Lego - Surviving in the 21st Century Toy Market

LEGO - Surviving In The 21st Century Toy Market

Background of the Company

LEGO was founded by Ole Kirk Christiansen in 1934. The name LEGO was taken from two Danish words – LEG and GODT, which mean ‘play well’. Play is considered as an important element in the development of a child. Play stimulates imagination, encourages creative expression and facilitates the emergence of ideas. LEGO believes that ‘good play’ enriches a child’s life and its subsequent adulthood. LEGO Group has developed and marketed a wide range of products, all founded on the same basic philosophy of learning and developing through play.

Global Marketing Communications Plan

Marketing communication is the collective term for all communication functions used in marketing a product. The purpose of marketing communications is to add persuasive value to a product for customers (Kitchen and de Pelsmacker 2004, p. 20). Yeshin (1998, p. 3) defines marketing communication as the process by which the marketer develops and presents an appropriate set of communications stimuli to a defined target audience with the intention of eliciting a desired set of responses. Organizations who utilize marketing communication often use different tools such as advertising, public relations (PR), sales promotions, direct marketing, personal selling, and internet marketing. Together these tools make up the marketing communication mix. Each component of the mix has a specific task to achieve and the message is greatly enhanced if it is reinforced by other tools in the mix (Yeshin 1998 cited in Kitchen and de Pelsmacker 2004, p. 20).

LEGO’s Marketing Communication Message

The company is founded on the philosophy of ‘good play’. Good play according to LEGO enriches a child’s life – and its subsequent adulthood (LEGO Group 2009). Therefore, the basic principle of LEGO which will be reflected on its global communication strategy is centered on ‘learning and...