Ansoff Meets Harry Potter

You read the books; you watched the movies; you've visited the theme park. Next up - the Harry Potter Musical?

Some have speculated that the latest brand extension might be a step too far for the Harry Potter brand. The Harry Potter franchise will be taking over London's West End next year, with a new stage play based on the character's early years expected to open by 2015. The media have reported that the play/musical (or some kind of theatrical adaptation) will be co-written by JK Rowling - which will certainly give the project some credibility.

This other article on the Harry Potter development speculates that the theatre that agrees to host the play will be given a "licence to print money" - which is media-jargon for a product that can't possibly lose. That's quite a claim to make given that many new plays in the West End lose substantial amounts for their backers and often shut down quickly.

However, you could also argue that a Harry Potter play holds all the cards.

In terms of the Ansoff Matrix, where would you place the idea and the associated risk?

On the one hand the play will surely appeal to the hundreds of thousands of loyal Harry Potter fans who have grown up with the franchise. They are the existing customers for whom the play is a new product - that's product development. A relatively low-risk move given the track record of those customers to buy just about anything that has a legitimate connection to the boy-wizard.

Might the Harry Potter play also appeal to new customers - perhaps an older audience who fill those sell-out West End shows days after day. You can imagine that hundreds of thousands of inbound (overseas) tourists to London would want to include tickets in their intinerary. That would be a strategy of related diversification - a new product for new customers. Though, again the risk look low.

How else can the risk be minimised and the opportunity maximised? By employing the very best creative people in the business. It looks like the Harry Potter play already has those in place.

So it could really turn out to be a licence to print money...a risk worth taking for potentially substantial rewards.