Potter's magic potion?
If you're already fed up with the ubiquitous image of teenage wizard Harry Potter, the upcoming premiere of the latest film in the series might fill you with dread. So here's a sobering thought: it could have been a lot worse. Due to strict limitations on the use of the image imposed by Warner Brothers (WB), the holders of the global film's licensing and merchandising rights, no more than 14 product licenses have been issued for this country, most of them granted to the local operations of multinationals.
For products ranging from toys to computer games to food and postcards, Harry has been the face of many an advertising campaign. But the worldwide ban on the use of the boy wonder to sell products at bargain prices has reduced his attractiveness to potential license-takers, especially fast-food chains, says Arek Wróblewski of Plus Licens, WB's local agent. As a consequence, the only food and drink companies given the right to use the image in this country are Masterfoods and Coca-Cola. But the latter fizzy drinks producer still faces tough conditions, including not being allowed to use Potter's image on cans.
And there were other limitations, such as color requirements. Author JK Rowling demanded that campaigns retain something of the books' darkish atmosphere, which proved a problem for some licensees.
"We haven't even got our license fee back," says Beata Rajca, production director at Mista, a Kraków-based paper products maker. "We expected great things of Harry Potter merchandise, but it turned out to be a complete failure, which came as a shock to us." The gloomy color range has had an inhibiting effect on sales, she reveals.
The case pinpoints the difficulties that some marketers faced when dealing with the unique brand that Harry Potter turned out to be. In contrast to the classic Disney characters, the young wizard is a new arrival on the scene, whose meteoric rise to fame is more similar to that of Pokémon. Unlike the Japanese invention, though, Harry Potter is protected from over-exposure in the interests of the brand's longevity, say market watchers.
The licenser's requirement that products carrying the boy's face must have an extra feature that differentiates it clearly from the competition also drives prices up, which is more of a problem here than in other more affluent markets.
Some adjustments to local market conditions were made, however. WB insisted that the merchandise only be sold in specialized shops rather than all-purpose supermarket chains. After lengthy negotiations, when it was pointed out that the country lacks a distribution network similar to the USA, the license-holder dropped this requirement.
On the whole, it has been multinationals that have enjoyed the most success with Potter-driven marketing. As the fate of some local license-takers illustrates, it is not always enough to stick a popular face on your product to achieve commercial success.
For products ranging from toys to computer games to food and postcards, Harry has been the face of many an advertising campaign. But the worldwide ban on the use of the boy wonder to sell products at bargain prices has reduced his attractiveness to potential license-takers, especially fast-food chains, says Arek Wróblewski of Plus Licens, WB's local agent. As a consequence, the only food and drink companies given the right to use the image in this country are Masterfoods and Coca-Cola. But the latter fizzy drinks producer still faces tough conditions, including not being allowed to use Potter's image on cans.
And there were other limitations, such as color requirements. Author JK Rowling demanded that campaigns retain something of the books' darkish atmosphere, which proved a problem for some licensees.
"We haven't even got our license fee back," says Beata Rajca, production director at Mista, a Kraków-based paper products maker. "We expected great things of Harry Potter merchandise, but it turned out to be a complete failure, which came as a shock to us." The gloomy color range has had an inhibiting effect on sales, she reveals.
The case pinpoints the difficulties that some marketers faced when dealing with the unique brand that Harry Potter turned out to be. In contrast to the classic Disney characters, the young wizard is a new arrival on the scene, whose meteoric rise to fame is more similar to that of Pokémon. Unlike the Japanese invention, though, Harry Potter is protected from over-exposure in the interests of the brand's longevity, say market watchers.
The licenser's requirement that products carrying the boy's face must have an extra feature that differentiates it clearly from the competition also drives prices up, which is more of a problem here than in other more affluent markets.
Some adjustments to local market conditions were made, however. WB insisted that the merchandise only be sold in specialized shops rather than all-purpose supermarket chains. After lengthy negotiations, when it was pointed out that the country lacks a distribution network similar to the USA, the license-holder dropped this requirement.
On the whole, it has been multinationals that have enjoyed the most success with Potter-driven marketing. As the fate of some local license-takers illustrates, it is not always enough to stick a popular face on your product to achieve commercial success.
