Unravelling Pottermania

The release of J K Rowling's latest book - 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' - has taken the whole world by storm,
so much so, that the grammarians had to coin a new term for this wave - Pottermania !! With more than 15 million people
lined to get their hands on 'HP n DH' copy on the very first day of the book's release and JKR sitting on a personal
worth in excess of $1 billion, Pottermainia ranks only second to BeatleMania in the history of cult followings. Wanna
hear what's in-vogue nowadays - kids citing their bicycles to be of Nimbus 2x series and more often that not people
using 'Wingardium Leviosa' to save on their bungee jumping money (make sure you spell the second word as
Levi-OOO-sa, not Levio-SA, otherwise Hermione won't be too happy with you).

What follows now is my humble attempt to understand the success of Harry Potter - unravelling Pottermania as I would
like to call it. But before I delve deep into the Potter maze, I would like to make it very clear that I'm not a
die-hard Potter fan, neither have I read a single Harry Potter novel. On the other hand, I have watched each of the
potter movies released till date. So, the bottomline is - I havn't had too much of HP but just enough to comment on it,
or in other words I'm neither an ardent HP supporter nor do I consider this forum to take out on any personal vendetta
against HP !

Let me start by acknowledging that JKR has done a tremendous job in conjuring the magical world of Hogwarts and wizards
and in creating an altogether new vocabulary - words like slytherin, Gryffindor, Quidditch etc (none of which have
etymology from Latin !!). I havn't read the novel, but those who have, tell me that they had led an all together
diferent life while reading it, they've literally grown with it, turned in their beds with every twist in the narrative,
laughed with Harry and Hermione on every witty/stupid remark Ron makes and clenched their fists in unison with HP when
he is fighting 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named' !!! Now that HP readers feel the emptiness that inevitably follows the end of
a great journey, they insist that they have enjoyed the voyage more than the destination. Isn't that the mark of a
great masterpiece ?? Perhaps !!!

The first 3 potter books came and went, they were bestsellers, created huge profits, but didn't have the furore which
they have now !! And then it happened - Harry got two of his best Christmas gifts - first the adoption of HP by Warner
Brothers and second the internet !! Already having a US publishing house and now under the patronage of Warner brothers
HP became an American Icon. As Derek O' Brain aptly puts it - 'America knows how to sell its icons, if it can sell
Marilyn Monroe to the world, it sure can sell HP' !! Backed by some highly creative directors HP movies were
fantastically made which put all HP readers' visions into visuals and got non HP readers day-dreaming about a fictional
universe. And then came toys, danglers and postage stamps to feed HP lovers even more. Potter games like 'Treasure Hunt
in Hogwarts' and the 'Tom Morvolo Riddle's book' sweeped everybody off their feet.Harry got the exposure it was
yearning for (and which many thought it deserved).

Apart from this, HP got the best marketting strategy working for it, the same marketting strategy which transformed
Google from the final year project of two Stanford graduates to the giant it is today - 'word of mouth' publicity! Potter
fans talked and talked and talked about it. But then as Thomas Abraham,CEO-Penguin Books,says -'Even if HP is a
marketting success, what's wrong with it ? That's not like selling some politician through some trumped up whitewash
campaign. True that many good books failed because of the lack of proper advertising, but I'm yet to see a blockbuster
which doesn't stand by its content." Perhaps true - marketting can dress something up, but it's not going to stay the
course unless people believe there's something in it.

So, is the HP series most imaginative ever ?? Certainly not. Philip Pullman's dark materials triology is as enjoyable
and perhaps more imaginative. But still Potter scored the big prize. Why ? On behalf of Jeff Leyhitt, let me make you
aware of a freakingly similar concept to that of freakonomics (Steven Levitt would have probably done it himself if he
was not busy researching drug peddlars and the decrease in US crime rates). The artistry of JKR is an important element
explaining HP's success, but the changing economics of the 'new economy' plays a big role too. Books and movies are
diffirent from other products that we consume, in that quality of our experience depends in part on whether others
experience the product as well. When I eat an apple, my pleasure doesn't depend on whether my co-worker eats an apple,
too. But when both of us have seen the same movie or read the same book, we can delight in conversation about it.
Economists call such interactions 'network externalities' which played an important role in success of HP. When network
externalities are present, the success of the product can snowball once the sales of the product have crossed a tipping
point. As more individuals experience the product, the benifit to others increases, lifting the incentive to experience
the product even more. Why did HP become the focal point ?? The answer is partly quality and partly the luck of good
timing. Externalities are more powerful in the internet age. Potter websites, online chat room and video games offer
fan the oppurtunity to extend their enjoyment and magnify the network. One wonders if Potter would have been such a
success without the internet.

Potter geeks...wat say ?? Food for thought :D
I'm sure the potter-maniacs would be raring to have a go at me...so, shoot !!!!

NOTE: The last paragragh on network externalities is an excerpt from 21st July, Economics Times.