Introduction
Branding is a method or technique familiar in the marketing of products with the intent of elevating a business to the top of its rivals in the market. The procedure creates an intimate relationship between the enterprise and its customers. Through branding, a company can integrate its logo, slogan, design, and color, which are all significant in magnetizing new clients and maintaining the existing customers. A successful enterprise uses branding as a tool for achieving greater results; nonetheless, erroneous branding stirs confusion among customers who previously connected the business with the initial branding (Balensiefer 2012, p. 93).
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What’s more, a perception change repositions the products into more appealing brands that equally attract a variety of cultures and the young professional groups. In its branding strategies, a company should initiate communication to their objective market concerning the promotional design. Such information should state that the business is easily open-minded, involves fun, and entails powerful brands.
This case study is a presentation based on the branding of Lego Company as an important tool for marketing. It will present the idea of Lego brands based on the methodologies, significance, and impact of branding on the clients. Towards the end, the paper will provide the benefits that the company has accrued from branding and afterward propose recommendations based on the changing trends in marketing of goods and services.
Brief History of Lego Group
Lego Company is an iconic name in the corporate world of toys founded by Ole Kirk Christiansen few decades ago. The company uses a plastic insertion-shaping machine in the manufacturing of the plastic bricks for unit toys. Since its conception, the Lego Group seems to have done almost everything correctly and precisely that it grew and established in the clientele mind similarly to the Popsicles for the flavored ice pops. The company has often innovated new products, for instance, the 2000 addition of electronic brands, video games, education centers, hilarity parks, and jewelry. As well, it has entered into collaborations with the Stars Wars movies and the Harry Potter franchise to increase its capacity in the commercial toy industry (Crawford 2014, p. 124)
Lego’s Brand Research and Demographic Target
Lego group often reconsiders their objective clients for plastic products, identify a strategy, and create a brand that mirrors on the customers’ demands. In its branding strategy, the company ever used pictures fonts, colors, and shapes that are satisfying and pleasant to the intent buyers. As well, the CEO and management team of the Group have embraced the need for conducting extensive research or studies on demographic representations for them to generate an image based on the preferences.
Considering that the present technology and globalization have driven the business world into a tough completion, branding as a marketing strategy has become gradually important than over the preceding years (Grensing-pophal 2014, p. 73). Lego’s research on branding has therefore featured the anthology of psychology and science to create a principle mark contrasting to a trade name. The company’s brands convey information of reliability, consistent quality, and expertise or experience of the plastic venture. As well, their studies have focused on brand life cycles, variations in target cultures and significant new methods of branding. Today, Lego Company invest massively on their on their branding techniques that have promoted its sales all over the world.
Lego current brand strategy
The products of Lego Company usually mix and match the identity of the brands they offer. Conversely, the mutualism between the corporate brand and the product brand often depends on the structural design of the brand. The elaborate strategies that the company has used over time include individual branding, corporate branding, and brand endorsement strategy. Others that have worked as well are the house of brand strategy, monolithic continuum strategy, and branded strategy. However, the company has always concentrated on the corporate branding since it has proved to yield greater result compared to the rest. The powerful method has lifted the group to ultimate success, enabling it to challenge the majority of its competitors in the toy industry.
Reasons why Lego group use the corporate branding method
To attain a powerful brand that has a substantial influence on consumerism, the audience, the market, and the rivals, it is important that Lego Company use the powerful method famously known as Corporate Branding. The method has been significant since its commencement because it creates awareness, Builds Company’s reputation, maintains customer’s loyalty, and satisfies the needs of employees. The following discussions elaborate the possible reasons why Lego adopts the corporate branding as its key strategy to marketing their products, instead of other listed approaches.
