Spencer Richmond
Ms. Hemm
8.2 Writing
Research Paper Final Draft
May 23, 2016
The Globalization of LEGO: A History and Study
Introduction
The original Darth Maul minifigure is so rare and sought after because he is only in six sets. This is an example of brilliant marketing by LEGO because it makes the people that want him pay more and buy more LEGO sets. LEGO successfully globalized through the use of growth strategies, innovation strategies, and effective marketing such as this to become one of the world’s biggest toy empires.
Background
Legos are plastic toys that are very popular in all places that they are sold. LEGO was founded “in 1932 in Denmark, when Ole Kirk Kristiansen founded a small factory for making wooden toys.” It
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LEGO keeps kids interested by developing new products every two to three years. LEGO is all "about discovering what’s obviously Lego, but has never been seen before." According to the article “How Lego Became The Apple Of Toys,” “if you want to understand how animals live, you don’t go to the zoo, you go to the jungle.” For LEGO, its jungle is made up of play rooms around the world, and the animals they want to observe in their natural habitat are children. In order to study children at play, LEGO has developed the Future Lab …show more content…
Conclusion LEGO has used many growth strategies, innovation strategies, and marketing strategies to globalize. For LEGO, its recent success shows that its business model is clicking into place, though some assembly is still required. It is stretching into new markets and territories and LEGO is now a household name throughout the world. This popularity is not only an example of how LEGO was successful, but of how globalization of companies also leads to the globalization of ideas and culture. For the world, LEGO’s growth allows people from different cultures to find a way to connect. This globalization should be encouraged because it will lead to a more understanding, peaceful world, piece by piece.
Works Cited
Peacock, Seth. “The LEGO© System Makes Co-Creation Painless for The LEGO© Group.”
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Knudstorp changed everything upon his arrival. He completely reworked the supply chain; he reached out to his top retailers, and rearranged things to cut costs substantially. He saw that innovation was what Lego lacked and realized the importance of unconstrained creativity. This is when Legos product design changed; Knudstorp started to really look into market research, and placed a greater emphasis on user feedback (Starvish). He made big impressions with massive changes; he started with his management team and ended up firing five of his seven manufacturing executives (Stavish). From there, he started anew and made sure his managers were on the same page with regards to the vision he desired for the growth and future of Lego.
The two primary stakeholders are the company’s customers and employees/suppliers who are directly involving in the company’s business. The two secondary stakeholders who do not engage directly with the business are the general public and environmental activist groups.
Toys had a favorable price variance even though they sold less units then they had forecasted. While the price variance is considered favorable as G.G. Toys received a higher than anticipated price, it can also be considered unfavorable. Charging a higher price for the dolls may likely result in less sales which could be one reason for the difference in quantity. It is also possible that a larger quantity of the higher priced dolls were sold which would result in higher sales dollars but a smaller quantity of dolls. It would be beneficial for G.G. Toys to research the quantity of each doll type sold and their price point to determine if this is
With all of the designing that was happening in the company, it helped to shrink its profits. Lego City was a popular toy for children but the redesigning shrank the sales and attention the product was once getting. A worker of Lego said it well when he said, “Management was to blame, the same people who were doing crappy products then are making world-class products today” (Greene). Essentially the managers and higher up executives didn’t communication what direction the company should be going. They didn’t have a strategy to follow and tell their employees. With no clear strategy and communication in place, things were a free for all. This lead to the declining profits and stability of the company. Lego assumed that if the designers were able to create whatever they saw fit, that somehow it would lead to a breakthrough in the toy maker’s product line. However, this ideology backfired with high production costs and low profit margins.
Lego kits can be used in different businesses and organisations like offices, car parks, arcades and banks.
When we look at a company such as Mattel Inc., this is a company that has been producing dolls for the last 72 years. Their main products are the hot wheels, Barbie dolls cabbage patch kid and the American girl. The products
The socialization of children is greatly affected by the toys they are exposed to while growing up. Looking through magazines and walking down the aisles of toy stores it is clear that toy companies are supportive of cultural gender roles biases. Toys designed for girls are commonly found in pink boxes; typically these toys involve housework or taking care of children, for example, dolls and easy bake ovens. On the other hand, “boy” toys are found in blue and black boxes, and a lot of them involve construction and cars.
