LEGO has stayed relevant as a toy supplier worldwide for more than nine decades. This podcast explores the secret behind their success. We highlighted three areas to showcase the brand’s resilience in capturing the imagination, driving engagement, and building consistent revenue streams.
You can find this podcast episode on major podcast platforms: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartMedia, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, and Anchor.
Table of Contents
Introduction – LEGO
Did you know that the iconic toy brand has almost 16 million subscribers on its YouTube channel with more than 30,000+ videos and shorts contributing to more than 20 billion combined views.
Along with other social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc., the brand has transformed itself into a content powerhouse in engaging key demographics from youngsters inspired to create a new world to seniors reminiscing over past memories.
New product mix incorporating classic characters and new technology enable the brand to reach a boarder audience clamoring to be the first to build a stadium, produce an unbox video, or show off their creativity. Let’s find out more how brand finds success in today’s competitive landscape.
Transcript
Larry/DeAnn
This is another exciting episode of Retail Mashup the podcast. I am Larry. And I’m DeAnn. This podcast talks about retail customer experience insights, where we talk about how it leads to potential revenue generation, opportunities, and drawbacks using customer experience. And this particular episode, I am going to focus on LEGO. Perhaps it’s the first toy that I may have came across or remember since I was a child.
Larry
I wanna talk about the evolution of LEGO, and how it’s transformed itself from a toy manufacturer using blocks to a powerhouse in customer experience.
2022 Results
To give you a little insight, 2022 has been a banner year for LEGO. They just reported that revenue jumped 17% to about US$9.28 billion. This is outperforming the market in the retail industry. And also the growth has continued through the pandemic. And many people would be asking themselves, well, why is that?
Why Is Lego Doing So Well // Listening To Customer Needs
Why is LEGO doing so well? I can talk about it on three different fronts. Number one. LEGO is thinking about what the customer needs. They have been looking at trends and they have been partnering with specific brands such as Harry Potter, Nintendo with Super Mario Brother Series, BTS, and Friends have their own set.
If you think about Paris, London, and New York, they all have their own LEGO set. Thinking about the different trends LEGO have been thinking about, why don’t we build something catering to specific demographics and serve their needs? And not only that, they can continue creating various components and make them limited edition so that once the series is done selling, there may not be anything else.
Showcasing What’s Possible
You would have to look into the secondary market to get the same set for a Star Wars piece that has been sold out. And so that’s number one. Number two, they have been very effective in showcasing what Lego is about, and what the brand is about through the LEGO stores at various malls and various airports.
If you go into a mall, you’re likely going to see a different LEGO set. In one instance, I saw an Eiffel tower. In another instance, at an airport, I saw a TSA Agent. And so it draws people into asking themselves, “Ooh, what’s new and exciting in the Lego store?”
Since we have been playing LEGO as kids there is always going to have some type of comfort attachment. I would love to see what’s in the LEGO store and what is new so that even if I’m not buying, I would be inspired by it.
Engaging The Audience
And number three, they have been very effective in engaging the audience by partnering with different media channels so that if there is a new set created in advance of a new movie or a new TV series. Media channels would know it ahead of time so that there would be an increased hype on all omnichannel, whether or not it’s digital or physical in engaging the audience and building up that excitement of wanting to buy that particular product.
I remember the nights when I was putting up together LEGO sets with my dad and that memory still resonates with me and I think it resonates with a lot of people as well. And so with those three specific components, they’re able to think about what are the customer needs, how to engage them, how to acquire them continuously as a customer, onboard them once they have the set, help them build the set, and then help them, put them on social media.
If something goes wrong, there are robust teams of people within LEGO and through the digital channels to address any questions. And finally, Because people are encouraged to pull up all their amazing content through LEGO or social media, there is a continuous awareness building on LEGO, the brand itself.
So that’s the story of the week for me. What do you think?
The Discussion
DeAnn
I love the brand. I was in Amsterdam recently and they had a LEGO store and I was gonna go in and look around. I couldn’t get in. It was just too packed. And it seems to every city I go to that has a Lego store, that’s the situation.
But what I love most about LEGO is its ability to stay relevant with younger generations coming into the marketplace through unique brand partnerships. They partnered with Nike on LEGO for sneakers. They’ve partnered with Clothing manufacturers for LEGO on the pocket, and you can clip LEGO onto the pocket and design your piece.
And so they’re creating that connection to younger demographics. Not just children, but young adults as well who are, who grew up playing with it now they’re able to enjoy it in a more mature part of their life, and then ultimately they’ll buy it for their children.
I love the humor that LEGO injects into their brand, and the playfulness that is really in tune with their brand voice, like creating slippers for grownups to protect their feet from Legos scattered on the floor.
So that to me is a flawless brand execution from all sides.
Larry
And it shows that they care. This particular story, it’s really about caring about your customers, caring about their needs, and then giving them what they’re looking for. Over the years, even though toy prices have gone up LEGO prices have not gone up significantly in the past five years.
They have programs in place to help people who may not have access to LEGOs. They encourage people to bring back their LEGO blocks, recycle them and also get cash value for various LEGO sets.
So I appreciate that they are thinking about the community and providing products that would fit different demographics.
DeAnn
I love it.
Larry
So that is the end of another exciting episode. If you like what you’re hearing, please subscribe and we look forward to talking to you soon.
* We made some modifications to the transcript to improve understandability and flow
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