Wizard! Harry Potter’s Brand Magic

I first heard of Harry Potter in July 1999, when there was an item on the evening news about the “phenomenon”. Such was the excitement about the new Harry Potter book – the third, apparently, in a series of seven – that bookshops feared children would skip class in order to buy it. Rather than stand accused of inciting mass truancy, however, the great and good of Bloomsbury, the book’s British publisher, put their sagacious heads together and decreed that Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban would only go on sale at 3.45 p.m., when classes had finished for the day.

As acts of corporate social responsibility go, this selfless bookselling decision hardly calls down the years like, say, Alfred Nobel’s eponymous Prizes or William Lever’s construction of Port Sunlight. But, you’ve gotta admit, it’s a brilliant publicity stunt. The very fact that it was deemed sufficiently important to nab a spot on the mid-evening news – a spot that featured extensive footage of excited kids snapping up the product – is testament to the astonishing marketing acumen of Harry Potter’s handlers.

When I started reading the books, what’s more, I was immediately struck by the sheer amount of marketing they contain. They’re full of retail stores, advertising slogans, brand name merchandise and larger-than-life self-publicists like the sublime Gilderoy Lockhart. Not only does Gilderoy epitomise the vainglorious side of marketing, but his desire to “rid the world of evil and market my own range of hair-care potions” is sufficient, surely, to endear him to all but the most rabid anti-capitalists.

Wizard!, then, is the outcome of my on-going interest in Harry Potter’s brand magic. The publisher, Cyan Books, has been absolutely fantastic – to the point of agreeing to publish Chapter 6 in mirror writing – but they wouldn’t budge on the overall length of the book. I was limited to 45,000 words and my first draft came in at 65,000 or so. I overshot the mark so badly that, even after the blue editorial pencil had been wielded, I had to cut out two entire chapters in order to meet the agreed length. These chapters dealt with the causes of Pottermania (The Whys Story) and the future for the brand (The Wherefores Story). They are available below as free downloads, as is a conventional version of Chapter 6 (for those of you who refuse to read with a mirror on hand – what is wrong with you people?!). The pedants among you might like to know that Whys and Wherefores were Chapters 10 and 11 of the original 13-chapter book. The Secrets Story was originally Chapter 7 – i.e. the mid-point – of the longer version of Wizard!

In the Wherefores chapter, incidentally, I note how the basic logistics of the Harry Potter franchise mean that the final volume can’t be published for some time yet. Therefore, I’m not surprised by Rowling’s recent announcement that she’s taking time off to focus on her family. I predicted as much back in December 2004. It remains to be seen whether my predictions about the denouement of the entire series will come to pass. But, hey, we’re all entitled to our theories, aren’t we?

FYI, I'm planning to continue my research into the Harry Potter brand. I'm working on an empirical research project with a colleague from Liverpool University, Anthony Patterson. The first phase of this research has been conducted by Tony and we're planning another round later this year. Watch this space!

Incidentally, the preliminary empirical material included in Chapter 9 of Wizard! is based on work done by my market research students at the University of Ulster . They wrote fantastic introspective essays on the Harry Potter brand, tiny parts of which are quoted in the book. I only wish I could have quoted from them more extensively. I'd also like to thank them for putting up with my Harry Potter fixation. I did ramble on a bit during lectures. Surely not, I hear you say…

Thank you for buying Wizard! Your custom is much appreciated. Your money even more so.