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Just about everyone is familiar with the global success of the Harry Potter books and brand (if you’re not, read my book, Harry Potter: The Story of a Global Business Phenomenon
One of the points I make in my book is the fact that much of the success of Harry Potter came from pull marketing, not push marketing, but despite that fact, Scholastic is hoping they can manufacture the next Harry Potter with push marketing. The chosen brand is ‘The 39 Clues‘ a 10-book series for 8-12 year olds, and when I say “chosen”, I really mean it. Scholastic created this brand from the ground up by developing the product then finding authors rather than the other way around as is traditionally done in children’s book publishing.
The marketing plan for ‘The 39 Clues’ includes game cards, a contest with a $10,000 prize, and a website with games, blogs, videos, backgrounds and all the social web goodies you can imagine.
In my book, I make the case that the success of Harry Potter can be duplicated, but this is not exactly how I suggested that it be done. So much of the success of Harry Potter came from organic growth, word-of-mouth marketing, a congruent story that focused on the same characters with little gap in time within the story from one book to the next, perpetual marketing and developing a relationship brand. You’ll have to buy my book to learn the rest, but suffice it to say, I’m not convinced that the marketing strategy for ‘The 39 Clues’ will drive it to sucess similar to Harry Potter.
What do you think?
Image: Amazon
Tags: harry potter, the 39 clues, scholastic, publishing, branding, harry potter the story of a global business phenomenon, jk rowling, brand strategy, social media marketing, viral marketing, retail marketing
I actually wrote about the Artemis Fowl series in my book and built a case for whether the brand could become the next Harry Potter. You’ll have to read my book to get the details. ;)
As you pointed out, I don’t think you can manufacture a phenomenon, but you can nurture the growth of something into a phenomenon. You have to have a good story and an involved fan base first. I was considering that the Artemis Fowl series was going to become the next Harry Potter, but I don’t think those books appeal to as wide a range of readers.