Devotion to Corporate Values
The corporate branding method of Lego commenced in 1934 and since then, it has comprised significant architectural and building concepts of ‘participate well’. Since the inception of this approach, Lego has maintained its values of constructive fun, versatility, and creativity. Consequently, the company adheres to its vision through the devotion to corporate values, and in doing so, attracted, and fascinated a mass following on generation-to-generation basis. From the beginning of the brand, Lego acquired today’s motto that states, ‘only the Best is the Best’.
Unique Selling Point (USP)
In its early years, Lego Company manufactured unique toys different from any other children’s products. The uniqueness gave the company an upper hand in the market since a bigger part of the populace drew attention towards the beauty of its plastic toys. The exceptional and perfect toys did not just stack similar to other building blocks; they rather locked jointly enough to stay in position. As such, Lego not only succeeded in offering children the best they wanted but also managed to give parents and their kids a new thing that they did not know they needed up to such a time that they felt it.
Timely Brand Increase
The marketing and branding studies that Lego Company focused on enabled it to augment its popularity amongst its objective customers and create a larger customer foundation. Competently, the group investigated the needs in wider spheres and the outcome of the studies swiftly expanded its corporate branding approach. Besides, it inflated into additional super-niches, which included mini-figures for interactive play, Duplo blocks, and brand paring models.
Relevancy
As a strategy of aligning to its rapid expansion and growth, Lego decided to bring its brands closer to the target groups, for instance in places where the majority of its audience were hanging out. In doing so, they started Lego stores and recruited expert builders to raise marvelous feats in intended public localities. As well, they published books, created games, designed clothing, started fun parks, produced movies, and held competitions. Genuinely, the movies were not precise for all the brands in Lego’s way to influence; however, the experts working in the company deemed them significant to the Group’s Relevancy. Further analysis confirmed that the professionals got it correct.
Clear Benefits
Through the corporate branding strategy, Lego has strived to make it obvious that whoever collaborates or aligns themselves to the company, as a customer or an associate, will gain immensely. While it has kept its pledges of fun, innovation, and creativity; as well, they have taken part in charities through children programs and donations. Giving back to the community has been significant since the consumers have an interest in knowing that their attachment lies on something greater than just the idea of using a brand (Hienerth 2014, p. 59). Indeed, they want to recognize that their associations and money are creating change in the world. Lego’s strong attachment to the branding strategy has seen the company sustain its competitive nature through stable relations with clientele. The uniqueness of its products has created a strong bond with the customers who feel that the company’s offers supersede their anticipations. Again, the community services, which include charitable donations, have ensured that the linkage between Lego and various customers and associates remains stronger than ever.
Effectiveness of the Brand Strategy
The corporate branding strategy has been efficiently and significantly important in some ways. The growth and development that Lego Company has experienced have been a result of a prolific and strong marketing approach that uses the corporate branding. Notably, the approach has assisted in the identification of new business opportunities. The plastic brands of Lego have enabled it to be apparent, easily identified by customers, and readily sought after worldwide. Moreover, the brands have allowed the business to save energy and time through practicality, loyalty, and like buying.
What’s more, corporate branding has guaranteed Lego Company of finding similar quality irrespective of place and time of buying the product. Further, it has provided a universal self-image that is attractive and presentable to all clients, associates, and even the rivals as well. The satisfaction that it has brought through familiarity and intimacy with the brand has stabilized the minds of customers in using their products for decades. Concisely, branding has provided ethical principles in Lego enterprises due to the satisfaction brought by the responsible and correct brand behavior in the society.
General influence of branding to consumers and Lego Company
The lawfully protected product names are considerably imperative in the current marketing process. Branding has numerous effects on trade and the consumers as a whole. To start with, branding develops a psychological result that influence the customers by advising them to decide on a particular brand product based on insight rather than solid facts.
According to the works of Madsen (2013, p. 152), it is deducible from the success of Lego Company that brands can routinely trigger the intentions of buying in persons without mindful or conscious intention. Likewise, Peter (2013, p. 61) asserts that brands present assurance of performance by the company through customers guarantee of the value, protection, and other moral responsibilities of the product. Additionally, evidence of Lego business prosperity suggests that corporate branding plays a significant role in research. As such, brand contentment is a primary reason for a customer to opt to a particular brand over the other.
