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By focusing on general sentiments of disappointment and broken promises, the
(f)actual disadvantages of the color change were left out.
Please make clear in the letter, that on a very practical level there are many
ways in which both AFOLS *and* TLG are experiencing discomfort from the change.
How the new colors visually 'affect' white and classic grey bricks is just one
example.
Below I'll repeat some discomforts I posted a year ago. See if they have turned
out to be problem today.
My point is, even if you don't *want* to feel offended about the color change,
it's a real-life annoyance and will continue to be so (depending on the nature
of your LEGO hobby).
--------------------------------------------
1 Replacing or augmenting existing colors with slightly different colors will
cause confusion and bad publicity.
- We will have a harder time sorting out pieces and need more storage
compartments (Or we just toss them together and deal with the differences during
building)
- When rebuilding sets from instructions later on, after the pieces got mingled
with other sets, we won't be able to tell from the picture which shade of grey
is meant, especially given the modern instruction graphics with shadows and
highlights instead of consistent reference colors.
- When we buy a new set, from now on you don't know which colors you will get,
since you can't tell from the box. It's one thing to consult Peeron, but box art
should be able to show us what we buy. [Box production year is just a clue]
- The general public will not be aware of the differences, hence second-hands
sets will be a random mix of right and wrong shades.
- Many buyers may want to return sets if they discover the colors don't match,
without knowing this is actual TLG policy.
- Consumer organisations and tv-shows will love to have a bite at this, LEGO
suddenly producing off-colored bricks 'No, no, this is not bad quality, the
newer bricks were *intentionally* colored slightly different. Research shows
kids like them better'. Explain that to your market.
-...
Appearantly TLG didn't deem it necessary to have an internal information
publicity campain about this.
- Do your call agents know what to tell people when they want a refund because
'the colors don't match'? Is there a policy?
- Are retailers being informed so they can answer questions from their
customers? ('Does this set contain the old or the new greys?' 'The colors are
off, I want a new one').
- Are catalog designers informed how to deal with this? (Do we have to note the
set production year for each item, or mark 'old' and 'new shades'?)
- Are TLG's inventory systems upgraded (Some items are not determined by their
set year, e.g. when do the old-grey rail tracks - or wire connector- run out and
do we get the new shade. Is the inventory system prepared to track these kind of
changes?)
Clearly, I suspect these issues weren't adressed beforehand. Otherwise I can't
imagine approving this change by management.
2 TLG is wasting effort
Regardless if the new greys look 'better', I find it uncomprehensible that in
these difficult economic times for TLG, some product developer was lend an ear
at all by management when he or she raised this issue "Hey guys, now we have all
that grey in Star Wars and Harry Potter, focus groups say our product line tends
to look a bit dull. So why don't we spice up the grey colors, so the sets will
look a little more crisp?!" Yeah, that will safeguard the future of TLG, right.
I'm sorry this all seems harsh and I sincerely hope this will prove to be too
pessimistic. But remember ZNAP, GALIDOR and the name change of the DUPLO brand.
All those were major strategic failures based on some optimistic marketing
belief, and TLG had to discard product lines or change back.
While I don't doubt the sound intentions of TLG designers and marketeers, and
their valid arguments, recent history shows how changes can backfire because
certain effects (such as mentioned above) were overlooked or underestimated.
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Color change: **CEO Draft Letter**
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| I've drafted a letter, and had my wife review for grammar, context and presentation. By way of credentials, my wife has worked as both a full time external communications, and internal executive communications writer in a Fortune 100 company for (...) (20 years ago, 30-Nov-04, to lugnet.color, lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, FTX)
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