LEGO - more than half a century of commitment

In the first couple of years of the 1930's, Ole Kirk Christiansen was a dannish carpenter who, like many others, had to fight the Great Depression. Therefore, he began to manufacture wood toys.Those wood toys had a special thing about them: if you were to fit one in the other, you'd create a new thing. The combinations were endless.

In the fifties, the toys got some exposure. Ole called them LEGO, the juction of the first two letters of the dannish expression "leg godt", wich meant "play well". They began to be produced in plastic. The Lego Group's motto was - since the late Billun Woodworking and Carpenter's Shop (Olek first company name) - and still is "det bedste er ikke for godt", meaning roughly "the best is never too good". Ole Kirk created this motto to encourage his employees never to skimp on quality, a value in believed in strongly.

Nowadays, and I think I speak for my generation, it's hard to imagine childhood without countless hours spent mouting Legos to build houses, cars, gardens, and even people. The little bricks have evolved in design and material, but their essence is still the same: to provide youngsters and adults a fun time, while being able to be creative.

LEGO is a brand that, over the years, has mantained a rock proof identity which made it very successful: they created an emotional connection with the consumers, who have passed that relationship with the brand to the next generation over and over until the present days - according to Kevin Roberts (Saatchi & Saatchi), we can call it a Lovebrand. And it's because of that relationship that LEGO was able to come up with this campaign, that mixtures pop culture and the product they've been selling for more than 50 years.

They chose a few emblematic characters from cartoons, comics and a very famous TV shows to get people to notice LEGO (even more). I believe the campaign's target is the commited consumers, the ones who opted for LEGO since day one and never looked back; it brings back 'older' (my dad read them!) comics, like Astérix and Obélix and Lucky Luke, and shows like Sesame Street or The Simpsons, which have been running for many years now. It's not a campaign for the grandsons and daughters of those consumers: nowadays, the thrill is all about Noddy and Gormitis, not about the old classics like The Smurfs or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

We can, therefore, see, how LEGO bets in its commited consumers more than in finding new ones (although the recent colection just for little girls has been a hit in the USA). In this case, it's a efficient marketing strategy, because all of LEGO's status comes from word of mouth through generations. For my part, I shall never forget my first box of LEGOs.

Ana Nascimento


Source: http://adsoftheworld.com/