Social interactions are another area of focus of LEGO therapy (2004). Social interaction comes naturally to those who do not have social communication deficits. Observing and imitating at an early age enables one to gain the social skills required in basic everyday interaction, as well as allowing one to gain confidence when socialising (Densmore et al., 2007). However, children with autism may lack in social interactions. Autistic children may require additional assistance in social interactions as they have difficulty in things such as: forming peer relationships, group play, maintaining eye contact, sharing, use of body language, use of facial expressions, participating in imaginative role play and much more; these skills are the fundamental base of effective social interactions (Gammeltoft and Nordenhof, 2007). Lack of social skills and communication skills overlap one another, having a “knock on” or “dominos” effect thus it is important that children with autism are supported in the development of these areas.
The LEGO Group organization is famous due to its flagship product – colourful plastic bricks that can be interlocked to form a variety of figures, and then disconnected again. These binding bricks originated in a wooden form when the company was first established in Billund, Denmark by Kirk Kristiansen in 1932 (The LEGO Group, 2012), and today’s well known plastic version was introduced in 1958 (Rosenberg). The company’s head office is located in Billund to this day, and The LEGO Group remains privately owned by Kristiansen’s family (The LEGO Group, 2012). They currently sell toys and teaching materials in over 130 countries worldwide.
While many would assume that a children’s movie based on a children’s toy would be nearly devoid of depth or impactful meaning, nothing could be further from the truth when considering The Lego Movie. This film, released in 2014, features the story of a young Lego man, as ordinary as could be, on a quest to overthrow the tyranny of the evil Lord Business. While he’s at it, the Lego man, named Emmet, will begin to discover that the things that he thought made him ordinary are actually the very characteristics that are uniquely extraordinary. These themes may seem cliché and heavy handed, but when one watches the film seeking the bigger picture, the individual social issues that the film deals with begin to reveal themselves. From start to finish, the Lego Movie dives deep into prevalent issues and seeks to engage the modern cultural both politically
Most people can remember playing with Legos at some point in their lives. From 1958-2013, 650 billion Lego bricks were manufactured and sold in 130 countries, making Legos one of the most popular childhood toys. In more recent years, with digital technology on the rise, Lego’s have a become popular subject in video games and movies. The Lego Movie was the first movie centered around Legos to use a fully CGI animation style. While The Lego Movie may at first appear to be an average children's movie, it's storyline goes much deeper than that most movies marketed primarily to families, allowing it to quickly become one of the most sold movies of 2014. Through the use of creative cinematography which helps reinforce the storyline, as well as an ingenious adaptation of an Orwellian society, based upon capitalist values and extreme conformity, The Lego Movie pushes a pro-libertarian, anti-capitalist message, hidden behind the innocent facade of children’s movie.
The Lego Movie is an animated film written and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. This movie is about an ordinary Lego mini-figure named Emmet, who is mistaken for an extraordinary master builder and expected to save the world. Everything changes when Emmet finds the Piece of Resistance which makes him the chosen one called “The Special.” Lord Business who is also the President plans to use the Kragle to freeze the universe perfectly in place so that the individual actions and machinations of society no longer go against his plan. Emmet teams up with his teammates to take down Lord Business plan and to save the world. At the end of the movie, Emmet convinces Lord Business that he does not have to be the bad guy and he could also
Toys R Us Inc. revolutionized the toy industry more than four decades ago with its big-box, low-price stores. Toys R Us may be synonymous with toys, but also has its fastest-growing business in Babies R Us, which sells children's clothes, furniture and accessories. The company opened new stores and planned to build new additional Babies R Us stores.
Legos are the multi-colored blocks we used as children to build creations that were only limited by our imaginations. I remember adding to my multi-colored plastic sculptor, each block putting me one step closer to the final product. The process would always entail first setting up a strong foundation, and then creating structural support, while always having a plan in the back of my mind. The outcome of which, would tower above me; to think it all began with a single block. In many ways people are similar to Legos. We are the combination of our experiences, each adding to our personas, and shaping how we view the world. Also like Legos, to have a stable and functioning final product it must have a foundation, support and a plan. I was able to establish my foundation in high school.
product. Animated characters, catch phrases, and toys are used to lure a child to the product.