quick buck-making memorabilia vendors. Harrys best friend, Ron Weasley, spends a small fortune on luminous rosettes, dancing hats, and animated figurines, only to spot something better when his wallet is empty:
Wow, look at these! said Harry, hurrying over to a cart piled high with what looked like brass binoculars, except that they were covered in all sorts of weird knobs and dials. Omnioculars, said the saleswizard eagerly. You can replay action.. slow everything down.. .and they flash up a play-by-play breakdown if you need it. Bargainten Galleons each.
Business Horizons /

Evocative though such descriptions are, it is important to appreciate that Rowlings representations of marketing phenomena are not uncritical endorsements of commercial life. On the contrary, the aversive side of the marketing activity also figures prominently. In the first book, for example, Harry confronts the Mirror of Erised, an enchant10

January-February 2002

Wish I hadnt bought this now, said Ron, gesturing at his dancing shamrock hat and gazing longingly at the Omnioculars.

I cant believe its not Barnum

fever true words were spoken, Ron Weasleys Wish I hadnt bought this now epitomizes the contemporary marketing condition. For decades, marketing has aspired to scientific status, searching fruitlessly for the big all-encompassing theory of everything. It has vainly attempted to develop ever more elaborate concepts. It has triumphantly tested fatuous hypotheses to destruction and then some. It has earnestly quantified everything within reach, while adding up the reaching process for good measure. And it has written everything down in the most plodding, pedestrian, pedantic prose imaginable. As far as modem marketing is concerned, objectivity is everything validity is invaluable, and rigor is de rigueur. Concepts are good, theories are better, and axioms are best of all. Nonsense. Prediction may be marketings ambition, replicability its objective, and law-like generalizations its ultimate goal, but the Harry Potter books suggest that something is missing. The sheer exuberance of Rowlings writings on the commercial system and the astonishing inventiveness of her new product ideas remind us that modem marketings passion for dispassion is misplaced, that marketing science has no soul, that the Analysis, Planning, Implementation, and Control paradigm is bereft. In keeping, however, with the ever-rising tide of management texts based on childrens literature-Allen (1995), Johnson (1998), MacKenzie (1998), and so on-the Harry Potter books posit an alternative to the science-or-bust mindset that has dominated the modern marketing epoch. The Potter paradigm, it must be stressed, has always formed part of the marketing condition, but it is a side of marketing that has been suppressed by academicians for 50-odd years. It comprises three key components: magic, mystery, and imagination. The Harry Potter books are nothing if not magical, as are the marketing artifacts they contain-everything from the fabulous flying Firebolt to the mundanities of self-shuffling playing cards. The Muggle version of marketing is equally magical, though marketing researchers remain reluctant to acknowledge the fact. The merest glance at the daily newspapers or weekend supplements reveals that advertisingis replete with magical and supernatural appeals. Camel Filters are sold with the aid of Ouija boards and voodoo dolls. Britains National Lottery employ an enormous disembodied hand, the Fickle Finger of Fate, to inform impressionable punters that it could be them. FinMarketing for Muggles: The Harry Potter way to higher profits

