6 Marketing Tips From The Harry Potter Movies & Books
Harry Potter has become an important part of the childhood days of millennials and GenZers. All 7 books and movies have a cult following across the globe. Stunning content and brilliant marketing are the reasons behind the success of the Harry Potter franchise. But there is one other invisible pillar that has managed to hold this franchise in a strong position for more than two decades – fans.
So, if you are looking for ways to transform your marketing strategies for better customer engagement, the Harry Potter brand is definitely a good place, to begin with. In this blog, we’ll talk about some of the marketing lessons that any brand can acquire from the growth of the Harry Potter franchise.
A Bit of Background Here Before We Begin
Well, there are many books and movies out there that have performed pretty well in the market. But why are we talking about Harry Potter in particular? There are many reasons but here is one to begin with.
Barry Cunningham of Bloomsbury Publishing was the first to buy the manuscript of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone after the twelve rejections J. K. Rowling faced. But Cunningham had once remarked that it would be tough to make money selling children’s books. Today, the value of the Harry Potter franchise is estimated to be $25 billion. That kind of growth was only possible because of consistent marketing and customer engagement.
The Harry Potter brand is also the perfect example of a brand that was nurtured by its fans. Most of the marketing for the Harry Potter movies and books has been through word-of-mouth marketing by the fans.
So, how was the franchise able to garner this much engagement from around the world? How did the Harry Potter movies and books work their magic in the world of marketing? Let’s find out.
Marketing Lessons From the Promotion of Harry Potter Movies & Books
1. Create a strong visual identity for your brand
Harry Potter did not become a cult phenomenon overnight. It took years of persistent delivery of quality content (both books and movies) and strong brand identity. Not convinced? Take a look at the below picture.
Did the picture make you think of the wizarding world of Harry Potter? There is no mention of Harry Potter anywhere in the picture. The want, the spellbook, the glasses, and the red and gold tie are all enough to help you recall Harry Potter. That’s exactly what a strong brand identity does to your brand.
Kimp Tip:
A lot goes into building brand identity. In the case of the Harry Potter brand, the signature font of the logo is a good example, to begin with.
Similarly, creating a custom font for your brand’s logo is a great way to lay the foundation for your brand identity. The Kimp team is here to help you come up with a fully customized wordmark logo like the Harry Potter logo.
Once your logo is all set, then comes the consistent use of your brand colors in creating visually connected marketing designs. The lightning bolt scar, Harry Potter’s glasses, and magic wand are a few things that you see repeatedly across Harry Potter brand designs. Everywhere from the book covers to the digital marketing materials. This shows how important symbolism is when it comes to branding. When you use symbols in your marketing and use them consistently, you can strengthen brand recognition.
2. Partnerships are great for your brand
Some brands gained popularity by collaborating with the Harry Potter franchise. And some have played a part in making the Harry Potter franchise more popular. Partnerships have been very fruitful for the Harry Potter movies and books.
One thing that you will notice is the diversity in the brands that the franchise partners with. The audience groups of this franchise span different age groups. So, there have been partnerships with brands that target children as well as brands that target adults.
The Harry Potter and Lego partnership is to strengthen the rapport with the younger audience.
And to cash in on the grownup audience, there have been many partnerships like the one with Alex and Ani, an American jewelry brand.
Or even the partnership with Vera Bradley, an American luggage company.
Kimp Tip:
If you look at the above partnerships you will notice the following:
- There are brands from different industries. Similarly, when you are looking for partnership opportunities, have an open-minded approach. Identify brands whose products can complement your products or vice versa.
- There are brands with different target audience groups. Unless you have to focus on niche audiences, look for diverse partnership opportunities. This helps you reach a wider group of audiences from different markets.
Along with all this, you will notice that the collections and designs that were released as a part of the collaboration could work only because of the strong visual identity of the Harry Potter franchise.
To strengthen your brand’s visual identity, get in touch with the Kimp team today.
3. Bespoke content makes a huge difference
Technically the Harry Potter books started out as content targeting children. But millennials grew up reading the Harry Potter books and watching the Harry Potter movies in their childhood. And as adults, they still love these books and movies as much as they did as kids.
And there is a large share of the adult population that still reads the Harry Potter books. In fact, one survey in the year 2000 showed that 35% of the readers of the Harry Potter books were adults.
The publishers are well-aware of this diversity in the target audience demographics. That’s why you will find two kinds of Harry Potter books on the market. One that comes with a cover customized for the children. And another personalized for the adult audience.
