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I ts the old, old, rags-to-riches story, familiar fromcountless soap operas, chick flicks, fairy tales, andglossy magazines. A struggling author and singlemother who lives in a freezing garret, suffers from clinicaldepression, and has hardly a bean to her name somehowmanages to write a literary masterpiece, in a caf, overcoffee, while her daughter gently sleeps. The opus, howev-er, goes unnoticed by perfidious publishing houses andthe rejection slips pour in. Just as she is about to admitdefeat and return to her McJob in the typing pool, anastute agent spots the gleam of gold in a tottering pile oftextual discards. He leaps into action, negotiates a near-vanity deal with a prestigious publishing house, and thebook is eventually issued with nary a sniff of pre-publicityor Sunday supplement hoopla. The public loves it, how-ever; word gets around, sales take off, and it climbs to thetop of the charts. A bidding war for the American rights

breaks out, a six-figure advance is extracted, the bookslays them in the States, and the rest of the world followssuit. The sequel eclipses the original; the sequels sequeleclipses the sequel; and the sequels sequels sequel stopsthe world in its orbita total eclipse of the market. Theonce 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, tooschmaltzy, too Walt Disney for words. Yet that is exactlywhat happened to Joanne Kathleen Rowling, multimil-lionaire author of the Harry Potter books, a series of stir-ring tales about a teenage wizard who attends Hogwarts, amagical boarding school. Or, to be more precise, thatshow her story is portrayed by the mass media. In fairnessto Rowling, she goes to great lengths to explode thismedia-generated myth by stressing her happy childhood,normal upbringing, successful if somewhat directionlesspre-Potter career, and, not least, the fact that she is deeplyunsettled by the extent of her success. Yet for all herprotestations, it is entirely appropriate that a teller of fairystories should have her story told in fairy story fashion.She is the Cinderella of our times, an exemplar of thenew-economy, instant-riches 1990s, the literary equivalent

Mainstream marketing hasbecome so obsessed withrigor, quantification, andscientific rectitude that it has

lost sight of the importance ofmagic, mystery, and imagination.We need to restore the balancesomewhat, and the way to do that is totake a look at the boy wizard who has

captivated the hearts and minds of readers the

world overand turned marketing on its head.

6 Business Horizons / January-February 2002

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

Marketing for Muggles:The Harry Potter wayto higher profits

BH067

Business Horizons

Copyright 2002

by Indiana University

Kelley School of

Business. For reprints,

call HBS Publishing

at (800) 545-7685.


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of a Who Wants to be a Millionairewinner. As she wrylyobserved when asked for a reaction to her amazing goodfortune, Think of a stronger word and double it. Thatshow amazed I am.

Rowling, in truth, has good reason to be amazed, becausethe facts are truly mind-boggling. To date, she has sold

approximately 100 million copies of the first four booksin a seven-book series, making her the richest woman inGreat Britain, with an estimated personalfortune of $50 million. The books havebeen translated into 30 languages,published in all sorts of for-matsillustrated, Braille,audiocassette, adultcover, largeprint, boxedsets, and soonand arebest-sellers in120 countries,especially Britainand America. At onestage during his 98-week run, Harry Pot-ter occupied the firstfour positions in theNewYork Times Bestseller List.Such was his dominance,indeed, that the newspaperwas forced to establish a sepa-rate list for childrens literature in

order to create space for Old Guardauthors like John Updike, Philip Roth,and Saul Bellow. In Britain, the Harry Potter titles haveoutsold everything under the sun, often by a factor of sixor seven. They have not only topped every bestseller list,bar none, but the MugglesRowlings term for non-magical folkare simply unable to explain or make senseof the phenomenon. According to a London Times editori-al (Potters Wizardmanship 2000), there has beennothing like it in Britain since the publication of LordByrons Childe Harold and the serialization of CharlesDickenss Pickwick Papers, when massive crowds gatheredto await the appearance of each arresting episode. Harry

Potterism, as Patel (2001) rightly notes, is not so much aphenomenon as an avalanche.