landia Vodka announces that in a previous life it used to be pure glacial spring water. The purchaser of a Sony highdefinition television levitates in front of the 40-inch screen. Aliens participate in an all-too-human male bonding session-Wazzup!-courtesy of Anheuser Busch. And commercials for Kit&t variously portray chocolate barshaped crop circles, mesmerized domestic pets, and a reincarnated Elvis, complete with blue suede shoes (I aint dead, baby, just havin a break). In addition to individual advertising treatments, the brand bestiary of talking dogs, dancing cats, flying cows, jolly green giants, cereal leprechauns, and beer-pitching frogs, lizards, and iguanas bears witness to marketings inherent magic. Marketers ceaselessly expound on products miraculous properties and ineffable consequences, to say nothing of the enchanted capabilities of cologne, cosmetics, cigarettes, clothing, motor cars, multivitamins, service encounters, and soft drinks. The manifold magic kingdoms of hyperreal estate hold countless adults (Las Vegas) and children (Disneyland) spellbound by their amazing disappearing dollar tricks. Price cuts are never less than fantastic, incredible, or extraordinary. IIThey have to be seen to be believed. Even the marketing literature is not immune to magic spells, alliterative incantations, mandala-like matrices, and any number of academic abracadabras. Thus we have three Cs, four Ps, five forces, seven Ss, nine OS, and hey presto, 30 Rs. The principal journals are repositories of numerological hocus pocus, and everyone subscribes to the transmutational powers of the modem marketing concept-the sorcerers stone of management-which holds the secret of corporate longevity and perennial profitability. Alongside their magical subject matter, the Harry Potter books are deeply mysterious. More than mere comic adventures, they are replete with riddle-me-re, both at the overarching level (What will be the outcome of the struggle between Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort?) and within each individual volume (Who is Sirius Black? Why was the Sorcerers Stone stolen? What is the secret of the Chamber of Secrets?). Every installment, moreover, contains a couple of concluding explanatory chapters, akin to classic Agatha Christie whodunits, where the chief suspects are assembled in the library prior to the private eyes pronouncement. Harry Potters are Hercule Poirots for preteens of all ages. Marketing, too, is deeply mysterious, not only in the sense that we still dont know how advertising works, why Potteresque fads and crazes occur, or what the marketing concept is exactly. Mystery is a marketing tactic in itself, and one has only to peruse the promotional practices of toptier marketing organizations to appreciate the fact that mystery, enigma, intrigue, and How do they do that? are an integral part of their appeal. Consider the secret recipes that help purvey all sorts of comestibles: Coca11

Cola, Heinz Varieties, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Mrs Fields Cookies, Kelloggs Frosted Flakes, Grey Poupon Mustard, Brachs Chocolate Cherries, Angostura Bitters, and, inevitably, HP Sauce. Consider the gift-giving business, which is predicated on secrets, surprises, and agonizingly delayed gratification. Consider the teaser campaigns, advertising soap operas, and wholl-be-the-lucky-winner promotions launched daily by Machiavellian marketers. Consider the self-help marketing gurus, who claim to possess the seven secrets of success, leadership, efftciency, effectiveness, time management, corporate well-being, orheaven help us!-the Harry Potter Way to Higher Profits. Marketing, then, moves in mysterious, magical ways. Casting spells and generating intrigue, however, require a leap of the marketing imagination-an ability to amaze, bamboozle, and fascinate the consumer, audience, reader. The Harry Potter books, as even Rowlings harshest critics concede, are exemplary works of the human imagination. And Rowling, as her NPD concept-spawning capacity indicates, is blessed with a marvelously fertile marketing sensibility. Imagination, sadly, is something most modern marketers lack and simply must acquire. Indeed, none other than Gary Hamel (2000), the revolutionarys revolutionary, has recently informed managers that: The new industrial order is the product of a very different type of innovation-one built neither on the slow accretion of scientific knowledge nor the breathless hype of Madison Avenue, but instead on leaps of human imagination.. .The goal is not a patent or a new ad campaign, but a radically new business model. Here innovators are as likely to be college dropouts as PhDs. They are neither scientists nor brand managers; they are entrepreneurs-what Charles Handy terms the new alchemists-individuals able to produce something out of nothing. They struggle not against Nature but against the hegemony of established practice. but not so Harry Potters handlers. As noted previously, the fourth book was given the full marketing treatment-or, to be more precise, the full anti-marketing treatment. Harryhawking was predicated on unavailability, postponement, absence, deferral. Mainstream marketing, as a rule, aims to make life simple for the consumer by getting the goods to market in a timely and efficient manner, so that they are available where and when they are wanted, at a price people are prepared to pay. Pottermarketing, by contrast, deliberately eschews the here-it-is, come-and-get-it, theres-plenty-for-everyone proposition by limiting availability, delaying gratification, heightening expectation, tantalizing the consumer, and, not least, intimating that stock-outs are a very real possibility. True, Harrys handlers may have discovered entrapment marketing by accident, since the product replenishment problems that afflicted Book I probably enhanced its schoolyard appeal, rendering it akin to a rare Pokemon card or first day cover. But
Mainstream marketers may lack imagination, 12

once Bloomsbury marketers recognized the power of customer torment-you-want-it, cant-have-it, try-again-laterpal-they exploited it brilliantly. Thus, the sadistic marketing strategy for Book IV comprised a complete blackout on advance information. The original manuscript was reputedly locked in a carefully guarded safe, accessible only to top executives. The title, pagination, and price were kept secret until two weeks before publication. Review copies were withheld, no author interviews were allowed, and foreign translations were deferred for fear of injudicious leaks. Juicy plot details, including the death of a key character and Harrys sexual awakening, were drip-fed to a slavering press corps

