Subject:
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Re: A rant on many poor business practices leading to unemployment
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.lego
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Date:
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Sun, 4 Jan 2004 15:37:42 GMT
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Viewed:
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1717 times
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In lugnet.lego, Andrew Kochan wrote:
> I understand my idealism is not always concordant with business realities.
> That's why this is a 'rant' :P However...
This is one of my favorite topics, and since I'm also an idealist I figured
perhaps I would chime in. :)
> Any contract which might make Lego unable to produce Space and Star Wars themes
> at once is a bad contract and whoever signed it was not thinking.
Probably true. Although I don't think they weren't thinking, I just think they
weren't thinking ahead far enough. Follow me? :)
> If Mr. I love
> myself too much Lucas
Too big of a topic to handle here. Lucas is probably the worst Star Wars fan on
the planet.
> If there's not enough manufacturing capacity (or the ability to increase such)
> to allow for new lines then guess what gets sacrificed? The old ones. I'd have
> to say the new ones should be sacrificed over the old ones. Especially when
> such core themes such as Castles and Space are getting shelved. I understand
> maybe not having them at their peak production level.
True. It seems the all or nothing approach leaves little room for moderation.
> But at least offer every
> old set online if they're not going to do it in store.
How far back do they go in offering old sets?
> That way they can make
> like 1000 or less units of said sets a year and only pound off runs of 100 when
> it runs out or tell everyone to wait 1 year,
Probably harder to do than running 10,000 copies. I would think gearing up for
just a 1000 copies would be very expensive.
> I unsderstand you can't make tons
> of everything. I'm just asking for some of everything, even if it's just a
> token amount.
See above.
> If some themes are actually selling well like Bioncle and Jack Stone
There is strong evidence that Bionicle is selling well. However, I don't
remember seeing a Jack Stone DVD at the stores this year, so we'll let that fact
speak for itself. ;)
> (both of
> which I despise greatly) then by all means keep making them.
I wouldn't hate Bionicle too much. I have a feeling it kept a lot of LEGO
employees employed this past couple years.
> But not in
> exclusion.
I agree. Moderation in all aspects is the key.
> I want normal sized minifigs. I am not 6. If Lego wants to make
> products for children who are too stupid to move directly from duplo size to
> minifig sized legos, that's fine.
It's not that the kids are too stupid. It's that the marketing guys are too
smart for their own good. They've convinced themselves that kids aren't as
smart or as patient as they were 25 years ago.
> But not in exclusion. Just because a lot of
> children liked the Power Rangery Galidor junk doesn't mean all do.
There's very little evidence that many people (kids or adults) found anything to
like in either the Galidor show or the products.
> Heres' my proposal: (numbers are /abstractions/)
> If they produce 100,000 less Bioncle/Galidor/ sets (which probably wouldn't sell
> considering they already made 800,000 that only 2/3 of sold in a year, then take
> that extra assembly line and make it a custom line.
Less Bionicle? No way. Not a good idea.
Less Galidor? No way. It should never have happened in the first place. ;)
> Then each week they make a different set on the line (there's no machines to
> retool, only press plates to change for boxes
Yikes! Once a week? Seems a bit tricky to pull off.
> since you can hand pick the sets
> just fine.
Hand pick? Not sure what you mean.
> The only thing you'd retool for is if the set contains some unique
> piece which only a few promotional sets ever do.). There's 50 weeks in the year
> after you take off vacation days. That means you can make 50 different classic
> sets every year. Then if they sell well next year you can do it with 2 lines,
> and so on.
Probably a nice thing to dream about, but it sounds just a bit too dreamy.
> They still have the old molds and box plates
Are you sure? This is not the most forward thinking company in the world.
> And if they don't sell right away... like I said. Lego's don't really have
> a shelf life per se. (they do due to fading but it's a long #$% time).
As nice as that would be, this isn't a company right now that can sit on a lot
of overstock product. Most companies can't anyway, but right now is probably
the worst time for LEGO to even think of something like that.
> And when I speak of putting the old sets back on retail shelves I'm not
> talking about Walmart and ToysRUs.
The reality is, that's the best places to put them.
> I wouldn't buy a curtain rod there, let alone toys.
Perhaps so, but a lot of other people would... and do.
> Large retailers are a lost cause.
I'm not sure some financial analysts would agree with you. Wal-Mart is... how
do they say... HUGE!
> Heck, Legos even have their own stores now. They could at least put them
> just there. There's two in my state although they are not in the city
You are very lucky to have these stores so close. There isn't one in my entire
country. :(
> Lego needs to step up their advertising skills and budgets in the US anyhow.
Now this is a fact with which I will agree with you entirely. LEGO as a company
needs to recognize its shortcomings in the area of marketing and hire
an outside firm to do the job for them.
> Maybe I'm alone in my views or the extremity of them...
I don't think your views are that extreme. Not really any more so than mine.
But I think a few of your expectations might be a bit high. That's not *always*
a bad thing. Sometimes that's how small changes arrive; on the backs of larger
expectations.
Keep hoping for better Andy. This past year (2003) was actually terrific in
terms of product if you ask me. The 'stuff' that LEGO is putting out is getting
demonstrably better. What they're doing with the stuff (how they market it,
distribute it etc.) still needs some work. They need to realize that in some
parts of the world people celebrate gift giving holidays in December and they
need to market to this fact. They've done a remarkable thing with their LEGO
Direct division, but the lessons learned there don't seem to have flowed up the
pipe to the folks with the larger decision making power. I'm still hopeful
though. I think things are 110% better today than they were 5 years ago.
I just hope things continue to improve and that we've seen the last of the
layoffs for this company.
Best regards,
Allan B.
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