There is more to Harry Potter, however, than the raw salesfigures suggest. Pottermania is having a significant multi-plier effect on the economy as a whole. The printingindustry has been forced to work at full capacity in orderto meet first-day demand. Overnight delivery services arestretched to their elastic limit during new release datefrenzy. The wizards of Wall Street are so taken with theWizard of Hogwarts that they have spirited the share pricesof his US and UK publishersScholastic and Bloomsbury,

respectivelyto unprecedented heights. A 24 percent salesincrease in the childrens book sector as a whole has beenreported, thanks to Potterites desperate desire to readsomething similar while waiting for the next excitinginstallment. There has been a sharp rise in visitor num-bers at magical holiday destinations, such as Tintagel,

Cornwall, Knaresborough, Yorkshire, and Merlins Castle,Carmarthen. Boarding schools report a significant boostin applications, both in Britain and France. An extensive

secondary literature, comprising fanzines,Web sites, readers, compan-

ions, unauthorized biogra-phies of J.K. Rowl-

ing, and soon, is

developingapace. And

book piracy isa growing prob-

lem in China,where cut-pricefakes went on sale

before the origi-nalsalthough the

latter are still the best-selling titles since

Maos little red book.Even Rowling is getting in

on the ancillary act, thanksto the publication of two

pseudonymous spin-offs,Quidditch Through the Ages

(Scamander 2001) and Fantastic Beasts andWhere to Find Them (Whisp 2001), which

are expected to raise 22 million for the UK charityComic Relief.

Although it is an exaggeration to state that when Harrysneezes the economy catches cold, there is no denyingthe market power of the Potter bubble. Indeed, the eco-nomic ante was upped substantially by last Novembersrelease of the live-action movie adaptation of the firstbook. Filmed entirely in the UK, the movie had a pro-duction budget of $100 million and was directed byChristopher Columbus, whose previous box office

smashes include such kiddy classics as Home Alone andMrs Doubtfire. Forecasting the fate of major feature filmsis, of course, fraught with difficulty, but it is estimatedthat, irrespective of its performance at the box office, themovie will gross $1 billion in tie-in merchandise alone.Warner Brothers signed a seven-figure, five-year, two-filmdeal with Rowling in October 1998, and so far the con-glomerate has granted 46 licenses to all manner of mem-orabilia manufacturers: Mattel, for board games and toys;Hasbro, for trading cards and candy; Electronic Arts, forvideo games and computer-based ancillaries; Lego, for

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the eponymous building bricks; and the Character Groupfor plastic and porcelain figurines. Coca-Cola has alsosigned a $150 million sponsorship deal, while rumors ofeverything from Hogwarts theme parks to Harry PotterHappy 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 possi-bly six to be filmed, it is fair to assume that the Harry Pot-ter Effect will be felt for some time yet. Indeed, such is thepower of Potterism that a substandard Warner Brotherscomedy, See Spot Run, was carried to the top of the Ameri-can movie charts on the strength of its first look HarryPotter trailer. It seems that even a crippled dog can begiven legs by the apprentice wizards supernatural acumen.

Remarkable as it is to see Spot run all the way to thebank, thanks to the Potter pyramid selling scheme, it is alsotrue to say that the trials and tribulations of the teenagemagician have escaped the economic base and colonized

the cultural superstructure. Like the worlds most admiredmegabrandsCoke, Disney, Barbie, Apple, and all therestHarry Potter has attained iconic status. In less thanfour short years, he has become a license to print money(literally, since a board game employing the Galleons, Sick-les, and Knuts of Rowlings coinage is in the pipeline). Per-haps the most remarkable aspect of Harry-hawking, howev-er, is the fact that it has been done without proper mar-keting. Rowlings astonishing commercial accomplishmentshave been achieved despite a formal marketing plan, notbecause of it. In this regard, pontificators on Pottermaniainvariably refer to the purity of the phenomenon, main-taining that it was achieved and sustained entirely by per-

sonal recommendation, schoolyard conversations, Internetchat rooms, and sheer consumer satisfaction, enthusiasm,evangelismcall it what you will. The normal apparatus ofpre-teen marketingtelevision programs, product place-ment, soda pop sponsorship deals, and so onwas con-spicuous by its absence. Moreover, what little marketingthere was was seriously deficient. For the first book, it con-sisted of a standard Bloomsbury press release and a singlereview in the Scotsman. Worse still, as sales began to takeoff, the publisher kept running out of copies and founditself unable to meet the rapidly growing demand. In fact, ifever there was an example of slipshod marketing manage-ment, it was exhibited in the initial handling of Harry Pot-ter. Ugly duckling marketing doesnt begin to describe it.

