Background
LEGO has long found success with using market research to illuminate consumer tastes and preferences. In the early 2000s, the company was directionless and failing, so LEGO turned to market research to try and rebuild their brand. This turned out to be the right decision, because research into their target market of young boys revealed that the strategy the company had been using was entirely misguided. In response to recent trends in computer games, the company had leapt to the assumption that this target market was looking for instant gratification, leading the company to create simple products that could be built faster. However, observational research revealed that the young boys responded to alternative factors, and creating more complex pieces was incredibly successful. Following this success, though, LEGO turned to a new target market that it knew very little about: girls.
LEGO’s New Target Market
In 2007, LEGO started observing how girls tended to play, hoping to benefit from this observation to the degree that they did when observing boys. Very quickly the company realized that the company’s traditional figures with yellow heads and painted on faces was unappealing to girls. This target market was instead looking to play with ‘pretty’ figures that they could better identify with and that were adorned in more appealing colors.
LEGO’s Response to Market Intelligence
In 2012, LEGO released a new product line called ‘Friends’ to encourage young girls to buy and play with LEGO products. The featured figures of this line looked very different from the traditional lego figurine and were all modeled on the feedback gathered from a study involving 3,500 girls’ playing habits.
Takeaway
Failing to cultivate market intelligence was proven to be a disastrous mistake for LEGO, and choosing to invest in market research first saved the company and then helped it to further grow.
Post Inspiration: https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/innovating-existing-markets-3-lessons-lego
One reply on “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun With Legos Too”
Hi Marina! This is a cool article. I never understood why Lego’s were branded as a toy only for boys. Legos definitely lost some market share many years ago by not including girls into their target market! Glad that in the 21st century, they have moved away from strict gender roles.