Subject:
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American LEGO culture different than German LEGO culture?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general, lugnet.loc.de
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Date:
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Tue, 6 Jun 2006 05:16:42 GMT
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Viewed:
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4313 times
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Just saw this via Google News:
Selling Lego and The “Culture Code”
for Germany
by Clotaire Rapaille (June 6, 2006)
DNA makes a creature human, but what makes someone an American? Is there a
“culture code” that programs us to become German, or Japanese, or French? Dr.
Clotaire Rapaille believes there is such a code, a silent system of archetypes
that we consciously acquire as we grow up within our culture. The codes vary
around the world and invisibly shape how we behave in our personal lives and as
consumers and as nations.
The German Code for Germany is perhaps best illustrated in a story.
Lego, the Danish toy company, found instant success with their interlocking
blocks in the German market, while sales foundered in the U.S. Why?
The company’s management believed that one of the primary reasons for their
success was the quality of the instructions they provided inside each box that
helped children build the specific item (a car, a spaceship) that a particular
box of blocks was meant to build. The instructions were quite a breakthrough in
the field: precise, colorful, and refreshingly self-explanatory. They made
construction with Lego blocks not only simple, but in some ways magical. If one
followed the path through the instructions, tiny plastic pieces methodically
turned into something grander.
American children could not have cared less. They would tear into the boxes,
glance fleetingly at the instructions (if they glanced at them at all), and
immediately set to a construction project on their own. They seemed to be having
a wonderful time, but they were as likely to build, say, a fort, as they were to
build the automobile for which the blocks were intended. And when they were
done, they would tear their fort apart and start over from scratch. Once
purchased, to Lego’s dismay, a single box of Lego could last for years.
In Germany, however, Lego’s strategy worked exactly as intended. German
children opened a box of Legos, sought out the instructions, read them
carefully, and then sorted the pieces by color. They set to building, comparing
their assembly progress to the crisp, helpful illustrations in the instruction
booklet. When they were finished, they had an exact duplicate of the product
shown on the cover of the box. They showed it to Mother who clapped approvingly
and put the model on a shelf. Now the children needed another box.
Without even knowing it, Lego had tapped into the Culture Code for Germany
itself: ORDER. Over many generations, Germans perfected bureaucracy in an effort
to stave off the chaos that came to them in wave after wave, and Germans are
imprinted early on with this most powerful of codes. It is that imprint which
makes children reach dutifully for the instructions, and it is that code which
prevents them from immediately destroying their neat construction in order to
build it anew. Lego’s elegant, full-color instructions had tapped into the
German code in a way that assured repeat sales.
Obviously, there are some pretty big generalizations there, but I was wondering
if any German AFOLs could say if there is a ring of truth to them.
As for myself, this American kid always put the model togther first, then took
it apart after a few days. What “culture” is that?
Marc Nelson Jr.
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