Freaky Friday: How Lego targeted kids and adults in 2021
In today’s Freaky Friday episode, we will uncover how Lego managed to appease kids and adults in the year 2020-21 and ultimately expanded its user base.
About the brand: Lego
For those of you who are living under a rock, LEGO is a billion-dollar Denmark-based toy company and is famous for its iconic interlocking colored toy bricks. Lego bricks are assembled and used to construct a variety of things including vehicles, working robots, and buildings. In the year 2015, the company managed to produce and sell 600 billion Lego parts.
How did Lego stay relevant?
Lego was fighting for market share from industry leaders Mattel and Hasbro – the creators of Barbie. In 2018, LEGO’s growth increased stupendously, from 3% growth in 2017 to 6 % growth, they outperformed the competition in every aspect. Even during the pandemic, the company had a “strong” double-digit growth.
The major attribute to its success were popular licensed Lego products such as Harry Potter and Marvel’s avengers. There was also a considerably large fanbase of Lego City, Lego Classic, and Lego Technic which have been in the market for decades.
In the year 2020, The Lego group launched the “Star Wars” range. They kept adding new elements, to keep the interest of the customer alive. Kids could build TIE fighter Pilot and helmet of Boba Fett.
Derek Stothard, Vice President, licensing, Lucasfilm, said, “Helmets have been a staple in ‘Star Wars’ iconography since the very beginning, helping to shape the designs of some of the most notable characters in the galaxy.”
Stothard later added, “So it only made sense to immortalize those helmets in LEGO brick form. It’s always fun to work with the LEGO Group to create new, engaging, and mentally stimulating products for builders around the globe, and we’re so excited to bring these LEGO ‘Star Wars’ helmet building kits, and brand-new packaging, to our fans,”
Defying the norm that toys are only for kids
Lego products are made for everyone, not just kids. The toymakers strongly believe that the brick is a “generation defying joy”.
Lego recently built a two-storey retail outlet in Manhattan where visitors could enjoy a mini-Ney York experience, there was Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, a gargantuan Hulk Statute, a discovery tree all made of Lego bricks.
One could even create their own portraits through Lego bricks in their personalised studio. Talking about the growth, CEO Neils Christiansen said “For the past two years, we’ve made large-scale investments in initiatives designed to support long-term growth. In 2020, we began to see the benefits of these, especially in e-commerce and product innovation.”
Christiansen added, “We will further increase investments during the coming year with a continued focus on innovating play, our brand, digitalization, and developing an omnichannel retail network.”
Infinite Options to be creative
If you can dream it, there is probably a Lego set for it waiting to be made. From toddlers to young adults, Lego has covered everyone. From simple amusement park designs to chess sets and mosaic maker, literally, everything under the sun is covered.
There are some extremely intricate designs that have more than 3,000 pieces, specifically meant for adults and not the regular Lego novice. So, if you want a creative challenge, LEGO would be your best bet.
