Learning from the Marketing Genius Behind the Harry Potter Brand

Few book turn movies have had the widespread success of Harry Potter.  The brands success stems from the captivating Harry Potter movies as well as the marketing strategy deployed by the marketing team behind the brand.  Businesses large and small can take note of how Harry Potter cast its magical spell on fans worldwide and use a similar tactic to boost their sales and customer loyalty. The five keys elements that helped to drive the success of the Harry Potter brand include:

A Good Product

A creative marketing plan can only sell a bad product for a limited time. If customers aren’t excited to come back again and again then repeat purchases will decline and word-of-mouth marketing will come to an end. Because the Harry Potter books were captivating and consistently met customer’s expectations, buyers were excited about each product release as well as left wanting more. Your product has to continually satisfy customers or it will fail.

Emotional Involvement

For a product to become a phenomenonal success, people must feel an emotional involvement with that product. Without likeability, usefulness and a product that fills a need, it will never reach a similar status.

Word-of-Mouth and Viral Marketing

The internet is a powerful tool in building word-of-mouth marketing and is critical to your company’s success. Because fans wanted more of the Harry Potter brand, the Internet became a place for Harry Potter fans to converse, socialize ad experience the brand in their own ways. By allowing fans and users to take control of the conversation, the marketers of Harry Potter saw that this  would make the brand more powerful.  This encouraged word of mouth marketing. Now if you ask 10 or more people how they first heard about Harry Potter, their response will probably be through a friend, family member or colleague.

Perpetual Marketing

Each Harry Potter movie left customers wanting more so your product has to create a similar feeling. By building up anticipation you can keep customers interested until the buzz reaches a fever pitch. Through leaking bits of information and holding promotional events, Harry Potter drove word-of-mouth marketing and boost interest and sale when the movie finally came out.  By using this strategy you can build excitement around your brand.

Brand Consistency and Restraint
Brand loyal may be hard to develop, but once you have a customer’s loyalty it’s usually for life. That’s why it’s important to ensure that you don’t betray your customer’s loyalty. You need to keep your branding consistent whether you’re using contests, promotional products or sweepstakes.  It’s the consumer who experiences the brand and delivers the best marketing for your company via word-of- mouth marketing. By letting your customers experience your brand, you’ll open the doors to increased success.

—Tavia 954-523-1957