Although Pottermania began as a word-of-mouth phe-nomenon, it did not stay that way. Book IV, in particular,was given the full marketing treatment. Press junkets, tele-vision appearances, radio interviews, newspaper spreads,book signings, online discussions, launch parties, andevery other trick in the arts marketing armory was pressedinto Potteresque service. P.T. Barnum himself would havebeen proud of the profusion of statistical superlativesthat is to say, the plethora of gee-whiz, well-I-never, Guin-

ness Book of World Records-type factoids that were dis-seminated by Harrys hypemeisters and that happily pep-pered each and every newspaper article or press report onthe publishing phenomenon. So pervasive was the pro-motional razzmatazz that it precipitated a Big-Bad-Bloomsbury backlash. The Goblet of Hype, as the fourth

volume was unceremoniously renamed, was loudlydenounced for its shameless snake-oil salesmanship,deemed an affront to the anti-commercial ethos of the lit-erary establishment, and condemned for its connivancewith the money-grubbing machinations of media con-glomerates, multinational corporations, and the capitalistconspiracy. Granted, many open-minded commentatorsconcluded that the attendant hoopla did not necessarilynegate Harry Potters grass-roots appeal, or undermine theundeniable brilliance of the storytelling. The marketing,not the market, was to blame.

Be that as it may, and notwithstanding Rowlings purport-ed personal dislike of the ostentatious Potter-pluggingprocess, the hard sell that accompanied Book IV antago-nized the British literary establishment. Anthony Holden(2000b), in particular, criticized all concerned from hispulpit in the review section of the Observer. Harry Potter,he impatiently explained, represented a triumph of pufferyover poesy. Bloomsbury, he bellowed, had resorted toadvance hype worthy of Wonderbra. J.K. Rowling, heroared, could not write to save her life, was afflicted with apedestrian, ungrammatical prose style, generated lessdramatic tension than an average episode ofNeighbours,had produced a tedious, clunkily written version of BillyBunter on Broomsticks, and had cloyingly sentimental

storylines that were clichd, unimaginative, and unfailinglypredictable. Whats more, she was personally responsiblefor the infantilization of British culture and owed her suc-cess to Bloomsburys mendacious marketing department,with its disingenuous spin doctors, devious strategic plan-ners, and not-so-hidden persuaders. Naturally, neither per-sonal animosity norheaven forbid!professional jeal-ousy played any part in Holdens attack on Harry Potter. Tothe contrary, he wished the royalties-replete author well,while urging her (in a sadly clichd, unimaginative, andpredictable expression) to take the money and run.

Harry Potter pricked apeck of pickled Ps

Harry Potter, then, succeeded despite marketing,whether it was too little in the early days or toomuch as the series caught fire. Or so it seems.

Closer examination reveals that Harry is more than a merepassing marketing fad, more than just another in a longline of initially innocent, subsequently oversold, eventual-ly abandoned preteen obsessions. Harry is different, notmerely by dint of his seemingly universal appeal, nor by



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the unprecedented scale of his success, nor, for that matter,by the fact that Pottermania is based on a booka com-parative rarity these days. Harry Potter is different becausethe books are as much aboutmarketing as the outcome ofmarketing. They deal with marketing matters, they are fullof marketing artifacts, they contain analyses of marketplace

phenomena, and they provide insights into the contempo-rary marketing condition. They are not merely a marketingmasterstroke, they are a marketing masterclass.

The first and perhaps most obvious point to note aboutHarry marketing is that the books refer to almost everyelement of the marketing mix, as well as aspects of buyerbehavior, environmental conditions, marketing research,

and many more. In Book IV, for example, one character ispreparing a market research report on cheap continental

cauldrons, most of which fail to conform to UK safetystandards because of their unacceptably thin bottoms.Another aspiring importer wonders whether there is aniche in the UK market for flying carpets, the minivans ofthe wizarding world, only to be brusquely informed thatthe British will never give up their broomsticks (eventhough carpets were once the English conveyance ofchoice). Broomsticks, in fact, provide Rowling with awonderful vehicle for exploring buyer behavior. Everyphase of the purchasing process is described in detail,from the consumers desperate desire to acquire new andimproved models, through the information gatheringphase where impartial consumer reports are consulted, to

the heartbreak of a broomstick owner whose pride andjoy is written off in an unforeseen accident:

He didnt argue or complain, but he wouldnt let herthrow away the shattered remains of his Nimbus TwoThousand. He knew he was being stupid, knew that theNimbus was beyond repair, but Harry couldnt help it;he felt as though hed lost one of his best friends.(from HPIII)

Advertising, likewise, is incorporated in the shape of hugehoardings, akin to electronic scoreboards at football stadi-ums, with constantly changing sales pitches for broom-

sticks (The Bluebottle, A Broom for All the Family),detergents (Mrs Skowers All Purpose Magical MessRemoverNo Pain, No Stain), and outfitters (GladragsWizardwearLondon, Paris, Hogsmeade). Pricing figuresprominently, both in general (the sheer expense of send-ing 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, asthe Knight Rider Bus reminds us (the flat fare to Londonis 11 Sickles, but 14 gets hot chocolate and 15 a hot waterbottle, plus a choice of colored toothbrush).

Logistics also gets a look-in, albeit in the form of FlooPowder (a magical mixture that transports wizards, Santa-like, to chimneys of their choice), Portkeys (graspableobjects, such as old shoes and empty cola cans, that ferrygroups of holders very long distances), the Owl postalservice (color coded, naturally, by breed and distance), andof course the emblematic Hogwarts Express (an old-fash-ioned steam train that takes pupils to and from HogwartsSchool of Witchcraft and Wizardry). Consumption-richanniversaries and holidays are just as evocatively described(Christmas and birthdays especially, though a St. Valen-tines day extravaganza features in HPII), as are personalselling (when Harry gets fitted for his wand and uniform),promotional gimmicks (the Weasleys win-a-holiday-to-Egypt, courtesy of a newspaper competition), and, of allthings, Harry Potter-ish marketing crazes (Hogwarts pupilscollect Pokmonesque wizard cards, which are swappedand traded incessantly).

Although Rowlings feel for marketing minutiae is epito-mized by a perfect parody of the cheesy correspondence

courses found in the small ads pages of tabloid newspa-pers (Feel out of step in the world of modern magic?Find yourself making excuses not to perform simplespells? Ever been taunted for your woeful wandwork?There is an answer!), her true genius is reserved for the Psof Product and Place. The books are chock-full of bril-liantly conceived brands and new product concepts. Hermagical mirrors dont simply reflect, they remark on theviewers appearance (Tuck your shirt in, scruffy! Yourefighting a losing battle there, dearie). Her clocks do morethan tell the time; their dials announce Youre late andthe hands indicate ones whereabouts (at the office, inmortal peril). Her snapshots are animated, since the pho-tographed 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 (theformer fight among themselves, while the latter giveadvice on appropriate moves). Garden gnomes are morethan mere lawn art, they are the real thing: irritating peststhat have to be forcibly uprooted, kicking and screamingall the while. Cauldrons, conversely, are self-stirring; socksscream when they get too smelly; ink changes color asone writes; exploding Snap is an ever popular cardgame; revealers are like erasers in reverse, insofar as they


Harry Potter is different because

the books are as much aboutmarketing as the outcome ofmarketing.They are not merelya marketing masterstroke, theyare a marketing masterclass.


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expose what was written and rubbed out; gobstones, aschoolyard pastime akin to marbles, squirt foul-smellingfluid at losing players; Hogwarts list of banned objectsincludes Screaming Yo-Yos, Fanged Frisbees, and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs; and Christmas crackers erupt likeVesuvius, showering the combatants with a cascade of free

giftswhite mice, wizards hats, non-explodable balloons,grow-your-own-warts kits, and many more besides.

However, of all the product categories described in thebooks, confectionery is by far the most fully realized.Rowlings remarkable array of candy ranges from Cock-roach Clusters, Jelly Slugs, and Canary Creams to Choco-late Frogs (with the wizard card collectibles), Sugar Quills(perfect for sucking surreptitiously in class), and herpiecede resistance, Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans. As the brandname implies, these come in everyconceivable flavor,including chocolate, peppermint, marmalade, toast, coco-nut, baked bean, strawberry, curry, grass, coffee, sardine,sprouts, spinach, liver, tripe, earwax, booger, and vomit.Aptly, their advertising slogan is A Risk With EveryMouthful. Even more aptly, perhaps, the concept hasactually been brought to market by Hasbro subsidiary,Cap Candy, although the real world flavors are rather lessoutr than the magical originals.

