P5

LEGO GROUP

Mina Prophitt

Professor Griggs

South University

Marketing Statistics

August 25, 2021

Lego group is a private organization that produces Lego toys for children from the age of one to fifteen. It was established in Denmark in 1932. It has over 17,431 employees all ove the world. The organization has opened different retail stores and many amusement parks in distinct parts of the world. The organization manufactures toys using plastics (Lego.com, 2021). The flagship product, Lego, comprises of colored interlocking bricks which are accompanied by a line of mini-figures, gears and other parts. The Lego toys can easily be connected to other objects like buildings, working robots and vehicles. The good thing with the products is that they can quickly be taken apart and pieces reused to develop a new product.

Lego pieces consist of a universal system with a variation design and remain compatible for several years. The organization ensures that every lego piece has to be manufactured to an exact degree of precision. This helps to make sure that the two pieces fit firmly when engaged with each other and can as well as disassemble without causing destruction. The organization has a powerful machine that manufactures lego bricks that have a tolerance as small as 10micrometers. The fundamental concept and development usually occur at the Billund headquarters, where they are about 120 designers (Askattest.com, 2019). The company has few offices for the designers in Spain, Japan, the UK and Germany, which are primarily responsible for manufacturing products aimed at their specific markets.

It takes approximately twelve months for the organization to launch a new product in the market. The twelve-month period is usually split into three phases. The initial phase involves identifying the market trends and developments where it includes contact by designers with the market directly. At this phase, the designers may also be stationed in toy shops to collect observation data from buyers and some go-ahead to interview children. The second phase involves the development and design of the product based on the results from the first phase. For instance, in 2008, the company used 3D modelling software to produce CAD drawings from previous design sketches. The third phase is the validation stage, where the team present the product to the focus group for comments and testing by children. If there is a need to change the design based on the results, then changes are made at this stage.

The advantage with this organization is that it has its own Lego Digital Designer, which is an official lego software for windows and Mac OS X that enables users to create unique designs. The program also allows the customers to order custom made designs using a service to ship physical models from designers to consumers. Lego Design by ME is a special service that enables the customer to order in their own Lego models vial a computer program as well as offer the design they like to the company. The customer uploads the design to the Lego website. However, this service ended in 2012, forcing customers to purchase the products designed by their own designers and developers.

LEGO currently uses crowdsources to engage with its fans and customers. Crowd soucing is a practice of getting information through enlisting the service from numerous people via the internet. The company uses crowdsourcing to collect information, ideas and opinions from diverse groups of people. It allows the company to save money and time of physically gathering information from people all over the world. The company uses the information to boost its marketing strategy and enhance its productivity (Bikker, 2020). Through crowdsourcing, the LEGO community that seems to have an idea that seems interesting to the company gets a chance to bring the concept into reality. This has been one of the best ways LEGO has found to engage with their customers. The customers tend to feel appreciated and valued not only at the end-purchasing service but also in the design development stage.

The company has customer service advisors who help in answering questions to customers all over the world. They handle all queries concerning product inquiries and launches as well as online shopping. They troubleshoot their digital products like LEGO Life App and LEGO Boost, and every colleague serves approximately 40 customers a day. They try as much as possible to engage with consumers in order to increase customer loyalty via numerous channels like Web chat, Email and phone (Törmer, 2018). The advisors represent the brand of the company through their unique tone of voice as well a writing handling models while communicating with adults and children. Their politeness has largely contributed to the increased sales for their products.

Frontline employee→ supervisor→ operators → retail store manager →customer service advisor

A frontline employee is the first person to reach out to as a customer. Frontline employees in LEGO are responsible for handling issues as well as representing the company. There are available online and always willing to engage with the customers via phone, email or social media platforms. As a frontline employee. Communication is the most significant skill to avoid confusing the customers. There are responsible for retaining the customers through good company-customer engagement, which involve transparency, politeness and empathy. They are responsible for handling even difficult customers. They also demonstrate the brand value of the company at all times. Frontline is always there to answer questions regarding what the customer needs to purchase.

The supervisor is the other crucial person whose role is to communicate the needs of the organization. The supervisor oversees the performance of the employees, supporting them, offering guidance and managing the relationship between the organization. They ensure that every employee is serving the customers at the best of their abilities. The supervisor ensures that all other employee’s goals and roles are clearly communicated. They conduct an evaluation of the employee's performance based on the established policies and systems of the LEGO organization. They ensure that the customer’s requests are put into consideration while manufacturing toys.

The other team is the operators who are responsible for producing as well as delivering iconic products to the customers. They are responsible for ensuring the needs of the employees are met across the world. Operators are at the central part of the organization to ensure that it remains to enjoy a competitive advantage in the market.

