Anatomy of a Brand
Harry Potter Brand Wizard
To some, Potter-mania seems like a fad, but it contains lessons that are relevant to the entire marketing community
July 18, 2005
Harry Potter is one of the most remarkable brand stories of recent years. So much so, that there can't be a single person anywhere who hasn't heard of "the boy who lived" and the best-selling books that bear his name. To date, six books in the seven-book series have been published and approximately 250 million copies have been sold worldwide. This places the boy wizard third on the all-time bestsellers list, after The Bible (2.5 billion copies sold) and The Thoughts of Chairman Mao (800 million). J.K. Rowling's books have been translated into 61 different languages, including Icelandic, Serbo-Croat, Vietnamese, Hebrew, Swahili, Ukrainian, and Afrikaans, to say nothing of novelty editions in Latin, Gaelic and ancient Greek. In addition to the books themselves, the first three Harry Potter adventures have been made into live-action movies by Warner Brothers, earning some US$ 1.6 billion at the global box office and a further $750 million in DVD, video and broadcasting rights sales. More than 400 items of ancillary merchandise are also available: everything from candy and key rings to computer games and glow-in-the-dark glasses. It is estimated that the Harry Potter brand is worth $4 billion, or thereabouts, and that Rowling is a dollar billionaire. Not bad for someone who was a poverty-stricken single parent, living on state benefits in an unheated Edinburgh apartment, less than a decade ago.
Staggering as the sales figures are, the Harry Potter "effect" goes far beyond the bottom line. The entire children's book sector has been invigorated by the achievements of the teenage mage: applications to boarding schools have rocketed in the wake of the HP phenomenon; EFL teachers claim that the texts are ideal workbooks for those wishing to improve their grasp of the mother tongue, as do parents of children with learning difficulties; owls are proving increasingly popular as household pets, much to the dismay of Animal Rights activists; the locations used in the movies are proving popular with tourists (though some sites have been chastised by Warner Brothers' legal department for advertising the connection); and the Potter vocabulary of "Quidditch," "Muggles," "Gryffindor," "Slytherin," "Hogwarts," et al, is now part of the vernacular.
The boy wizard is Britain's biggest cultural export since the Beatles and James Bond.
On October 15, 1999 an article was published in the Omaha World-Herald that angered and agitated devoted fans of Harry Potter. Omahans already knew that the Harry Potter books had been challenged in South Carolina and a few other places across the nation. Now, the controversy over the fantasy stories by J. K. Rowling had hit their home town. Apparently, the administration at Omaha Christian Academy learned of the popularity of the books and...
Harry Potter is now a global brand worth of an estimated $15 billion dollars, and the last four Harry Potter books have consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books in history. The series, totalling 4,195 pages, has been translated, in whole or in part, into 65 languages, ("Seventh Harry Potter Expected to Succeed”). Imagine a school in a castle filled with moving staircases, a sport played on flying broomsticks, an evil wizard intent on domination, an ordinary boy who’s the hero of a whole world he doesn’t know, (About the Series). This is the story that comes to life in the marvelous Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling. Voldemort, the dark wizard, attempts to kill baby Harry in order to prevent a prophecy. He fails and ends
Since the first segment of the series was released in 1997, Harry Potter has been challenged by churches and parents due to the practicing of magic by children found within the books. The books have been removed from school shelves, discouraged by churches, and censored by parents. It is claimed that Harry Potter is devilish, satanic, and encourages children to practice the occult, damaging their religious views (LaFond). Therefore, many parents keep their children from reading the book series. Yet, Harry Potter has been such a positive influence on my so many lives. Evident through the movies, theme parks, stores, and much more, J.K. Rowling’s series has been an overwhelming success for many reasons (“Because it’s his…”). In order to encourage
Before reading Harry Potter, I very rarely read for pleasure. I found reading boring, almost old fashioned. My frame of mind more readily paralleled Danny Divito in the movie Matlida, who says that “[t]here's nothing you can get from a book that you can't get from a television faster.” While my view of reading as a child could be summed up in that quote, everything changed when I was introduced to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I can remember to this day when my Dad began reading Harry Potter to me, and how I did not understand just how much this book would change me. Harry Potter and his world of wizardry became my own personal Shangri-La, my escape, my own world. Anytime I wanted, I could ascend to a world of fantasy and explore the depths of my own imagination in a way that I had never been capable of doing before. I became obsessed with the book, reading it before, during, and after sc...