In the children’s version, the illustrations are simpler and more colorful. In the adult version, there are minimalistic designs focusing more on the mystical side of the books.
Kimp Tip:
73% of consumers choose brands that personalize the experience for them. So, for print ads as well as digital ads, have multiple versions of the ad for the same campaign. The content can be the same. The CTA can also be the same. But the audience groups might be different. So, these versions can deliver the idea in different tones personalized for the audience group. That’s how you improve conversions for your ads.
With a Kimp Graphics subscription, you get unlimited designs every month. So, you can customize your designs as you like and have as many versions as you like for the same ad.
4. Create for your audience
Even with the best marketing efforts, if you do not deliver quality products you cannot survive in a competitive market. That’s true even in the world of books and movies. The marketing strategies for the Harry Potter movies and books have been great, no doubt about that. But then the irresistible storyline in the books and the quality of the movies have been the foundational blocks.
The one notable difference between the Harry Potter books and the other books for children is that the storyline grew with its audience. The first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone showed the protagonists as tweens. And the storyline was light and magical. A slow introduction to the world of wizards and magic. Slowly then the books started getting more serious. And the author reserved the darkest and the gravest details for the last book.
What really matters here is that the tweens who started reading the book in their childhood were well into their teens by the time the last book was published. And thus were old enough to grasp the serious storyline.
Kimp Tip:
When you launch a business, you have a great idea in mind. You create products as per your idea. But for your business to grow, you should start customizing your products to suit your customers.
Just like creating bespoke content for marketing to a diverse audience segment, you should also start personalizing your product for your customers. These changes do not always have to be big ones. It could be simple things like creating clearer labels for your packaging. Or modifying your packaging design to simplify the experience.
With a Kimp Graphics subscription, you can create stunning packaging, labels, and even packaging inserts for your orders.
5. Celebrate the people who help your brand grow
Businesses are created by entrepreneurs. Brands are created by consumers. The Harry Potter franchise is a good example of this. If you look at the fame curve of this brand, major peaks occurred because of fans. People who read the books recommended them to their friends and that’s how they added to the brand’s stance in the market.
Acknowledging the role played by the fans in the growth of the Harry Potter movies and books, the franchise came up with a campaign to honor its fans. There was a mosaic poster released as a part of the promotions for the last film in the series, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows II. Here is a picture of this poster.
What makes this special is that it is composed of 5000 fan images. With ideas like these, it is hard to fail.
Kimp Tip:
Focus on turning customers into influencers, and advocates for your brand. There are many ways to do it. Some brands have loyalty programs and referral programs for this purpose.
Another sure-shot approach is by regularly factoring in user-generated content. This can be simple shoutouts to customers who tag your brand on social media. When you celebrate your customers, they start celebrating your brand. And that’s how you earn quality leads.
6. Keep the conversation alive
The last movie hit the theaters a decade ago But the brand has not been forgotten. People still talk about Harry Potter. Such a level of memorability is possible only when you have partnerships that keep your brand alive. And you also need to maintain conversations with your audience, consistently.
Warner Bros, the production house for the Harry Potter movies, hosts a traveling event called the Harry Potter: The Exhibition. The upcoming exhibition in this series will be in Vienna.
This touring exhibition is a treat for fans and a way to create fans out of even those who know nothing about the books and movies.
In addition to events like these, there are experiential campaigns like The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando. And social media conversations like the one below.
These strategies work greatly in favor of the brand. Because people who have read the books and watched the films feel thrilled to experience them in real life. And those who visit these theme parks and get introduced to the wizarding world of Harry Potter will head back and watch the movies and read the books.
This proves that focusing on boosting customer experience always pays off.
Kimp Tip:
In addition to the regular posts about your brand on social media, create posts for communicating with your customers.
Below is a recent post on the Harry Potter Film page on Instagram.
Posts like these see a lot of engagement. People tag their friends and spread the word. This is just one way to do it. By constantly engaging with your customers, and delivering great experience, you end up strengthening your brand.
Become a Marketing Wizard With Designs From Kimp
If the promotional strategies for the Harry Potter movies and books have inspired you, you can execute these ideas for your brand as well. All it takes is a supportive design team who can execute your ideas. And that’s where Kimp comes in. Graphic designs or videos or both, whatever your marketing strategy calls for, the Kimp team can design them for you.
Sign up for your free trial today.