Its marketing, Philip, but not as we know it. Its naughty rather than nice. Its l?T. Barnum reborn.
immediately prior to the launch. Printers and distributors were required to sign strict, legally enforceable confidentiality agreements. Meanwhile, booksellers were bound by a ruthlessly policed embargo, though some were allowed to display the tantalizing tome (in locked cages) for a brief period prior to Harry Potter Day, July 8, 2000. Many outlets, in fact, opened at midnight to long lines of pajama-clad, broomstick-clutching, wizards-cap-wearing children, the most imaginatively attired of whom were given cents-off coupons and so forth. Potteresque drinks and snacks were also served while the late-night revelers were waiting at the Hogwarts-themed checkouts. Bloomsburys anti-marketing brilliance, admittedly, was not confined to customer expectations management. Their contra-marketing magic also demonstrated a darker yet undeniably potent dimension. This included less-thansubtle hints that there were not enough copies of the book to go around, thereby exacerbating the gotta-get-it frenzy of fans and distributors alike. (In fact, the book was ubiquitously unavoidable, available everywhere from grocery stores to roadside restaurants.) Fake television footage of heavily armored security vans delivering the precious Potter cargo to online bookstores was also produced and broadcast a week prior to publication. (In actuality, the deliveries were made the night before.) Twenty advance copies of the top secret book were accidentally sold by an unnamed Wal-Mart in deepest West Virginia, though one of the lucky children was miraculously tracked down by the worlds press and splashed across every front page worth mentioning. (Naturally, lucky Laura resisted the temptation to reveal any salient plot details and refused to sell her precious possession to a
Business Horizons / January-February

2002

piratical third party.) Another copy accidentally found its way to the news desk of the Scottish Daily Record, though it was returned, unopened, to the publisher by the Records ever ethical news hounds. (Curiously, the story of the accident somehow found its way to the front pages, as did the journalists oh-so-ethical actions.) In this regard, isnt it amazing how anti-Potter protests by Christian fundamentalists, accusations of devil worship by concerned parents, book bans imposed by straight-laced Australian librarians, insinuations of plagiarism by anonymous authors who thought of it first, and the dyspeptic attacks of disgruntled critics like Jack Zipes (2000) and Harold Bloom (2001) somehow always manage to find their way to the front pages? Of course, the fact that newspaper-affiliated bookstores-an extremely profitable media sideline-are one of Harry Potters biggest channels of distribution just might have something to do with the attendant press coverage. Self-interest, it seems, is alive and well at the Sunday Times Bookshop, the Daily Telegraph Bookshop, the Financial Times Bookshop, the Guardian Bookshop, the Chicago 7kibune Bookstore, the AJewYork Times Bookstore, and all the rest. Its marketing, Philip, but not as we know it. Its naughty rather than nice. Its PT. Barnum reborn. Its a return to the pre-modem marketing era, to a time before the scientific mindset held sway and Analysis, Planning, Implementation, and Control was the order of the day. Now this does not mean that marketing science is obsolete, or that rigor is irrelevant, or that the APICalypse has come to pass, or, indeed, that the Potter Marketing Philosophy is applicable to every product, service, or situation. It reminds us, rather, of the all-too-frequently forgotten fact that there is more to marketing than crunching numbers, mining data, and assembling axioms. Marketing is magic. Marketing is mysterious. Marketing is imaginative. Marketing, as PT. Barnum presciently observed, is the greatest show on earth.