Lego Company branding success
Lego Group is a famously recognized company all over the globe for its massive production of unique plastic toys. Following the changing trends in technology and globalization, the company has made it easier for their products to reach various places and different cultures across the planet. Peter (2013, p. 61) argues that for a business to operate successfully and accrue large profits in a foreign culture, it must have a stronger brand that will lure it customers easily into buying. Likewise, (Hurst 2008, p. 121) supposes that changes in branding strategies, proper advertising, and functional marketing campaigns make it easier for products to display in a foreign atmosphere. Direct marketing approaches of Lego are good examples of marketing methods that have proven to be effective for many multinationals. The branding campaigns of the company have given priority to social values affecting the customers, and that has made operations as flexible as possible.
In my analysis of the enterprise, I revealed that it ventures in several continents including Europe, Asia, and Africa. The company assumes diverse marketing methodologies using analogous brand qualities that include service, quality, value, and cleanliness (Keegan 2015, p. 124).With the aid of corporate branding strategy, Lego performed exceedingly well both in the market and in its charitable donations. Perhaps what could be the reasons for the product victory was the high professional team working in the marketing department of the company and the linkage of the people business to the people through outreaches and child support programs. Furthermore, the excellent marketing research would be another reason topping the list of essential factors influencing the achievements.
The continued process of branding research has helped Lego Company to examine the marketing environment and establish appropriate and efficient marketing procedures that suit the massive production of the plastic toys. Through extensive market studies, the company has realized the compulsion to engage on matters that involve the cultural aspects of the customer bases. Social marketing that Lego focused on assisted it to build up a collectively acknowledged brand, which satisfies the client wants in a superior way compared to the adversaries in the market. Presently, the corporation runs all over the worldwide and has achieved an excellent success throughout its branding for decades. The feedback from the customers has confirmed its achievement and transformation in fulfilling the brand pledges.
Brand Improvement and Future Recommendations
Lego Company must understand that the customers are not just buys their products for the sake of fun. Several other competitors outside inject stiff competition into the business of manufacturing toys. Although they have dominated the market for decades (Keegan 2015, p. 124), they should not sleep on their job as several other companies are coming up with technologies that can supersede theirs at any point of reluctance. Therefore, it is imperative that the company assesses its marketing strategies repeatedly as a way of maintaining pace with the global changes in technology.
Furthermore, the company should continually evaluate its brand names and settle on brands that are catchy to the clients and attracts sales. The brand names calls for research prior before they apply to the business since picking just any name may not be ogre well with particular cultures and societies. Again, the company needs to maintain the uniqueness of its products to standards that its rivals cannot compete efficiently. The color and packaging of products should reflect the interests of the intent audience since they form the most important component of the branding technique. Before the company makes real sales, it should first sell its ideas via promotion and advertisement to the people. Conclusively, when it desires to make perception changes to transform their product to be more attractive to the parents and their children, they need to focus more on acquiring information from the public concerning the types of services they expect.
Similarly, the corporation should initiate communication with their customers through promotional activities that are merely friendly, have fun, and are energetic in branding. Lastly, the development of the marketing strategy of Lego Toy Company calls for the effective and efficient use of the large market. The company should employ communication as the chief promotional implement to the objective market, as well as maintaining client convenience via social media publicity, online marketing, and television promotion. In addition, it should establish exceptional services to the clientele at sales points and offer warranty services under particular circumstances.
Conclusion
Identification of an appropriate and effective brand is a promise to the clients that the products manufactured are quality and incorporates the values stipulated in its marketing. Victorious branding integrates proper development and, therefore, it should convince the purchasers that the new product is an upgraded version of the production. To preserve the connection between the goods and the clients, Lego Company should establish a brand name that matches the values of the intent market.
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