Subject:
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Re: anyone got a report of the new sets shown off at brickswest? <Next Legend?>
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general, lugnet.space
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Date:
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Thu, 21 Feb 2002 20:35:52 GMT
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Viewed:
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862 times
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"Allan Bedford" <apotomeREMOVE-THIS@altavista.net> writes:
> In lugnet.general, William R. Ward writes:
> > Brad Justus addressed this at BricksWest, saying that Space was not on
> > the agenda because of the Star Wars Ep. II release. There's no
> > contractual restriction, as has been rumored, but there are good
> > marketing reasons why it would not be a good idea to include space
> > sets at the same time as a major push for the new Star Wars sets.
>
> Am I the only one who fails to see the logic in their.... logic?
>
> Would it be so impossible to believe that a Space set released alongside or
> shortly after the Star Wars sets might actually appeal to the same market?
> If you're talking 'Classic' space, then you're talking late 1970's. And if
> you're talking late 1970's then you're talking Star Wars.
That's precisely why they don't want to do it. They don't want to
dilute the brand by having too many choices for the same audience.
They don't want to hurt LEGO retail figures by having LEGO Direct
offer products that directly compete with them. Remember, LEGO Direct
is a separate business unit, but part of the same company. Since its
products are sold through a different mechanism (website and phone
orders) there is an aspect of competition between that and the Toys
'R' Us models such as Star Wars.
Put another way, if you have both a Classic Space legend and new Star
Wars sets out at the same time, a consumer with $100 to spend on LEGO
will have to decide which to buy. As a result, neither the Star Wars
set, nor the Classic Space legend, will sell as well as they would if
the other wasn't available at that time, although the overall sales
for LEGO may be the same or even more.
> It's not unfair to say that the original release of the first LEGO Star Wars
> sets may have brought even more adult fans back to the hobby than did
> Mindstorms. These are people with a connection to both the movie and the
> old LEGO sets. Why not offer them a bit of both? Because if the next wave
> of Star Wars sets is as weak as the ones released before this past
> Christmas, then we'll all need an alternative to buy.
Because instead of buying $100 worth of Ep. II sets or $100 worth of
Legends, the customer would either buy $50 of each or would have to
give up one or the other. Sales figures for both lines will be hurt
by that.
> > I suspect we have to wait until Ep. III has come and gone before we
> > see any Space legends.
>
> And if this is the case then...... things are worse off than I'd imagined.
LEGO is a company, not a community service organization. If they
release Star Wars sets, they want them to be profitable. If they
release Legends sets, they want them to be profitable. If they
release both at the same time competing for the same audience, neither
will be as profitable as they would otherwise. That's the bottom
line. And in business, the bottom line is what it's all about.
--Bill.
--
William R Ward bill@wards.net http://www.wards.net/~bill/
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