In 2020, LEGO received recognition as ‘The World’s Most Loved Brand’. But back in 2003, things looked very different for the toy company with the brand being on the brink of collapse. So how did LEGO reinvent itself? It was partly thanks to the development of an online brand community, ‘Lego Ideas’. This brand community effectively handed LEGO’s product decisions over to their loyal fan base and consumers.
The top 10 product ideas of the 2018 LEGO Ideas Review. Source: LEGO FanTube (YouTube)
What is a brand community?
Muniz and O'Guinn (2001) describe a brand community as a "specialized, non-geographically bound community that is based on a structured set of social relations among admirers of a brand". LEGO Ideas was created by LEGO as an online community to bring together fans from around the world to imagine, develop and judge ideas for new LEGO sets. It’s an example of co-creation done well, several of the LEGO sets from ideas have gone on to be wildly successful in terms of sales, including the Tree House shown in the video above.
Photo by Vlad Hilitanu on Unsplash
Why is the LEGO Ideas online community successful?
LEGO Ideas is successful for several reasons. First of all the LEGO product itself lends itself to creativity and the brand has a loyal customer base, some of which have been customers since a very young age that have continued as fans into their adult years, not many brands have products that appeal to both younger generations and adults! The community's members are potentially rewarded for their hard work with the fact that their creations can become a real product. Members feel valued if their interactions are meaningful with a brand, i.e. not purely transactional. Member's ideas and creations can turn into real products and even earn them money!
What can go wrong when building an online brand community?
Poor onboarding process - when inviting a customer into your brand community they should feel welcome and there should be a clear process on how they move through the community membership lifecycle from inception to establishment, maturity and even mitosis.
Poor engagement - once they are in there’s no content or the member is not being engaged with.
Hard selling - chances are the members logging into your brand community are already super fans. Building trust with members and not pushing sales will ultimately result in them buying more from you!
Less is more - don’t try and grow the biggest community you can, but focus on engaging with the community you have.
Have you tried to launch an online community for your brand? Was it successful or did it fail? Let me know in the comments!
Hi Alistair,
Fantastic blog! I was actually surprised to read that Lego was on the brink of collapse as early as 2003, no doubt Lego Ideas played an important role in their recovery.
I think what’s notable about Lego’s brand community is they have been able to engage adults who no doubt grew up with the brand as kids. I could be wrong here, but I don’t recall there being many Lego sets aimed at adults (if any at all) until relatively recently, so it sounds like this brand community has really allowed them to tap into a new market.
And like other brand communities I’m sure this has also caused an increase in brand loyalty and more repeat purchases.
Hi Alistair,
Excellent blog post, and I loved the scared LEGO people! :)
I think the strategy by LEGO to engage their audience to create products themselves in a co-creation process is a fantastic marketing strategy. From the online branded community engagement, value creation, loyalty and sales.
As per our other posts regarding branded communities, I'm sure LEGO invested a large team in implementing and managing this strategy. It certainly had an excellent ROI by saving the brand.
Aimee
Hi Alistair,
I was excited to see someone blogged about the success of LEGO!
I agree that the success of their online community stems from the brand’s capacity to engage fans and followers by encouraging them to create and design products and reward them for their efforts by making their creations a reality. What an amazing idea! Not only are they collaborating with consumers, but they are collaborating and innovating with video games and films.
I have never built with Lego and if I am being honest, I have never really been interested in the product - although very interested in their marketing strategies. A brand that was so close to going bust managed to totally rebuild themselves in the…