Book World Central

The latest Harry Potter adventure to hit the big screen comes less than two weeks before the July 21 release of the seventh and final book in JK Rowling’s series, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”

Today i have been interviewed by a journalist of a leading media house who was so curious to know what is the Magic of Harry potter all about? and do we expect any more magic to happen since this book is going to be the last? Would she rise again with another character and may be recreate her magic and so n and so forth….but the question which was left lingering in my mind was what is the impact of marketing in promoting a book which deals with fantasy?

I as a book marketeer must confess that the magic of content is definetly doubled if the promotion of the book is done in the targetted manner. Kudos to the PR/Publicity and marketing team of JKR who have determindedly created a niche, generated demand and then catered to them. The target Group (TG) of this book is young adults and how carefully and meticulouly the campaign has been designed over a period of time to generate a hype which has reached its crescendo now.

I beleive Harry Potter is a phenomenon which happens rarely in book publishing business and is going to stand the test of time with its back list sales continuing for years to come. Harry Potter is the stuff legends are made of.

The advent of movie series and the combined effort of the movie publicity has added strength to the book marketing of Harry Potter series and it has provided the image to the hundreds of thousands of Harry Potter fans who were reading it, and also have been substantially added a new customer base by targetting people who do not read but prefr to watch.

I beleive the strengths of this campaign will be a role model to follow for all the people who wish to sell the books in a never before manner. The marketing team of Harry Potter has changed the rules of the game and now it has become a process which is more consumer facing, with campaigns planned towards the direct consumer and schemes and discounts for the trade partner.

As a marketing person i feel happy that this paradigm shift is happening in marketing of books because publishing mostly had been and still is very old school in approach when it comes to promoting them. people the world over were not willing to take risk hence were printing lower number of copies which resulted in if not poor then just manageable sales collection. this practically means that there will be less money to spend on marketing of the book hence there will be less sales and so the cycle continues.

But now we all have learnt and those who haven’t learnt are watching from sidewalks that if you increase the print run you get higher earnings hence you can invest more money in marketing and promotion of the book and if you do that you reach out to a higher number of consumers and you sell more.

This is a trick which low margin products like chewing gums candies and condoms were using for a long long time. How do you think a candy maker whose product is priced at 10 pence - 20 pence is able to invest in a TVC which costs him 2000 pound sterlings? The game is hidden in the number of units produced and revenue expected to generate from that publicity. Its all in the ability to take the risk, and the confidence you have in your product.

I will write more on this fantabulous trend in marketing of books but all those friends who happen to vist my blog and comment please do let me know if you agree to what i am saying, becaue in the end of the day it how much we lern from each other is what matters. this is my learning and my understanding what is urs? Would you share it with the world?

Best regards AKS

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