Above and beyond the brilliance of Bertie Botts EveryFlavor Beans, the author excels in her astonishing abilityto convey a sense of place. Again and again, Rowlingsremarks on retailing environments, or analogous service-scapes, are so perfectly expressed that the reader reallyfeels what its like to be there. Copyright restrictions,sadly, prevent extensive quotation; suffice it to say that

Rowling reserves her most powerful place-imparting pow-ers for Honeydukes candy store in the village of Hogs-meade, adjacent to Hogwarts school:

There were shelves upon shelves of the most succulent-looking sweets imaginable. Creamy chunks of nougat;shimmering pink squares of coconut ice; fat, honey-col-ored toffees; hundreds of different kinds of chocolate inneat rows; there was a large barrel of Every Flavor Beans,and another of Fizzing Whizzbees, the levitating sherbetballs that Ron had mentioned; along yet another wallwere Special Effects sweets: Droobles Best BlowingGum (which filled a room with bluebell-colored bub-bles that refused to pop for days), the strange splintery

Toothflossing Stringmints, tiny Black Pepper Imps(Breathe fire on your friends!), Ice Mints (Hear yourteeth chatter and squeak!), peppermint creams shapedlike toads (Hop realistically in the stomach!), fragilesugar-spun quills, and exploding bonbons. (from HPIII)

Evocative though such descriptions are, it is important toappreciate that Rowlings representations of marketingphenomena are not uncritical endorsements of commer-cial life. On the contrary, the aversive side of the marketingactivity also figures prominently. In the first book, forexample, Harry confronts the Mirror of Erised, an enchant-

ed looking glass that reflects ones deepest hearts desirefame, fortune, fantasies, or whateveras does the modernmarketing system. The Mirror of Erised (desire spelledbackwards) is a wonderful reflection on, and an arrestingsymbol of, twenty-first century consumer society and theall-consuming power of possessions, products, and prop-

erty. As Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore rightlyobserves, This mirror will give us neither knowledge nortruth. Men have wasted away before it, entranced by whatthey have seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what itshows is real or even possible.

In the third book, Harry is bewitched by a top-of-the-linebroomstick, the Firebolt. He spies it in the display windowof an exclusive dealership, where he is literally stopped inhis tracks by the most magnificent broom he had everseen. So enraptured is Harry that the teenage magicianreturns time and again to stare, agog, at the precious, per-

fect product. Consumed by commodity fetishism, he iscompletely bowled over by the objects power and, eventhough he already owns a perfectly good broomstick, onlyjust manages to resist temptation.

The Firebolt also figures prominently in the fourth book,albeit in its capacity as the Irish Quidditch teams broom-stick brand of choice. Quidditch is a magic-mediated teamsport, an airborne amalgam of basketball and hockey,which is subject to all manner of marketing razzamatazzand beset by quick buck-making memorabilia vendors.Harrys best friend, Ron Weasley, spends a small fortune onluminous 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 cartpiled high with what looked like brass binoculars,except that they were covered in all sorts of weird knobsand dials.

Omnioculars, said the saleswizard eagerly. You canreplay actionslow everything downand they flashup a play-by-play breakdown if you need it. Bargainten Galleons each.


Evocative though such descriptionsare, it is important to appreciatethat Rowlings representations ofmarketing phenomena are notuncritical endorsements ofcommercial life.


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Wish I hadnt bought this now, said Ron, gesturing athis dancing shamrock hat and gazing longingly at theOmnioculars.

I cant believe its notBarnum

If ever true words were spoken, Ron Weasleys Wish Ihadnt bought this now epitomizes the contemporarymarketing condition. For decades, marketing has

aspired to scientific status, searching fruitlessly for thebig, all-encompassing theory of everything. It has vainlyattempted to develop ever more elaborate concepts. It hastriumphantly tested fatuous hypotheses to destruction andthen some. It has earnestly quantified everything withinreach, while adding up the reaching process for goodmeasure. And it has written everything down in the mostplodding, pedestrian, pedantic prose imaginable. As far asmodern marketing is concerned, objectivity is everything,validity is invaluable, and rigor is de rigueur. Concepts aregood, theories are better, and axioms are best of all.

Nonsense.

