Ole Kirk Kristiansen established Lego brand to help children to play well by putting together play habits, housing conditions, and family patterns using bricks. He wanted to promote the imagination and creative expression of children as they grow. Lego brand helps children in learning and developing. The company will ensure it delivers the spontaneous joy of creation and experiences for both girls and boys. Boy Toys have been a success but that of girls failed. Lego friends are a new brand launched in 2011 to appeal to the girls segment (Wieners 69).
Brand Management
Lego Company has had strong umbrella brand because of the company’s efforts on continuous product innovation and international growth. LEGO brand has a deep root of heritage that makes it attractive to potential consumers. Product development and design processes have been improving innovation across the entire business operations. Lego Company carried out vivid research, design, and exhaustive testing for four years before introducing a new line aimed at girls known as Lego friends. The company had failed before in capturing the segment leading to launch of the extensive field research with the best designers and strategies in the company. Lego Company wants to target girls segment but the focus of the company on Lego bricks limits its penetration in the segment. Girls are interested in role play games and have less or no interest in arranging and rearranging bricks. They also engage in building and rearranging bricks less time compared to boys. There is no harm in trying despite these challenges (O'Reilly 1).
Environmental Forces
Lego Friends is a new brand targeting the unexploited market of girls segment. This offers Lego Company the opportunity to improve market share and profits. Olivia workshop and Belville dog and puppy are new products designed to appeal to girls. Lego is planning to release its new products after Christmas. The shops will have adequate space to display the new models and differentiate it from other girlie dolls. This will help attract customers to purchasing them. The extension of brand is also a big threat to the company. As the company shifts away from its heritage of simplistic bricks there are high chances of losing its strong recognition. Its strong appeal in the toy products is at the risk of disintegration. There is also no guarantee that the new brands will succeed in the market (Wieners 71).
Lego Website
Lego Company has adopted technology to improve the quality of its services to customers. The company has set up a website to attract customers to purchasing the company offers. Customers have increased attention on Internet services, especially websites making easy for the company to create awareness of its new brands. The company’s website is LEGO.com. The company will use the website to improve the interest of girls on the new brands. The main negative aspect with using the website is that the company will displays the new brands and makes them attract girls of age 5 to 12. The satisfaction after using the actual toys is hard to predict (Neda 1).
Viral Marketing Plan
Lego Company has managed to come up with offers that appeal to girls. The company needs a viral marketing plan to ensure success of its new brand. The best plan underway is that of displaying the new brands after Christmas. The shops will create enough space to showcase the new brand. Wal-Mart is interested in introducing Lego friends to customers. The new brand will be displayed with the rest of boy toys in the efforts to attract customers to purchasing Lego friends. The best way to make the viral marketing plan a success is by carrying it out during the Christmas holiday just before releasing the new brand in the market (Wieners 73).
The messages should focus on increasing awareness on Lego friends in the market and convincing consumers that the company has a solution to the needs of the girl child in playing well. The messages should also be direct to the point. The company should ensure that the quality and image of products displayed during viral marketing matches the products to be displayed in the shops. This helps boost satisfaction of customers. Lego Company should not carry out any marketing activities before the viral marketing plan is a success otherwise there will be high chances the new brand will fail.
Works Cited
O'Reilly, Lara. "Lego Launches Range Just For Girls." Marketing Week (Online Edition) (2011): 1.
Wieners, Brad. "Lego is for girls. (Cover Story)." Bloomberg Businessweek 4259 (2011): 68-73.
