Subject:
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Re: Met a LEGO rep...
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Fri, 4 Dec 1998 15:57:07 GMT
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Viewed:
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2225 times
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A bit off the initial subject, but...
Gang, I've said it before, but I'm almost certain LEGO conducts its own
focus groups (including play sessions) with children and their parents. I
still think Town Jr. and other simplified designs are the result of their
focus groups. I can't imagine a company as large as LEGO would develop
product lines without conducting its own focus groups. Obviously, their
emphasis is still on the kids. If the kids in LEGO's focus groups are
saying the old designs were too complex to be fun, things like TOWN Jr. is
the result. I'm just basing this on what I know from working in the
marketing/public relations field.
If NFL teams conduct focus groups before making a uniform change, I'm sure
LEGO does focus groups too. Maybe sales were dropping for LEGO in the
early 90s? In this scenario, they had to do something and maybe simplified
designs were the result. Maybe they wanted to market to the younger age
range in that 5-12 category, perhaps feeling they've already lost the 10-12
year olds to video games?
A majority of kids these days just seem to like the instant, but
non-creative gratification of action figures and video games. I blame that
on television, the parents who look to TV as a babysitter and technology in
general. LEGO has to compete with all of that. But I digress...
The strange thing is sometimes what other parents tell me contradicts this
theory. These are the parents who say their kids like KNEX better than
LEGO. I've never purchased KNEX before, but that stuff sure seems more
complicated to build than LEGO. Is that accurate?
Maybe things are going to change. I read someone's post on RTL, who was
from Europe, say he heard a rumor that LEGO was going back to a building
emphasis -- at least over there, not necessarily in the United States. I
hope that's true, and I hope they'd bring that philosophy over to the U.S.
If not, it says something bad about the kids in this country.
Sorry for the rambling,
Steve Berry
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> From: Phillip Greco <lugnet.general@lugnet.com>
> To: lugnet.general@lugnet.com
> Subject: Re: Met a LEGO rep...
> Date: Friday, December 04, 1998 8:21 AM
>
> > I also approached TLG several years ago about where they get the designs • for
> > their models. They (supposedly) take no ideas from outside the company.
>
> Did they give you any idea of what does go into the model design process. • That
> is to say, do a bunch of execs sit around and build, do they bring kids • in, do
> they have little play sessions for testing?
>
> They used to have that quality, but in the last few years the designs
> > haven't quite lived up to their previous standards.
>
> The perfect example is the Explorien Message Decoder thingy... what was • that?
>
> Your pal,
>
> Felix
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Met a LEGO rep...
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| (...) I would hope that they conduct a focus group for a $1Billion company. If they didn't, they would lose touch to what kids want real quick. (...) Unfortunately, could this be the 'Dumbening Down' of Lego? Hopefully not. Though my interests lie (...) (26 years ago, 4-Dec-98, to lugnet.general)
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