Ever since J.K. Rowling first introduced Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in 1997, children and adults have read and loved the series. It has gained such popularity that all of the books have been made into major motion pictures, and a Harry Potter attraction has been opened in Universal Studios, Florida. Though the readers love Rowling’s intricate and exciting story lines, many controversies have arisen from these stories, not only in the United States, but also in various countries around the world. Perhaps the biggest controversy is the religious implications perceived by some critics. Although these critics believe that the series promotes paganism and encourages evil actions, these theories should not be taken so seriously.
Apple Inc. uses the Apple brand to compete across several highly competitive markets, including the personal computer industry with its Macintosh line of computers and related software, the consumer electronics industry with products such as the iPod, digital music distribution through its iTunes Music Store, the smart phone market with the Apple iPhone, magazine, book, games and applications publishing via the AppsStore for iPhone and the iPad tablet computing device, and movie and TV content distribution with Apple TV. For marketers, the company is also establishing a very strong presence to rival Google in the advertising market, via its Apps business and iAd network
Goff, Patricia. Producing Harry Potter: Why the Medium is Still the Message. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2006. Print.
The piece of literature that has had the greatest impact on my life is the Harry Potter series. Since most of my classmates read the series in elementary or middle school, it felt like nearly everyone were part of some inside joke which I didn’t understand. Last year, I read all seven books within a few months and finally felt included.
Harry Potter is a fascinating tale of sorcerers, wands, broomsticks, dragons, and magic. The story begins with a young boy named Harry Potter who lives at number four Privit Drive, Surray, England. His journey begins after the death of his parents at the hands of the evil Lord Voldemort. Harry learns of his past and his future as a wizard from Hagrid, the keeper of keys and grounds at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He travels to Hogwarts where he learns spells and enchantments, makes new friends, finds enemies, and discovers fantastic secretes. J.K. Rowling weaves a web of impeccable storytelling with this critically acclaimed novel. In the tale of Harry Potter imagery, symbolism, and motif take central focus.
One of the most read series in all literature is Harry Potter. The seven-book succession has sold over 400 million copies and has been translated into over sixty languages. What is it that makes this series so wildly famous? What is it about the boy who lived that makes frenzied readers flock to their local bookstore at midnight on the day of the release to buy the latest installment? How is a story set in a world that doesn’t exist about wizards, witches, magic, and mystical creatures so popular? The series has been able to earn its spot on the New York Times Bestseller list and has granted author J.K. Rowling multiple awards because it is relatable. It is not the setting or the events in the plot of the story that we relate to. We relate to what Harry, his friends, mentors, teachers, caretakers, and even enemies feel. Harry is in a lot of ways exactly like us. He represents some of the good characteristics that all of us have as well as the bad. The series as a whole, is about one thing that is stressed over and over again in the novels, love. The Harry Potter series is one of the most read sequences of novels because the central theme is love and self-sacrifice, and readers are looking for a novel that shows them just that.
The roles of internal branding process and hierarchical level associate with employee’s knowledge and buy in behavior
Mikhail Bakhtin has provided an intricate insight to what a novel entails. J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone fits into the form that Bakhtin has created. Using laughter, plot, setting, and character development, Harry Potter is able to connect with its audiences in the way that Bakhtin feels a novel should. Mikhail Bakhtin’s study of the novel’s form allows readers to better understand the world and characters that are constructed in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
A brand audit is a detailed assessment of a brand’s current ranking in the market compared to other competitors. It provides information on how the business is performing in the market. A brand audit also aims at examining the image and reputation of the brand as perceived by customers. The two key elements of brand audit are brand inventory and brand exploratory. Brand inventory provides up to date itinerary of how a company markets and brands its products. On the other hand, a brand exploratory is an examination undertaken so as to comprehend what consumers feel about the brand. It seeks to conduct a consumer insight research in order to acquire consumers’ feelings and perceptions. This paper looks into the brand exploratory of Cadbury in terms of the customer-based brand equity (CBBE) model.
The Harry Potter phenomenon had its humble beginning all the way back in the 1990s, when the first book, written by J. K. Rowling, came out in the shops. The main protagonist, a scrawny, young child wizard, who wore round glasses, had an immediate appeal to the readers, but no one at that time knew that the young boy would turn out to be the literary icon of the last decade. The popularity of the book resulted in it being translated into various language...
In order to ensure the success of a brand the company must put lots of planning and thought into the brands elements. The three brands I have chosen to examine in this branding exercise are Apple, Coca-Cola, and Target because they demonstrate many of the criteria used to evaluate brand success.