Subject:
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Re: 10170 TTX Intermodal Double-Stack Car Preview
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.market.theory
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Date:
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Tue, 3 May 2005 16:49:31 GMT
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Viewed:
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9607 times
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In lugnet.market.theory, Kevin Salm wrote:
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In lugnet.trains, John Riley wrote:
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It’s not the upfront money, it’s the projected sales that determine whether
a new mold is produced. Trains, while popular among AFOLs, just don’t sell
well among Lego’s target market.
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Perhaps the lack of sales of trains with LEGO’s target markes is because THEY
DON’T EVEN KNOW LEGO TRAIN EXIST!!
In the USA, train sets have been available at standard retail outlets only
sporatically ever since the introduction of Lego trains a few decades ago.
For most toy buyers, a big expensive train set is not an impulse purchase--it
must be planned and money must be saved in order to make the purchase. But
when the desired items are not even available on store shelves when it comes
time to make that purchase, then the money will go towards something else and
LEGO trains will be forgotten.
Take for example the LEGO train sets marketed by TARGET retail stores back
two years ago. Those items were only on store shelves at regular prices for
less than six months before they were reduced to clearance prices and shoved
out the door as fast as possible. No replacement items were introduced to
follow them, either. The LEGO trains were there for only a short time and
now there are ZERO Lego Trains on the shelves. Part of this problem is
TARGET’s retail strategy. Fine, I understand that. But LEGO offered no
replacement product. THAT is what baffles me.
I am not a marketing expert, but I believe that the LEGO GROUP is as much
famous for missed marketing opportunies as they are for making little plastic
bulding blocks. Too stupid, too bad, tuff luck.
Okay, I can’t leave without giving at least one example of why I think this
about missed marketing opportunies. So, here is one actual example:
Enfield, Connecticut, is the North American headquarters for LEGO. The home
of LEGO Systems, Inc. They have a nice corporate campus that they keep
pretty well isolated from the outside world. BUT--just a few miles away is
a nice shopping mall with a children’s play area. This play area is filled
with stuff for young kids to sit on, ride on, climb on, etc. All the stuff is
generic animals or whatever. It is NOT LEGO. Now, if that is NOT a missed
marketing opportunity I don’t know what is!
This play area is just 20 steps away from a TARGET store that carries LEGO
and not more than 100 steps away from a KBToys store that also carries LEGO.
This place is just a five-minute drive away from the North American LEGO
headquarters yet there are probably a large percentage of parents in town
that do not even know much about LEGO or even have any Lego products in their
homes.
Perhaps none of the marketing people in Enfield have ever set foot inside
this shopping mall. Again, too stupid, too bad, tuff luck.
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OK, so let’s be realistic: most retailers (especially the big three toy
retailers in the US: TRU, Wal-Mart, and Target) are not going to sell Lego
trains year-round; trains tend to be strictly a holiday purchase, and otherwise
languish on the shelves the rest of the year, which retailers hate. So the
question is: how do you increase brand awareness of trains (and thus sales)
without selling them through traditional retail stores?
Even the online stores still have to pay for the cost of warehousing train sets
during the non-holiday seasons. Etoys.com currently doesn’t have any trains,
and Toysrus.com has a listing for 4512, but it’s not in stock at the moment. So
currently, the only way to buy a Lego train is through S@H (or if you live near
one of the brand stores).
And incidently, marketing Lego trains has never been a strong point of TLG.
Even in the 80’s, the only reason I discovered Lego trains is my parents took me
to an independent toy/hobby store and they had 7720 on the shelf. Otherwise, we
hadn’t known about Lego trains, and I had been playing with Lego for 5 years.
And good luck finding Lego at independent stores now.
That doesn’t leave a whole lot of options remaining:
- Get Lego trains back on the shelves at independent retailers.
- Increase brand awareness (for the entire product line) by the return of the mini-brochures in the boxes and the hanging flip display in the Lego aisle in the stores.
- Encourage children and parents to use Lego’s website more. Hopefully, as they browse the site, they’ll come across the trains page (again, good for the entire product line).
Number 1 is great for trains, Mindstorms, and the traditional lines (Designer,
Creator, Duplo). I think Lego shifted its focus on the big three to the
detriment of the independent stores. Unfortunately, I think most manufacturers
have had to do this with the big retail chains; that’s a whole another post
about ranting against the big-box stores and their questionable economic impact.
Number 2 was very effective; unless the printing costs have gone way up, they
should still be doing this. It’s actually believable that the printing costs
went up; the product range is larger now than before. It’s definitely cheaper
to send customers online to see the full product range, but the convenience of
print is so much better than trying to browse webpages.
Number 3 is what I think Lego is trying to do. But with the link on the back
cover of the instruction book, it’s usually forgotten, as by that time, the
model is built, and the book tossed aside. A simple improvement would move the
link to the inside front cover (before the 1st page of instructions), and maybe
pictures from the website (or better, pictures of alternate models whose
directions are on the website). If the online site is going to be a major
marketing tool, it needs to be featured prominently, not as an afterthought in
the back.
Any other ideas?
John
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: 10170 TTX Intermodal Double-Stack Car Preview
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| "John Riley" <Rohnjiley@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:IFxAqJ.18y9@lugnet.com... [ ... snipped ... ] (...) TLG. (...) took me (...) Otherwise, we (...) years. (...) [ ... snipped ... ] While I don't disagree with what you have written, I will (...) (20 years ago, 3-May-05, to lugnet.market.theory)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: 10170 TTX Intermodal Double-Stack Car Preview
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| (...) Perhaps the lack of sales of trains with LEGO's target markes is because THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW LEGO TRAIN EXIST!! In the USA, train sets have been available at standard retail outlets only sporatically ever since the introduction of Lego trains (...) (20 years ago, 3-May-05, to lugnet.market.theory, FTX)
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