Marketing in a Digital World by Professor Aric Rindfleisch
LEGO Ideas Exercise
LEGO Ideas Exo Suit
Purpose To gain a deeper understanding how firms can successfully leverage co--� creation through digital platforms.
Background LEGO was established in Denmark in 1949. Since that time, it has sold its toy bricks to over a billion people. And nearly all of them have probably used these bricks to make their own creations. Thus, there is a lot of untapped creative potential that could be captured and used to create new product offerings. This is exactly what the Lego Ideas initiative is designed to do.
This initiative began (under the name LEGO CUUSOO) in Japan in 2008. LEGO Ideas was officially launched in April 2014 and allows fans to submit ideas for new LEGO creations. Every month, hundreds of ideas are submitted and displayed on this platform. Community members can vote to support these ideas. If an idea gets 10,000 supporters, it will be officially reviewed by the LEGO team for possible development as a new product. If it is selected, the developer will receive 1% of the revenue and also have their name recognized. Lego launches around 10 of these co-created ideas each year. Thus, this platform plays a substantial role in its new product development strategy.
Marketing in a Digital World by Professor Aric Rindfleisch
Instructions If you are like me, you probably played with Lego toys when you were a kid...perhaps you still do. Lego is not only one of the planet’s most popular toys, it is also one of the world’s most highly valued brands. It is also the focus of our first exercise in which we’ll take a look at a co-creation initiative called Lego Ideas. 1. Go to the LEGO Ideas website (https://ideas.lego.com).
2. Click on the Discover tab at the top left of the page.
Marketing in a Digital World by Professor Aric Rindfleisch 3. Browse through at least 3 submissions.
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4. Take a look the photos, the description the number of supporters and the comments.
5. Complete the assignment.
Marketing in a Digital World by Professor Aric Rindfleisch
Assignment 1. Record the names of the three submissions that you reviewed. 2. How did this experience make you feel about Lego in general? 3. What type of co-creation (i.e., submitting, designing, tinkering, collaborating) is Lego employing through this platform? 4. What is Lego trying to achieve through this platform?
Resources a. LEGO Ideas Twitter page: https://twitter.com/legoideas?lang=en b. LEGO Ideas Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/LEGOIdeas/ c. LEGO Ideas Fandom page: http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/LEGO_Ideas d. Guardian article on LEGO Ideas: http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/LEGO_Ideas
References a. The image on the first page is a public domain. b. All images in the instructions section are screenshots from the Lego Ideas.