tain into a chain of 22-carat gold. Granted, there is growing evidence of consumer resistance, largely due to Wamer Brothers heavy-handed attempts to shut down unlicensed Harry Potter Web sites (which has led to mutterings of a WB merchandise boycott). At the same time, however, the sheer imaginative power of Rowlings storytelling skills-the mysterious outcome of the magical Harry Potter saga-is sufficient to ensure that the Potter franchise will, at worst, do a Star Wars Part II by generating a few million dollars less than originally anticipated. Rowling may have roused the sleeping dragon of mass marketing, but dragons can be deceived, as Harry Potter demonstrated in The Goblet of Fire. It remains to be seen, of course, whether Harry will fall prey to carnivorous commercialization. What started as a word-of-mouth phenomenon is being appropriated, adapted, and assimilated by the all-consuming monster of mass marketing. Like Winnie the Pooh, Attila the Hun, and Dilbert the Indefatigable, Harry Potter seems destined to join the self-help squadron on the business and management bookshelves of airport departure lounges worldwide. Hogwarts, ere long, will open a business school. Its motto will be modified to Never Tickle a Sleeping Accountant. An MBBBA-Masticator of Bertie Botts Beans Assortment-will soon be recruiting. Why, after all, waste your time in Harvard when Hogwarts is happy to oblige? Yet, for all the hard sell surrounding Rowlings creation, it is arguable that Harry Potter unknowingly has the power to transform the modem marketing paradigm. The Potter Marketing Philosophy involves eschewing the positivistic trappings of modem marketing in favor of the magical, the mysterious, the imaginative substance of postmodern marketing. Or adjusting the balance, at least. As in the books, admittedly, the odds against Harry are almost insurmountable. But the wonderful wizard of Hogwarts can help imaginative marketers vanquish the Voldemort of Value Chain Analysis, undo the You-Know-Who of USP, and destroy the Dark Mark of marketing science. Theres no place like Hogsmeade. 0

And Harry lived happily ever after.. .

Potter is one of the most remarkable marketing triumphs of recent years. Less than a decade ago, his creator was living in abject poverty. Today, J.K. Rowling sits atop an ever-growing marketing mountain of solid gold. The Potter brand, admittedly, has not attained the instant recognition of Nikes swoosh, Cokes copperplate curlicues, or McDonalds golden arches. But it is only a matter of time before Harrys lightning bolt ascends to the logosphere and joins the pantheon of marketing immortals. Aside from the actual books, which will continue to stretch the printing industrys capacity on at least three more occasions, the movie deal and its attendant tie-in activity is certain to turn Rowlings cash mounarry Marketing for Muggles: The Harry Potter way to higher profits

References and selected bibliography

Adler, B. 2001. Kids letters co Harry Potter from around the world.
New York: Carroll & Graf. Allen, F. 1994, Secret formula. New York: Harper Collins. Allen, R.E. 1995. Winnie-the-Pooh on management. London: Methuen. August, Oliver. 2000, Harry Potter and the Chinese pirates. The Times (London) (27 September): 21. Baudrillard, J. 2000, The vital illusion. New York: Columbia University Press. Bethune, B., B. Came, J. Demont, and R. Atherley. 2000. The boy wizard makes a spectacular return. Macleans (17 July): 42-44. Bloom, H. 2001. A conversation with literary critic Harold Bloom. Harvard Business Review (May): 63-68.
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Brown, S. 199 6. Art or science? Fifty years of marketing debate.

journal of Marketing Management 12 (4): 243-267. -. 1997. Postmodern marketing two: Telling tales. London:

International Thomson. 1998. Tore down h la Rimbaud: Illuminating the marketing imaginary. In Romancing the market, ed. S. Brown et al., 2240. London: Routledge. 2001. Marketing--The retro revolution. London: Sage. Colbert, D. 2001. The magical worlds of Harry Potter: A treasury of myths, legends, and fascinating facts. Wrightsville Beach, NC: Lumina. Cross, G. 19 9 9. Kids stuff TVS and the changing world of American childhood. Boston: Harvard University Press. Enemy of the People: J.K. Rowling. 2000. Sunday Times (London) (3 December): 3. Fraser, L. 2000. An interview with JK. Rowling. London: Mammoth. Gabay, J. 1998. Imaginative marketing. London: Teach Yourself Books. Gladwell, M. 2000. The tipping point: How little things can make a big difference. London: Little Brown. Godin, Seth. 2000. Unleashing the ideavirus. Dobbs Ferry NY: Do You Zoom, Inc. Godson, R., and M. Chittenden. 2001. Rowling casts a spell that will give charities millions. Sunday Times (London) (7 January): 7. Gray, J. 1999. Wild about Harry. Time (20 September): 672. 2000. The magic of Potter. Time (25 December): 116-120. -. Hamel, G. 2000. Leading the revolution. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Hamilton, A. 2001. Fastsellers 2000: The hot paperbacks. Guardian (G January): 10. -.
Harry Potter collectibles: Collector handbook and price guide. 2000.

