Now the World’s Largest Toy Company, LEGO Sees Success in Product Diversity

2014-10-14 / 品牌溝通要訣, 品牌部落格 / julia

指導者 / 總編輯張蕙娟分享者 / 陳萾

樂高積木因產品多樣性而為目前最大的玩具製造商

樂高積木2014年前半年的總營收超越另一兒童玩具製造大廠Mattel, 成為兒童玩具製造商的龍頭企業。其營收成長主要是乘著樂高電影的風潮，估計票房及電影週邊樂高商品販售已達4億6千萬美金。而根據Wall Street Journal指出，樂高積木營收甚至於六個月內成長11%。

兒童玩具大廠Mattel及Hasbro營收原比樂高積木高，而歷年來也較受歡迎，但今年Mattel的芭比娃娃及Hasbro的棋盤遊戲銷售卻不如往年，反觀樂高積木因玩具的基本款一致，只需施加創意，產生商品設計多樣化即可盈利，因此成功反將一軍。

樂高積木近四年來的利潤率超過20%，今年初甚至高達24%，但在其他玩具製造商方面，Hasbro僅存有4%，而Mattel更是在平衡損益方面遭遇前所未有的困難。儘管如此，樂高積木能夠延續其營收成長嗎？3D列印的發明有可能抨擊到樂高積木的銷量，而每年耶誕期間的購物季銷售額也無法準確預測，若樂高積木想在乘著電影熱潮增加銷量，必然要等到2017年第二部樂高積木電影上映，在此期間，樂高積木是否能堅守其銷售量必定是它現今最大的挑戰。

下半年裡樂高積木電影DVD的發行或許能有助於積木銷量，再次帶動購買電影週邊商品的風潮。「樂高積木電影的相關週邊系列產品的銷量能否有所成長是值得觀察的」樂高積木首席執行長這麼說著。

但樂高積木的經營也並非都如此順利，幾年前其曾因研發一款專為小女孩所設計的積木系列LEGO Friends for Girls而被質疑包裝著性別歧視的內容。樂高積木對此的回應為發行一套樂高女性研究機構系列LEGO Research Institute collection，設計的三款樂高積木人都為女性，且配件都為科學研究的相關物品，上市後即銷售一空，性別歧視的風波也才漸漸平息。

Brick by brick, business deal by business deal, LEGO built itself into a toy-manufacturing juggernaut this year so much that it now has passed Mattel to be the world’s toy sales leader.

The rise became official in the first half of the year as LEGO rode the success of The LEGO Movie to $468 million in sales at the box office and all of the related merchandise sales. In the first six months, its revenue rose 11 percent, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Conversely, the broad portfolios of Mattel and Hasbro have hurt the brands’ overall standing, Bloomberg Businessweek reports. The former has taken a hit with its Barbie products while Hasbro’s board games are sliding. LEGO, meanwhile, is devoted to pretty much one product with many variations on the theme.

LEGO’s profit margin has been more than 20 percent in the last four years and 24 percent earlier this year, while Hasbro’s is down to 4 percent and Mattel’s is “barely breaking even.” But can Lego maintain this pace of growth? For one, the advent of 3D printing poses a risk to the block-based business, as does the always-questionable holiday shopping season. The brand can’t expect another big box office boost until 2017, when the next iteration of the LEGO Movie is due out.

“It remains to be seen how the [The LEGO Movie] line will continue to develop," Chief Executive Jørgen Vig Knudstorp said, according to the Journal. One thing that could help is the release of the DVD in the second half of this year.

But it hasn’t all been coming up roses for the toy brand. A few years ago, the company received a lot of bad publicity when it introduced its LEGO Friends for Girls line, which featured a beauty salon, a café with cupcakes and a purple convertible. Consumers deemed the line to be sexist, and the company has since responded by releasing its LEGO Research Institute collection, featuring a female paleontologist, astronomer and chemist. The limited-edition set sold out in store across the US and the price of the set tripled on Amazon in the first month it was on sale.