Opening a Lego set can really feel equal elements overwhelming and thrilling. With quite a few bricks and tiny particulars laced into every aspect present in a field, the eagerness to construct brick castles, rocket ships, metropolis skylines, and extra has attracted youngsters in droves for 92 years.
In 2024, few firms have been capable of replicate Lego’s success. Its toys span generations, from grownup hobbyists reconnecting with their favourite toys to the subsequent era.
Since its humble beginnings in 1932 as not more than a carpenter’s ardour mission, Lego toys have turn into an indispensable a part of childhood. Title the subject, and there’s probably a set for it, whether or not structure, anime, racing, or jazz music.
Kent Gavin—Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Photographs
Over the a long time, Lego may very properly have been changed by extra addictive and interesting digital devices. However that wasn’t the case—if something, issues couldn’t be higher for the family-owned Danish firm. It outperformed the toy market with document gross sales in 2023, with a 2% income development, notching DKK 66 billion ($9.7 billion) towards a 7% decline within the broader business.
What, then, is Lego’s secret sauce to maintain youngsters (and, extra not too long ago, adults) hooked to its colourful bricks?
Fortune takes an unique look behind the scenes of Lego’s product growth and the key to retaining the long-lasting model related.
Certainly one of Lego’s long-standing themes—house—illustrates what makes its method distinctive and helps it stand the take a look at of time. Area was one of many firm’s three official classes inside which it developed toys (“castle” and “city” have been the others) courting again to the Nineteen Seventies. It was meant to signify the mysteries of the longer term, very like castles did for the previous. Area’s recognition with youngsters has endured by the years because it has captured youngsters’ imaginations as a realm of infinite alternatives.
“Lego-building is a passion in its own right,” Julia Goldin, Lego’s chief product and advertising officer, advised Fortune in an interview.
Listening to youngsters, for youths
Lego realized early on that there was no proxy to understanding what youngsters need with out listening to from them straight. Goldin mentioned the corporate made this deliberate choice about 10 years in the past, and it’s helped the corporate change the way it pursued toy-making.
“What makes a Lego set unique is, first and foremost, really understanding the audience,” Goldin mentioned. “Not just understanding what will be of interest for them, but what are the right dynamics of the experience.”
© 2024 The LEGO Group
The standard of Lego’s bricks is one other issue that units it aside, as units can get handed from one era to the subsequent, based on Frédérique Tutt, world toy business advisor at market analysis agency Circana. Not like senseless video games, dad and mom suppose their youngsters may acquire one thing good from Lego toys, whether or not that’s engineering talents or utilizing their creativity.
“When parents buy Lego for their child, they think it’s going to help them build their brain,” Tutt advised Fortune. “They [Lego] try to develop products for anyone and everyone.”
Turning an concept into actuality
As a long-time toy maker, Lego has developed a well-oiled machine to assist it continuously generate new concepts. The corporate does a “boost week” every year—consider it like a fast brainstorming session sometimes related to startups that spur new ideas. Designers give you contemporary concepts or work on present ones, giving them inventive freedom exterior their day-to-day schedules. There isn’t a guidelines of what must be achieved, though the objective is to see what could be changed into a possible Lego set, mentioned Daniel Meehan, one of many brick firm’s inventive leads.
The subsequent step is to determine how “codable” the fashions are, together with discovering components that inform tales and make them simpler to play with, like Lego astronauts or purple collectible crystals.
Along with milking concepts from the corporate’s designated toy builders, the corporate hears straight from its viewers.
“We play-test stuff as well with kids extensively,” Meehan mentioned.
The corporate brings youngsters collectively internationally, from Germany to China, to see what they need extra of. That course of yielded one of many essential components we see in Lego’s space-themed units at this time, mentioned Meehan, who’s spearheading the corporate’s current house marketing campaign.
Throughout considered one of its house “DIY tests,” one of many youngsters was flying round a automobile with wheels, accumulating aliens alongside the best way—each of which weren’t a part of the preliminary set’s design.
“We’re very practical, we’re adults … but in the eyes of kids, it was a perfect space flying vehicle. But there was one complaint: he [the kid] said we need more aliens. And we actually did put more aliens in the box as a result of that one kid,” Meehan mentioned.
© 2024 The LEGO Group
The addition of aliens to Lego units, comparable to in a Lego house station, provides extra layers to what would in any other case be a simple set and likewise marks a standard thread that ties units from different classes collectively. As an example, Lego aliens may also be discovered within the house science lab and rover units. The little inexperienced creatures have been intentionally designed to look alike as a cue to Lego builders, Meehan tells Fortune.
Lego’s high quality and complexity can make its merchandise costly—typically pricier than the newest iPhone. That’s very true of merchandise pulled out of the market, making them uncommon. The novelty of its merchandise has made them a collector’s dream and even the article of $100,000 heists within the U.S. The corporate says it presents units throughout totally different worth factors so nobody feels priced out. Its most simplified merchandise can value single-digit {dollars}, simply as its 7,500-piece Millennium Falcon set may value about $960.
For the love of element
To make sure, Lego’s look after high quality and element isn’t a brand new phenomenon. The corporate’s founder, Ole Kirk Kristiansen, imbibed it strictly to his son, who as soon as tried utilizing two as an alternative of three coats of paint to hasten an order and was reprimanded.
The corporate’s penchant for element applies not simply to its house creations or toy growth course of but additionally to its enterprise. Goldin, as an example, straddles conferences that take a look at the corporate’s current efficiency whereas additionally discussing the pipeline for the subsequent few years.
A lot of the Danish firm’s legacy as a toy maker is linked to the way it makes play accessible throughout age teams, pursuits, and expertise ranges. The theme of house, Meehan explains, could be geared toward three kinds of audiences: storytellers, who’re principally youngsters with a fascination for the topic; lovers, who’ve an curiosity in studying in regards to the subject; and others, who’re typically drawn to all issues house, together with its inventive facet.
“Another strength they have is they appeal to the young children as well as the teenagers or adults with intricate pieces. So, they grow with you,” Tutt mentioned.
Marc Mueller—Getty Photographs for LEGO Summer season Birthday Bash
The granular method additionally applies to how Lego costs merchandise and designs, and markets units for its up-and-coming grownup fanbase, making certain there’s a toy for everybody. However one factor is certain: regardless of the motivations, the corporate tries to not dial down on particulars as a result of that offers Lego toys their character.
Goldin says Lego followers “really notice” the little components it provides, as they “bring a lot of excitement.”
“It’s much more than a toy because it’s a very immersive experience,” she mentioned.