Middletown, Cl? CheckerBee. Holden, A. 2000(a). So farewell, Harry Potter. The Observer Review (9 July): 11. 2000(b). Why Harry Potter doesnt cast a spell over me. -. 7he Observer Review (25 June): 1-2. Hutton, D. 2000. How this boy saved the boarding school. You Magazine (27 August): 36-37. Ignatius, D. 2000. The anti-marketing wizard. Washington Post (25 June): B7. Jensen, R. 19 9 9. The dream society: How the coming shift from
information to imagination will transform your business. New

York McGraw-Hill. Johnson, S. 1998. Who moved my cheese? An amazing way to deal with change in your work and in your life. New York Putnam. Kirchner, P. 1995. Forgotten fads and fabulous flops: An amazing
collection of goofy stuff that seemed like a good idea at the time. Los Angeles: General Publishing Group. Kotler, P. 1999. Kotler on marketing: How to create, win, and dominate markets. New York: Free Press. Lewis, D., and D. Bridger. 2000. The soul of the new consumer: Authenticity-what we buy and why in the new economy. London:

Lurie, A. 19 9 9. Not for Muggles. New York Review of Books ( 1G December): G-8. MacArthur, B. 2001. Boy wizard trounces cooks and romantics. The Times (London) (20 January): 20. MacKenzie, G. 1998. Orbiting the giant hairball: A corporate fools guide to surviving with grace. New York Viking. Moore, S. 1999. We love Harry Potter! Well tell you why. New York St. Martins Griffin. Mullen, A. 2000. Harry Potters schooldays. Hudson Review 53 (Spring): 127-135. Oldroyd, R. 2000. Making millions. Night and Day Magazine (20 August): 38-39. Patel, P. 2001. Harry Potter fans start boycott of film merchandise. Mail on Sunday (London) (25 February): 35. Postma, P. 19 9 9. The new marketing era: Marketing to the imagination in a technology driven world. New York McGraw-Hill. Potters wizardmanship: The strongest spell is the book that you cannot put down. 2000. The Times (London) (8 July): 21. Poundstone, W. 1983. Big secrets: The uncensored truth about all sorts of stuff you are never supposed to know. New York Quill. -. 1986. Bigger secrets: More than 125 things they prayed youd never find out. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. -. 1333. Biggest secrets: More uncensored truth about all sorts of stuff you are never supposed to know. New York Quill. Roberts Rules. 2001. Entertainment Weekly (16 March): 47. Rosen, E. 2000. The anatomy of buzz: Creating word-of-mouth marketing. London: HarperCollins. Rowling, J.K. 1997. Harry Potter and the philosophers stone. London: Bloomsbury. -. 19 9 8. Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets. London: Bloomsbury. -. 19 9 9. Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban. London: Bloomsbury. -. 2000. Harry Potter and the goblet of fire. London: Bloomsbury. Scamander, N. 2001. Fantastic beasts and where to find them. London: Obscurus. Schafer, E.D. 2000. Exploring Harry Potter. London: Ebury Press. Seifer, E. 19 9 8. Childrens desires/mothers dilemmas: The social contexts of consumption. In The childrens culture reader ed. H. Jenkins, 297-317. New York New York University Press. Shapiro, M. 2000. J.K. Rowling: The wizard behind Harry Potter New York St. Martins Griffin. Varlow, S. 2000. Were off to see the wizards. The Times Weekend (London) (17 June): 27. Whisp, K. 2001. Quidditch through the ages. London: Obscurus. Wilsdon, J. 2001. Make it better or dont make it. Times Higher (London) (2 March): 16. Zipes, J. 2001. The phenomenon of Harry Potter, or Why all the talk? In Sticks and stones: The troublesome success of childrens literature, from Slovenly Peter to Harry Potter, ed. J. Zipes, 170- 189. New York Routledge.

Nicholas Brealey.

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Business Horizons / January-February 2002