Chapter 4. Consumer Decision Making

Vignette: The phenomenon of the popularity of a series of books about a character named Harry Potter has astonished the publishing world. Warner Brothers holds the Harry Potter licenses and releases the first Harry Potter movie (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) November 2001. Children "of all ages" are eager to investigate anything associated with the series.

Featured URL: http://www.harrypotter.warnerbros.com

Anticipation

Marketing planners need to take into account a number of things when anticipating what customers will respond to. You may want to refresh your memory regarding the relationship of cultural, social, individual and psychological factors and the consumer decision making process as shown in Chapter Four: need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, and post purchase behaviour are essential parts of this process.

Activity

1. Go to Warner Brother's Harry Potter web site. (http://harrypotter.com will also take you there) Watch the introduction and describe the dramatic elements used to draw the visitor into the site. (Be sure to listen to the sound on this site - if you are using a computer at your school, you may need to use ear phones. You will need to download Flash if it is not already on the computer you are using. This is a free tool that can be downloaded from the Macromedia site - http://www.macromedia.com/downloads/). Notice what happens when you move the mouse over the menu items.

2. Click on the first menu item "Hogwarts" and submit your name as requested. Progress through the various screens to reach the "Sorting Ritual". Answer each question and submit your answer until you are sorted.
Now visit other items on the menu (Diversions, Diagon Alley, Platform 9 1/2, Daily Prophet, Wizard's Shop, Live the Magic).  What aspect of the site is most appealing to you and why?

3. In the "live the Magic" section, you are invited to play Harry Potter and the Search for the Sorcerer's Stone game when you purchase specially marked products of Coca-Cola, Minute Maid and Hi-C. What other tie-ins do you think would be effective in the marketing of Harry Potter?

4. You can find Harry Potter products at the Warner Brother's store - http://WBshop.com and at the
Wizards Shop - http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/wizardshop/index.html . Are the same things available on each site? IF not, why do you think this is true? What do you think is the marketing strategy behind having two different sites to promote the Harry Potter products - do they target different buyers? Describe the target market for each of these two sites.

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Harry Potter Official Sites

http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/home.asp  The American publisher of the HP books.
 http://www.bloomsbury.com/harrypotter/ The British publisher
http://www.raincoast.com/ The Canadian publisher

Sample Unofficial Sites (as of 2001)

http://www.HarryPotterRealm.com/ - Gypsy's Harry Potter site
http://fididdle.com  Travis' Harry Potter Fan Club
http://www.harrypotterfrance.com/  Fan Club Français de Harry Potter
http://www.angelfire.com/journal/hpotterfanclub/index.html  Harry Potter Fan Club
http://www.angelfire.com/zine/harrypotter2000/index.html  Chris' Harry Potter Fan Club
http://www.angelfire.com/co3/potter1/index.html  GT Harry Potter Fan Club
http://harrypotterfans.com/links/Links/Sites/  harrypotterfans.com
http://susqcolibrary.org/kids/HPCLUB.HTM  Trelawney's Harry Potter Club Page
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Fields/3400/  Harry Potter Links - the BIG list!
http://www.totalsurf.com/fansites/Harry_Potter/  Harry Potter graphics cliparts icons
http://www.connectingstudents.com/lessonplans/potter/links.htm  Webquest - Teacher Resources
http://www.naples.lib.me.us/hpotter.htm  Harry Potter Web Sites
http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/hplinks.htm  Harry Potter Links
http://www.edleston.cheshire.sch.uk/projects/harry/harry.htm - Edleston School's Harry Potter Site
http://www.hagridshut.com/ - Hagrid's Hut

Wizard of Oz
http://www.eskimo.com/~tiktok/index.html - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Site
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/6396/oz-links.htm - Jim's Ozzy LInks Page
http://www.halcyon.com/piglet/weblinks.htm#ozlinks - Links to Wizard of Oz Sites

Lord of the Rings
http://www.lordoftherings.net/ Lord of the Rings film site
http://www.lordoftheringsmovie.com/ Imladris - Lord of the Rings Movie News
http://www.thelordoftherings.com/ - Lord of the Rings Homepage   http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/u/relipper/tolkien/rootpage.html - The J.R.R. Tolkien Information Page
http://upcomingmovies.com/fellowshipofthering.html - Review of the first film in the series and related links

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Instructors: Optional Activities

As with all of the Web exercises, the exercise for Chapter Four can be used as suggested or certain parts can be adapted to better suit your student population. You will want to estimate how much time is required to complete any part or all of the parts.  It will be helpful to give students a suggested time frame for completing their assignments. It will also help to determine how much credit might be given for the assignment.

Cross Fertilization
1a. Looking at the cross fertilization possible in marketing books, films and related products, students will visit a number of sites related to publishing and/or the book market. First, visit the sites listed for the publishers in England, Canada and the United States. Describe the differences in each site's approach to the marketing of the Harry Potter book series.

Marketing Treatments
1b. Compare how the major online book site sell Harry Potter books and related items - Visit both of the following sites then compare the two and point out what works most effectively in both sites.
http://Amazon.com (154 products) vs http://BarnesandNoble.com (216 titles).  How does this compare to the marketing treatment the books are given on a Canadian bookseller's site? http://www.indigo.ca/ - Chapters.Indigo (92 titles)

Before or After
1c. Compare marketing a book or series of books based on a popular film with marketing the film which is based on a popular book or series of books. Do research to discover books that were written AFTER the movie's success. (for example E.T.- the extra-terrestrial - http://us.imdb.com/Title?E.T.+the+Extra-Terrestrial+%281982%29)

Spin Off Products
2. Study spin off products for marketing strategies. Have students choose a movie character like Batman, Superman, or Spiderman and other characters who are the subject of books, film and television. Compare the products available for sale on the Web for these characters with what is being marketed for Tomb Raider - http://www.tombraider.com/  which was taken from a video game to a movie made by Paramount Pictures.

Off to See the Wizard
3.  In 1898 in a Chicago neighborhood, a number of children would come to Frank Baum's house to listen to the stories he told his sons. Based on those stories, The Wizard of Oz was published in 1900 and became the biggest selling children's book of the year. The movie, made in the 1940's in Hollywood, has become a film classic that is listed among the world's favourites. With such popularity, this film has spawned a great many marketable items. Using the Wizard of Oz web sites in the Resource section, compile a list of new products that could be made available. How could these best be introduced to today's marketplace? Students may first conduct a web search to see what products related to the book and film are currently being marketed.

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