Prediction may be marketings ambition, replicability itsobjective, and law-like generalizations its ultimate goal,but the Harry Potter books suggest that something ismissing. The sheer exuberance of Rowlings writings onthe commercial system and the astonishing inventivenessof her new product ideas remind us that modern market-ings passion for dispassion is misplaced, that marketing

science has no soul, that the Analysis, Planning, Imple-mentation, and Control paradigm is bereft. In keeping,however, with the ever-rising tide of management textsbased on childrens literatureAllen (1995), Johnson(1998), MacKenzie (1998), and so onthe Harry Potterbooks posit an alternative to the science-or-bust mindsetthat has dominated the modern marketing epoch. ThePotter paradigm, it must be stressed, has always formedpart of the marketing condition, but it is a side of market-ing that has been suppressed by academicians for 50-oddyears. It comprises three key components: magic, mystery,and imagination.

The Harry Potter books are nothing if not magical, as arethe marketing artifacts they containeverything from thefabulous flying Firebolt to the mundanities of self-shuf-fling playing cards. The Muggle version of marketing isequally magical, though marketing researchers remainreluctant to acknowledge the fact. The merest glance at thedaily newspapers or weekend supplements reveals thatadvertising is replete with magical and supernaturalappeals. Camel Filters are sold with the aid of ouija boardsand voodoo dolls. Britains National Lottery employs anenormous disembodied hand, the Fickle Finger of Fate, toinform impressionable punters that it could be them. Fin-

landia Vodka announces that in a previous life it used tobe pure glacial spring water. The purchaser of a Sony high-definition television levitates in front of the 40-inchscreen. Aliens participate in an all-too-human male bond-ing sessionWazzup!courtesy of Anheuser Busch. Andcommercials for Kit-Kat variously portray chocolate bar-

shaped crop circles, mesmerized domestic pets, and a rein-carnated Elvis, complete with blue suede shoes (I aintdead, baby, just havin a break).

In addition to individual advertising treatments, thebrand bestiary of talking dogs, dancing cats, flying cows,jolly green giants, cereal leprechauns, and beer-pitchingfrogs, lizards, and iguanas bears witness to marketingsinherent magic. Marketers ceaselessly expound on prod-ucts miraculous properties and ineffable consequences, tosay nothing of the enchanted capabilities of cologne, cos-metics, cigarettes, clothing, motor cars, multivitamins,service encounters, and soft drinks. The manifold magickingdoms of hyperreal estate hold countless adults (LasVegas) and children (Disneyland) spellbound by theiramazing disappearing dollar tricks. Price cuts are neverless than fantastic, incredible, or extraordinary. Theyhave to be seen to be believed. Even the marketing litera-ture is not immune to magic spells, alliterative incanta-tions, mandala-like matrices, and any number of academicabracadabras. Thus we have three Cs, four Ps, five forces,seven Ss, nine Os, and hey presto, 30 Rs. The principaljournals are repositories of numerological hocus pocus,and everyone subscribes to the transmutational powers ofthe modern marketing conceptthe sorcerers stone ofmanagementwhich holds the secret of corporate

longevity and perennial profitability.Alongside their magical subject matter, the Harry Potterbooks are deeply mysterious. More than mere comicadventures, they are replete with riddle-me-re, both at theoverarching level (What will be the outcome of the strug-gle between Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort?) and with-in each individual volume (Who is Sirius Black? Why wasthe Sorcerers Stone stolen? What is the secret of theChamber of Secrets?). Every installment, moreover, con-tains a couple of concluding explanatory chapters, akin toclassic Agatha Christie whodunits, where the chief sus-pects are assembled in the library prior to the private eyespronouncement. Harry Potters are Hercule Poirots for pre-teens of all ages.

Marketing, too, is deeply mysterious, not only in the sensethat we still dont know how advertising works, why Pot-teresque fads and crazes occur, or what the marketing con-cept is exactly. Mystery is a marketing tactic in itself, andone has only to peruse the promotional practices of top-tier marketing organizations to appreciate the fact thatmystery, enigma, intrigue, and How do they do that?are an integral part of their appeal. Consider the secretrecipes that help purvey all sorts of comestibles: Coca-



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piratical third party.) Another copy accidentally foundits way to the news desk of the Scottish Daily Record,though it was returned, unopened, to the publisher by theRecords ever ethical news hounds. (Curiously, the story ofthe accident somehow found its way to the front pages, asdid the journalists oh-so-ethical actions.)

