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Harry Potter marketing
Published in the Harvard Business Review's prestigious list of ‘Breakthrough Ideas for 2007,’ Frédéric Dalsace's idea—creating brands that
mature with their customers, like the sorcerer's apprentice who evolves
with his readers—is causing a minor revolution in the world of marketing
strategy.
It was when he was reading Harry Potter that Frédéric
Dalsace first came up with the novel idea of a dynamic,
evolving brand–consumer relationship. Although
there may be many reasons for the success of J. K.
Rowling's books about the famous wizard, he is convinced that the fact he ages (unlike most traditional
heroes) enables better development of the character and encourages greater reader loyalty. So, in that
case, why not also create brands that mature with
their customers? Frédéric Dalsace tells us all about
his Harry Potter marketing concept…
WHAT ARE THE LIMITATIONS OF
TRADITIONAL BRAND MANAGEMENT?
Most companies target a specific age group. So, cosmetics for women between the ages of 45 and 55 will
be progressively abandoned by individuals leaving
the age group and adopted by those entering it. Marketers therefore target specific groups: they focus
on a population's characteristics and take their age—
but not the fact that they age—into account. This then
means that they have to ‘swim back upstream’ every
year.
There are two possibilities in this traditional approach:
either the oldest people in the age group—though
they can be as young as 6!—leave the brand of their
own volition, or they remain loyal to it. The first choice
implies constantly having to find new customers.
New customers are generally sought amongst the
youngest customers in the target group—marketing campaigns are used to target this group, but they
also tend to push the oldest customers outside the
target group. Many so-called ‘generational’ brands,
such as Club Med and Gap have experienced this:
rather than allowing the brand to evolve with loyal
customers, they have endeavoured to maintain a
brand positioning that targets a particular age group.
The de facto marketing objective is to find new customers to replace those that have left the group. The
legitimacy of such an approach is often questioned
because of the cost of finding new customers, which
is a lot higher than the cost of keeping them.
Conversely, the oldest customers in the age group
can remain loyal to the product. But what initially
appears to be good news can, in fact, pose a serious
and long-term threat to the brand's survival, as it
may progressively lose its power to attract the youngest
customers in the group. In other words, there's a
risk that the brand will become ‘naff’. Vigorous efforts
are then made to reposition the brand and target a
younger sector of the population. L’Oréal successfully did this when it became concerned about its
aging Lancôme brand, victim of Isabella Rossellini's
success as the brand's spokesmodel. Here too, the
cost is high and success isn't necessarily assured.
ARE YOU SUGGESTING THERE SHOULD BE
MORE DYNAMIC BRAND MANAGEMENT?
We are suggesting that companies create brands
that no longer appeal to successive generations, but
which follow the evolution of a particular generation.
Just as the famous sorcerer's apprentice Harry Potter grows with his readers, brands can mature with
their consumers. This is what we call Harry Potter
marketing. Let's imagine, for example, that instead
of producing cosmetics for women between the age
of 35 and 45, they are targeted at women born between
1965 and 1975. The fact that the target doesn't change
allows marketers to strengthen the link between the
consumer and the brand, particularly through generational marketing campaigns that use familiar
music, symbols, icons, and so on. The brand will in
this way adapt to the target's characteristics and
their changing needs and habits by modifying the
product's composition; and the corollary of this is
greater customer loyalty amongst those targeted.
Club Med, which for several years suffered from the
ruinous effects of a ‘classic’ marketing strategy—it
CAREER
Frédéric Dalsace obtained
a diploma at HEC in 1985.
He also holds an MBA from
the Harvard Business
School and a PhD in management (area of specialization: marketing) from
INSEAD. He is assistant professor in marketing at HEC
School of Management
(Paris) where he is in
charge of the MBA specialization in marketing.
He teaches New Product
Development, B2B marketing, and strategic marketing. Most of his research
focuses on buyer–seller
relationships, outsourcing, strategic and industrial marketing, and new
product development.
Professor Dalsace has more
than ten years' experience in the business world,
most notably at McKinsey
& Company and Michelin.
In 2006, he received the
business school-wide BNPParibas Teaching Award,
which is awarded to the
best teacher in the HEC
faculty.
▼
Based on an interview with Frédéric Dalsace (H.85) and his article Brand Magic: Harry Potter Marketing, cowritten with Coralie Damay and David Dubois (Harvard Business Review, February 2007).
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was out of sync with the changing needs of its original customers—, has recently adopted such an
approach. One of the Group's slogans is: ‘Club Med
has changed with the times to cater for all your needs’.
The Group is refocusing on its original customers,
but is taking their current aspirations into account:
the standard comfort of the first clubs has been
replaced by luxury holidays for people who have
aged… and whose purchasing power has increased
considerably. An upmarket ‘five trident’ club has just
been inaugurated.
WILL HARRY POTTER MARKETING SIGNAL
THE PROGRAMMED DEATH OF BRANDS?
And why not? This is of course, a taboo subject in
marketing …Too many marketing directors dream
of leaving a lasting imprint by creating ‘eternal’ brands
… A few brands survive for a long time—after all, no
one can say whether they're going to be eternal—,
but how many brands, which cost a fortune to launch,
have a very limited life? Accepting that a brand can
age and disappear is also a way of looking to the
future. Brands that try to remain young at any cost
generally don't succeed in doing so, and fail to attract
new generations of customers. For example, Gap,
which enjoyed considerable success in the 1990s,
struggled to survive into the new millennium: the
brand wanted to remain young at any cost, rather
than adapt to the preferences of its most loyal
z BREAKTHROUGH IDEAS
HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW
Every year, the Harvard Business Review publishes a list
of the twenty most innovating and promising ideas and
trends in management research. Professor Dalsace's
article was included in this prestigious list in 2007, and a
publication of the article is scheduled for 2008, though
no specific journal has been chosen yet.
IV
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February-March 2008
customers. In allowing a brand to age by reinvesting part of the profits generated in a new brand aimed
at younger customers, Harry Potter marketing encourages the exploration of new ideas. The death of a
brand doesn't necessarily mean that it has failed, as
the best-selling brands can be re-engineered and
seduce new generations, like the Fiat 500, the New
Beetle, and the Mini! This is why the presence of a
phoenix (Fawkes) in the Harry Potter books is also
interesting …
HOW DOES ONE ACTUALLY CREATE A HARRY
POTTER BRAND?
Harry Potter marketing can't be used for all brands.
To be ‘Potterable’, brands must fulfil two conditions:
on the one hand, the associated products must have
the capacity to encourage a high level of customer
involvement and, on the other hand, there must be
a considerable physiological evolution in customer's
needs. But, companies are not obliged a priori to
adopt a Harry Potter marketing strategy to launch a
brand: the right strategy aims primarily to create a
strong brand that will capture the hearts of a generation of consumers. The question of whether it is
suitable for Harry Potter marketing comes afterwards. Many companies do actually practice Harry
Potter marketing without knowing it. The Guide du
Routard (collection of travel guides) is a good example of this: since its creation, the famous guide's logo
has evolved (he's had his hair cut, his moustache is
shorter, etc.) and prestigious addresses have been
added to the guide to adapt to the change in the needs
of its original users. Further proof that Harry Potter
marketing isn't just a theoretical concept was provided when we showed L’Oréal our work—they were
particularly interested in the concept. ■