Dan Schawbel Interviews Susan Gunelius about Hugh Hefner, Playboy and Harry Potter

This week, I answered some questions posed to me by Dan Schawbel of Personal Branding Blog about my new book, Building Brand Value the Playboy Way, and my book about the Harry Potter brand, Harry Potter: The Story of a Global Business Phenomenon.

You can read the full interview on Dan’s blog and learn how Hugh Hefner, Playboy and Harry Potter are connected in terms of branding strategy.

Bet you never thought you’d hear that Playboy and Harry Potter can be compared to each other!

Here’s a brief excerpt from the interview:

Dan Schawbel: What branding lessons can we learn from Playboy and Harry Potter?

Susan Gunelius: I think the biggest similarity between the Playboy and Harry Potter brands is the importance of having a brand champion and brand guardian at the helm. Both Playboy and Harry Potter have two of the strongest brand champions and advocates leading the way — Hugh Hefner and J.K. Rowling. Both resolutely defend their brands just as much as they promote them.

Read the rest here.

Susan Gunelius

Susan Gunelius is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc. and Founder & Editor in Chief of an award-winning blog, WomenOnBusiness.com. She is a 25-year veteran of the marketing field and has authored 10 books about marketing, branding, and social media, including the highly popular 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing for Dummies, Blogging All-in-One for Dummies and Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps. Susan’s marketing-related content can be found on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, and more. Susan is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She has worked in corporate marketing roles and through client relationships with AT&T, HSBC, Citibank, Intuit, The New York Times, Cox Communications, and many more large and small companies around the world. Susan also speaks about marketing, branding and social media at events around the world and is frequently interviewed by television, online, radio, and print media organizations about these topics. She holds an MBA in Management and Strategy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing.