{"id":43850,"date":"2011-12-15T19:46:00","date_gmt":"2011-12-15T19:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/over-the-years-lego-has-had-five-strategic\/"},"modified":"2018-12-06T16:47:34","modified_gmt":"2018-12-06T23:47:34","slug":"over-the-years-lego-has-had-five-strategic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/over-the-years-lego-has-had-five-strategic\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-43850 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/over-the-years-lego-has-had-five-strategic\/attachment\/43851\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_lw9g8qAbgA1qescblo1_400-100x100.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>Over the years, Lego has had five strategic initiatives aimed at girls. Some failed because they misapprehended gender differences in how kids play. Others, while modestly profitable, didn\u2019t integrate properly with Lego\u2019s core products. Now, after four years of research, design, and exhaustive testing, Lego believes it has a breakthrough. On Dec. 26 in the U.K. and Jan. 1 in the U.S., Lego will roll out Lego Friends, aimed at girls 5 and up. (French Lego retailers are going rogue and plan to bring out Lego Friends on Dec. 15.) In Lego\u2019s larger markets, like the U.S., Lego determined it was better to introduce the new line after the holidays, when Wal-Mart Stores, for example, would give the line dedicated shelf space it wouldn\u2019t during the holiday sales rush. The company\u2019s confidence is evident in the launch\u2014a full line of 23 different products backed by a $40 million global marketing push. \u201cThis is the most significant strategic launch we\u2019ve done in a decade,\u201d says Lego Group Chief Executive Officer J\u00f8rgen Vig Knudstorp. \u201cWe want to reach the other 50 percent of the world\u2019s children.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To develop Lego Friends, Knudstorp relaunched the same extensive field research\u2014more cultural anthropology than focus groups\u2014that the company conducted in 2005 and 2006 to restore its brand. It recruited top product designers and sales strategists from within the company, had them join forces with outside consultants, and dispatched them in small teams to shadow girls and interview their families over a period of months in Germany, Korea, the U.K., and the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>The research techniques and findings have been controversial at Lego from the moment it became clear that if the company were serious about appealing to girls, it would have to do something about its boxy minifigure, its 4-centimeter plastic man with swiveling legs, a yellow jug-head, and a painted-on face. \u201cLet\u2019s be honest: Girls hate him,\u201d says Mads Nipper, the executive vice-president for products and markets, Lego\u2019s equivalent of a chief marketing officer. In terms of Lego iconography, the minifigure is second only to the original studded brick. It\u2019s as hallowed as a 1 5\/8th-inch piece of plastic can ever be. (via <a href=\"http:\/\/mobile.businessweek.com\/magazine\/lego-is-for-girls-12142011.html?section=highlights\">Lego Is for Girls &#8211; Businessweek<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the years, Lego has had five strategic initiatives aimed at girls. Some failed because they misapprehended gender differences in how kids play. Others, while modestly profitable, didn\u2019t integrate properly with Lego\u2019s core products. Now, after four years of research, design, and exhaustive testing, Lego believes it has a breakthrough. On Dec. 26 in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[1537],"class_list":["post-43850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","hentry","tag-critical-toys","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6PWot-bpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43850"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43852,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43850\/revisions\/43852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}