Subject:
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Re: Juniorization Lives, and comments on marketing strategy
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.dear-lego
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Date:
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Wed, 7 Feb 2001 16:16:25 GMT
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Viewed:
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1929 times
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> I've had many a phone conversation with friends who are all passionate about >the brick, across the spectrum here on LUGNET. In most of these >conversations, we discuss LEGO's marketing strategy and how it relates to the >market, what our feelings on good strategies would be, etc.
How many of your conversations were with small children? Of course
Juniorization doesn't appeal to you or me: we're not the target audience.
The problem here as I see it is LEGO is having real trouble defining the
target audience for different product lines and sets. They desparately want
to grab the younger kids who have countless other "ready-made" toys to
choose from -- Hot Wheels, zillions of action figures, etc. etc.
I think Lego wants their strategy to be to hook the youngsters with
easy-to-build Juniorized sets, then keep them when they get older with
challenging sets. But, their designers grab the Juniorized pieces instead
of stimulating _their own_ imaginations. So you find BURPs where they don't
belong, the Star Wars X-wing laser cannons and engines showing up
everywhere, etc. It's almost as if their designers are challenged to use as
many new elements as they can, without thinking about the consequences.
Kind of like how you find the off-color 2x4 brick in almost every set,
buried somewhere in there.
Designer: "Hey, boss, I built this really cool Star Wars ship."
Head Designer: "It looks great, but it's all grey. Bury a couple red and
blue 2x4 bricks in there, and you haven't used the click hinges or the SW
engines or laser cannons yet. Get back to me after you fix it"
LEGO needs to sit down and really re-evaluate this stuff. But that's coming
from an adult consumer's opinion. I want some cool stuff to build. I'm an
AFOL: _They have me_ They know that as long as there's one or two sets I
find interesting, I'm going to buy. I'm not going to buy Hot Wheels, Batman
action figures, even Star Wars action figures for that matter. I'm hooked.
They're looking to hook the next generation. And they see Juniorization as
the route to that.
Geez, that was long. Too much Sudafed this morning. Hope it makes sense...
James Wilson,
Dallas
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Message has 1 Reply:
Message is in Reply To:
 | | Juniorization Lives, and comments on marketing strategy
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| Dear LEGO - From what we've heard we haven't seen the last of Juniorization. I'm very disappointed about the news re: the Jack Stone line. I wasn't too excited about the line to begin with (because it isn't my thing), but to hear that its Juniorized (...) (24 years ago, 2-Feb-01, to lugnet.dear-lego) !!
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