Harry Potter is aging with his audience – which helps to keep their attention.
Interesting idea – which, as quite a few commentators have noted, could be applied to almost any brand.
Ok – so here we have brands that will evolve over time to suit a particular cohort of people as they age. Very interesting concept. Actually, it seems to me that you don’t have to evolve it based on age alone – there are many other ways to identify and follow cohorts.
What’s really interesting from an IP Strategy perspective are the lifecycle management implications of this (to borrow from Pharma). Here are some preliminary thoughts:
Such ‘Cohort Brands’ will need a central, appealing theme which must be well protected with trade marks, copyright, etc. However, there will be many derivative brands created along the way, which also need to be protected. The process of monitoring the cohort, interacting with it and pitching derivative brands out in front, or building derivative brands to appeal to the cohort as it changes, will be very dynamic.
But what happens to the derivative brands as they are surpassed? Can you resurrect them for a future cohort, or is that it?