No age for love

 

Adults also love LEGO

Building LEGOs is a way to strengthen family ties and for parents to spend time with their children.

It may come as a surprise to you, but adults love LEGO as much as kids. In fact, there’s a huge community of adult fans of LEGO or AFOLs as they call themselves. They usually gather together to discuss, host conventions and showcase their creativity.

Why do adults build LEGOs?

It’s the same as putting together a 5000 piece jigsaw — it’s a way to relax and pass the time. But compared to jigsaws, LEGOs develop the user’s creativity. When the construction is complete, adults don’t play with it, they take pictures and post them on social media for everyone to admire.

The AFOLs love LEGO and LEGO loves them back. They are a valuable group of customers and the company has found several ways in which to mobilize them: as brand ambassadors, as consumers of bigger purchases and as co-creators in the development of new products.

With 300 AFOL communities spread all over the world, LEGO has collected extended knowledge of their members.

Here are 4 statistics:

1. AFOLs collect LEGO bricks from lots of different sets to make colourful MOCs (My Own Creation);

2. Most AFOLs spend between 1–10 hours per week on building with LEGO bricks;

3. For each real LEGO designer, there are around 600 hobby AFOL designers who develop new models or theme ideas;

4. There are over 600 events for LEGO fans around the world each year, where AFOLs meet.

6. LEGO has built its manufacturing facilities close to core markets allowing LEGO to get products to shelves faster and respond quickly to last minute demands.  The company currently has factories in Mexico, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Denmark and is building a facility in China.  Lesson learned: use size and financial might to create physical barriers to entry for early stage competitors.

   LEGO’s business model had historically been guided by two principles: capacity for innovation and commitment to quality.  Ironically, a focus on innovation and quality at no costs actually led to mismanagement of the operating model and a huge drop in profit for the company.  As described above, LEGO’s current operating model is set up to create unique competitive advantages that have been critical in enabling LEGO to turn around its financial performance.