Building a Brand One Brick At A Time

TalentZoo.com | Beyond Madison Avenue | Flack Me | Beneath the Brand

Archives | Categories

By: Emory Brown

Lego has a way of bringing out the kid in everyone. They have a way of taking imagination to new heights. For years now, this toy maker has been a household name; a fixture tied in the fabric of creation around the globe. A brand like no other.

In 2004, Lego was a company in bad shape. They were losing a million dollars a day. Yes, a million dollars a day, and not because they were a bad brand. They simply didn’t understand how to take their brand to the next level.

They owned various properties such as Legoland, clothing lines, specialty toys, and the list goes on…but none of those proprieties were monetizing. That’s when the block that don’t stop had to reinvent its brand and figure out what worked to make it profitable again.

They went to the drawing board and came out a winner by broadening the view of its brand experience and focusing on growth. The first step was embracing the fans by making the Lego experience all-inclusive with everything from blogs to forums to open access to Lego's processes for building. Lego has developed new products like Lego Architecture, which has had world-class architects designing buildings that have been featured in Wired Magazine. Sports stars such as David Beckham bought a few sets and helped increase the product line’s sales by 633%. They are even a featured event at the Chicago Architectural Foundation, where schoolkids and corporations alike come and learn about the aesthetics of design. Lego has also had tremendous success in partnering with major comic book and movie properties such as Batman and Star Wars. They even launched The Lego Movie, which was a box-office smash.

As of today, Lego owns 24% of the toy market, which basically makes Lego the biggest toy maker in the world. It leaves its rivals in the dust during the pre-Christmas holiday, during which it makes 60% of its profit. Yet, out of all the great things I’ve seen Lego do, the coolest thing I’ve seen to date was a creation by a young college student by the name of Leah Bowman, who created a “Lego Resume” of herself which has earned her national news acclaim. She was even featured in AdAge.

Lego as a brand is a testament to what cool colorful bricks can do with the right branding.

blog comments powered by Disqus

About the Author

Emory Brown is an award-winning creative director/writer whose mission is to spread the gospel of what great marketers can do when they put their heads together and work together for the greater good and not the bottom line. Working with many esteemed clients, his portfolio of work ranges in genre from conservative to ultra-modern including American Family Insurance, United Airlines, Mazda 6 and RX-8, Illinois Lottery, Tyson, Miller Genuine Draft, Nike Air Force 1, and Mercedes Benz, to name a few.

Digital Pivot on