Stephen Brown - Wizard!: Harry Potter's Brand Magic

Harry Potter may not be the biggest brand in the world, or the most venerable, but his story is one of the most dramatic. This book tells the story of the Harry Potter brand and how it has taken the entertainment world by storm.

Joanne K Rowling and her fabulous money-spinning creation is a contemporary fairytale, a 21st century version of the classic cornucopian chronicle. An impoverished single parent pens an accidental bestseller, which grows exponentially. The book begets more books, which beget movies and merchandise and huge media coverage.

Today, Harry Potter is as much a brand as Tom Cruise, Starbucks or even Heinz. In a world where corporate storytelling is the new rock ’n’ roll, it is no longer enough to tell a single story coherently – important and necessary though that is. It must be a majestic brand story, a magnificent brand story, a magical brand story.

The Harry Potter "franchise" is a fascinating story in itself, but it is a story that is woven into all the other Harry Potter stories - stories about the author, stories about the readers, stories about the nay-sayers and sceptics. This book unpicks the various narrative strands that make up the Harry Potter story, and provides a fascinating insight into how Harry Potter became one of the world’s most recognised brands in an extraordinarly short period of time.

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