Subject:
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Re: Bad Policy #2 (Why all the secrecy, LEGO Direct?)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.lego.direct
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Date:
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Tue, 15 May 2001 07:28:33 GMT
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Viewed:
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1706 times
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In lugnet.lego.direct, Richard Marchetti writes:
> I am willing to give the "sheer madness" argument more credence than
> yourself. But I'll allow that your reasoning could be sound up to a point.
> But I tend to think that TLC is quite out of touch with what consumers
> really want and what they will actually purchase, or at least they have been
> for some time now.
I agree, and I had a sneaking feeling that if we compared notes
we would find much congruence between our theories.
Getting back to the topic of pirates, if, as you noted, Pirates sold
so well at its introduction, and if, as I surmised, it became a poorly
selling line, then it is a fair question to ask why the sales of the
line deteriorated.
We've seen the explanations that video games and other
expensive pursuits have cut into the discretionary income
people spend on LEGO, and that childen are outgrowing LEGO
at younger rates. I'm sure both factors are true, but I wonder -
most of us gen-x-ers grew up with video games, from atari
through commodore 64s, nintendo and sega, so why did LEGO experience booming
growth up thru the mid 90s?
Whatever the reason that children are "outgrowing" LEGO at
earlier ages, it seems like the "cure" that LEGO is pursuing
only contributes to that process. As the sets are juniorized, as
the lines are overhauled and made more sensational (knights
shooting rubber bullets! Robots that throw discs. etc) and then
abandoned to be replaced by something else with greater and
greater rapidity to attract the attention of younger audiences -
I think that as LEGO scales itself to meet what it thinks are the
wants and needs of a younger customer base, it is driving
itself more firmly in that direction, in a vicious circle.
It seems like LEGO is abandoning the middle ground.
But I'm sure they don't see it that way. Mindstorms is targeted
at older children (and adults!), the older themes are
juniorized to appeal to younger children,
and other technic themes (throwbots, slammers, etc) are
made more childish to appeal to the middle ground between
RCXes and knights on horseback, but to me that process is
marginalizing the minifig themes, pushing them ever more
deeply into the "only for young kiddies" area, and I don't think
that the middle ground (the childish technic sets - throwbots
and the like) are nearly as profitable for LEGO as, say, a large
castle set sold to the same child would be. By moving a large
chunk of their product into ever-younger target audiences, they
are reducing the amount that people will spend on it. And
mindstorm must not be pulling in the dollars on the higher end of
the age bracket well enough to compensate.
> I would argue they are paying the price of abandoning "system."
I can't agree or disagree, since I don't know what you mean.
I'd probably agree if I understood.
As I see it, LEGO is pursuing a strategy to cope with the changing
tastes of toy buyers, but what I don't know is how much of that
changing taste is being caused by LEGO in a vicious circle
effect.
> ...And we hope we are finally having an effect on what TLC decides to bring
> to market. I am not ape to get garage doors, but many people are -- to me
> that suggests that if they were available, many people would be buying them.
I hope so. I hope that every move that LEGO makes in the direction
of direct sale of elements is a profitable one.
In some ways, the current state of affairs is extremely bright. A great
many of what people were dreaming about seeing on r.t.l in 1995 or
so has come to pass. There are bulk brick sales. Train windows
and doors for sale. Regular windows. If I wanted to, I could order
the elements to make a skyscraper, something I really couldn't
do before. And minifig "packages" selling the most popular
figures as colletibles. (It certainly would've put a dent in the
outrageous prices people were willing to pay for set 6071 in
auction if the forest wench had been available in a $5.00 set of
three forestmen figures with mounting plates and backing cards.)
Etc. Although it's quite a shame that a great many facets of the
existing system (accessory packs) were eliminated before there
was anything in place to replace them.
And it gives me hope that the Star Wars sets seem to me to be just
as high in design quality as the majority of sets were in the early
90s or late 80s. I hope that their high sales (at least I assume they've
been high) is taken as evidence that quality sells and not just that
"franchise" sells.
But I'll join you in mourning the passing of decent castle sets, or
town sets, or any other theme that has been excessively
juniorized (if I liked LEGO technic but I wasn't interested in
robotics, I think I would be quite unhappy with recent offerings.)
What do you mean by the 'abandoning of "System"'?
> Make of it what you will -- you'll get the last word.
That was never my intention. I did hope that we would at
least agree on which topic to argue.
--
Jeff <jthompson@esker.com> "Float on a river, forever and ever, Emily"
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Bad Policy #2 (Why all the secrecy, LEGO Direct?)
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| (...) I hope this discussion DOES continue, you guys have found a promising new line of analysis, I think! Jeff's description of a vicious circle in product development (moving more and more in the Jr direction as the effects of previous jrization (...) (23 years ago, 15-May-01, to lugnet.lego.direct)
| | | Re: Bad Policy #2 (Why all the secrecy, LEGO Direct?)
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| (...) I am going from memory here, so bear with me (I will check my memory later against the source I am referring to). Earlier I had mentioned a book entitled "The Ultimate Lego Book" which was published by DK apparently with TLC's full cooperation (...) (23 years ago, 15-May-01, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Bad Policy #2 (Why all the secrecy, LEGO Direct?)
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| (...) I am willing to give the "sheer madness" argument more credence than yourself. But I'll allow that your reasoning could be sound up to a point. But I tend to think that TLC is quite out of touch with what consumers really want and what they (...) (23 years ago, 15-May-01, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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