In this regard, isnt it amazing how anti-Potter protests byChristian fundamentalists, accusations of devil worship byconcerned parents, book bans imposed by straight-lacedAustralian librarians, insinuations of plagiarism by anony-mous authors who thought of it first, and the dyspepticattacks of disgruntled critics like Jack Zipes (2000) andHarold Bloom (2001) somehow always manage to findtheir way to the front pages? Of course, the fact that news-paper-affiliated bookstoresan extremely profitable mediasidelineare one of Harry Potters biggest channels of dis-tribution just might have something to do with the atten-dant press coverage. Self-interest, it seems, is alive andwell at the Sunday Times Bookshop, the Daily TelegraphBookshop, the Financial Times Bookshop, the GuardianBookshop, the Chicago Tribune Bookstore, theNew YorkTimes Bookstore, and all the rest.

Its marketing, Philip, but not as we know it. Its naughtyrather than nice. Its P.T. Barnum reborn. Its a return to thepre-modern marketing era, to a time before the scientificmindset held sway and Analysis, Planning, Implementa-tion, and Control was the order of the day. Now this doesnot mean that marketing science is obsolete, or that rigoris irrelevant, or that the APICalypse has come to pass, or,indeed, that the Potter Marketing Philosophy is applicableto every product, service, or situation. It reminds us, rather,

of the all-too-frequently forgotten fact that there is more tomarketing than crunching numbers, mining data, andassembling axioms. Marketing is magic. Marketing is mys-terious. Marketing is imaginative. Marketing, as P.T. Bar-num presciently observed, is the greatest show on earth.

And Harry lived happilyever after

Harry Potter is one of the most remarkable market-ing triumphs of recent years. Less than a decadeago, his creator was living in abject poverty. Today,

J.K. Rowling sits atop an ever-growing marketing moun-tain of solid gold. The Potter brand, admittedly, has notattained the instant recognition of Nikes swoosh, Cokescopperplate curlicues, or McDonalds golden arches. But itis only a matter of time before Harrys lightning boltascends to the logosphere and joins the pantheon of mar-keting immortals. Aside from the actual books, which willcontinue to stretch the printing industrys capacity on atleast three more occasions, the movie deal and its atten-dant tie-in activity is certain to turn Rowlings cash moun-

tain into a chain of 22-carat gold. Granted, there is grow-ing evidence of consumer resistance, largely due to Warn-er Brothers heavy-handed attempts to shut down unli-censed Harry Potter Web sites (which has led to mutter-ings of a WB merchandise boycott). At the same time,however, the sheer imaginative power of Rowlings story-

telling skillsthe mysterious outcome of the magicalHarry Potter sagais sufficient to ensure that the Potterfranchise will, at worst, do a Star Wars Part II by generat-ing a few million dollars less than originally anticipated.Rowling may have roused the sleeping dragon of massmarketing, but dragons can be deceived, as Harry Potterdemonstrated in The Goblet of Fire.

It remains to be seen, of course, whether Harry will fallprey to carnivorous commercialization. What started as aword-of-mouth phenomenon is being appropriated,adapted, and assimilated by the all-consuming monster ofmass marketing. Like Winnie the Pooh, Attila the Hun,and Dilbert the Indefatigable, Harry Potter seems destinedto join the self-help squadron on the business and man-agement bookshelves of airport departure lounges world-wide. Hogwarts, ere long, will open a business school. Itsmotto will be modified to Never Tickle a Sleeping Accoun-tant. An MBBBAMasticator of Bertie Botts Beans Assort-mentwill soon be recruiting. Why, after all, waste yourtime in Harvard when Hogwarts is happy to oblige?

Yet, for all the hard sell surrounding Rowlings creation, itis arguable that Harry Potter unknowingly has the powerto transform the modern marketing paradigm. The PotterMarketing Philosophy involves eschewing the positivistictrappings of modern marketing in favor of the magical,

the mysterious, the imaginative substance of postmodernmarketing. Or adjusting the balance, at least. As in thebooks, admittedly, the odds against Harry are almostinsurmountable. But the wonderful wizard of Hogwartscan help imaginative marketers vanquish the Voldemortof Value Chain Analysis, undo the You-Know-Who of USP,and destroy the Dark Mark of marketing science. Theresno place like Hogsmeade. r

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