The other team is the retail store manager, who gives information about the products available in the stores and is ready for sales. It ensures that the company continues producing products so that every customer gets what they need (Stadler, 2016). They are responsible for logistics, where they plan how the product will be delivered. The last but not the least team is the customer service advisory team who are responsible for ensuring that the customers are satisfied. They are always in direct contact with the customer to ensure that the right product is delivered. In case a wrong product is delivered, the customer service team guides the customers on how to return the product. The customer should return the product free of chard within the first 90 days after product delivery.

There are two main delivery models. The first model is standard delivery which applies to products that will take one to eight business days to be delivered. Delivery may take to a maximum of 15 business days, excluding holidays. The delivery information is usually available online at shop.LEGO.com. The other mode of delivery is express delivery, where the product takes one to two business days. However, Saturday deliveries are usually unavailable. For now, the company does not get orders from parcel lockers, and PO boxes and all the potential buyers are usually advised to use the website.

Although our company has a lot of functional contacts, it has three major contact failures. First, all LEGO's products are entirely made of plastics which makes a major impact on the environment during manufacturing. Various studies have revealed that the toy industry utilizes 40 tons of plastic per $1 million revenue, plastic toys entail heavy metals like cadmium and lead and other dangerous chemicals like dioxins. Although people are aware of the effects of plastic in the environment and their need to reduce the usage of plastic, they are still not changing their behaviours (Greenjournal.co.uk, 2020). This happens to parents who want to make their children happy by giving them gifts in the form of plastic toys more than wooden or other forms. Various environmentalists have revealed that most of the plastics that end up in oceans and landfills are usually toys.

The second point of failure is most of the toys from LEGO are of not great benefit when it comes to education. Most of their products are designed to impact the child's constructional skills. This is a failure to the large market who may need toys that will need toys that will impact the learning or educational process of the child. The last point of failure is that the company used a premium pricing strategy. This affects a large number of potential buyers who may opt for other companies due to the prices, which largely affect the sales of the company. The target market is becoming price-sensitive, and many buyers prefer lower price products. This makes them opt for generic products, and LEGO ends up losing a large percentage of their loyal customers.

There are a few recommendations I would like to put across for the company to improve on the contact point of failures stated above. The company should work together with educators in order to manufacture products that are beneficial in the classroom and bringing learning concepts to life. The company should invest in interactive learning and digital games due to more emphasis on experimental education and advancement in school technology. Many children have transformed their attention to digital gaming, and in case LEGO decide to invest in digital learning, it will capture a larger market. Since it is a large band with a massive fans base, it will be able to improve its competitive advantage by introducing newer products in the market using the existing influence (Cornwright, 2021).

Since the company can take a long time to change its product from plastic to a better product that is environmentally friendly, there are other options the company can engage in to reduce pollution. First, the company can establish a foundation where the customers do not have to throw away used or broken toys. If the toy is broken, the customer has a straightforward way to return it to the company and add some money to acquire a new product. This will not only reduce pollution but also increase the sales for the company. Using this strategy, the company will be able to retain its customers as well as conserve the environment. The other recommendation is to have a thought at the price of the toys in order to attract as many customers as possible. Pricing is one of the significant factors that a customer considers while making a decision to buy a product.

References

Askattest.com. (2019). Lego’s growth strategy: How the toy brand innovated to expand. Attest. https://www.askattest.com/blog/articles/legos-growth-strategy-how-the-toy-brand-innovated-to-expand

Bikker, Y. (2020). LEGO: Marketing lessons from one of the strongest brands of all time. Medium. https://bettermarketing.pub/lego-marketing-lessons-from-one-of-the-strongest-brands-of-all-time-f5ab6a2a2396

Cornwright, B. (2021). Common Field service failure points and how to fix them. Mobile Reach. https://mobilereach.com/blog/common-failure-points-for-field-service-organizations-and-how-to-fix-them/

Greenjournal.co.uk. (2020). Plastic toys: The effect on humans and the environment. Green Journal | News about green energy. https://www.greenjournal.co.uk/2020/06/plastic-toys-the-effect-on-humans-and-the-environment/

Lego.com. (2021). Customer service advisor. Official LEGO® Shop US. https://www.lego.com/en-mx/careers/job/59051713/

Stadler, A. (2016). Mein LEGO®-EV3-Buch. Mein LEGO®-EV3-Buch, I-1. https://doi.org/10.3139/9783446449008.fm

Törmer, R. L. (2018). How the LEGO group is embarking on architectural path constitution to transform its information infrastructure into a digital platform. Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems. https://doi.org/10.5220/0006697306490656