Playmobil vs Lego @playmobilvslego - Tumblr Blog

Final article : the CBBE pyramid and how Lego and Playmobil can grow their brand equity

To sum up the brand equity of Lego and Playmobil, we used the CBBE pyramid.

Lego

Brand salience: From our questionnaire, we can say Lego has a high brand awareness. Even if Lego is not always the first toy brand which comes to people’s mind, at least everyone has heard about it and knows what it does.

Brand performance: about performance, Lego provides quality toys which last for years. Lego also offers many different themes to answer the best children’s expectations and to develop children’s creativity.

Brand imagery: Lego built its image on construction. Starting with bricks you can simply assembly, it created really nice themes : its own and through licenses. With these same bricks, special universes can be created. Thanks to the licenses, Lego modernized its image and is still up-to-date.

Brand judgements: Lego has now so many different ranges and also different licenses. For some, the offer is too wide and Lego identity may be lost. Also, Lego has been criticized to become sexist by creating special ranges for girls. At the beginning, boys and girls could enjoy playing with the same bricks. For others, Lego offers so much possibilities : creating anything from bricks as some artists do.

Brand feelings: For children, it is about fun. Hours can be spent playing with the colourful bricks and creating buildings, vehicles or even long stories. For parents, it is more about nostalgia. They used also to play with Lego and it reminds them their childhood. Lego knows exactly how to attract again older Lego player : ranges with more details, they are still about construction but not about toys.

Brand resonance: Lego interacts with its customers and they answer to Lego and so it gets a high brand resonance. As we have seen on their social media pages, fans of Lego can recreate anything with the small bricks and love to share their buildings or even movies. Lego don’t only attract children but also adults. If you played with Lego during your childhood, then you just love Lego forever. With Legoland or Lego flagship store, parents don’t hesitate to bring their children to spend some hours and have fun in the Lego world.

Playmobil

Brand salience: From our questionnaire, we can say Playmobil also has a high brand awareness, but less than Lego.

Brand performance: Same as Lego, Playmobil produces quality toys. Time don’t affect its quality and are difficult to break. Playmobil is seen as an educational play.

Brand imagery: Playmobil built its brand image around traditional toys. The themes remain the same for years and they are only modernized. For example, the farm has now solar panels !

Brand judgements: Same as Lego, many parents want their children to play with Playmobil figurines because they also play with them. Since Playmobil produces its toys in Europe, parents feel more confident : quality and safety. Some people may also say that Playmobil is too restrictive and don’t invite children to create and build.

Brand feelings: “En avant les histoires” could summarize the feelings children may have with Playmobil figurines. They can create stories endlessly : Playmobil is also about fun. For parents, it is about once again nostalgia.

Brand resonance: Playmobil tries to get interaction with its customer but it seems it is less good at it than Lego. Its brand resonance is less than Lego’s one. Playmobil attracts children and parents but there are nothing made for the parents. With Funpark, Playmobil also wants to take its brand to a next level and to invite families to share the Playmobil experience.

Ideas of development to grow the brand equity

Following our Customer Brand Based Equity study, and all the analysis we did covering Playmobil and Lego’s strategies, we would like to draw your attention on the main ideas of development for both brands.

Lego

The first axis of development would be on targeting: they should communicate more about their adult range. As well as children, adults could be a good target, as people remain “big fans” of Lego, and of its digital advertising (as a proof, we observed Lego’s success on social networks, and people’s engagement!). For example, the collection “Architect” is not enough promoted. Even Lego fans do not know all the products especially designed for them.

Another targeting advice would be to focus on mixity, we do not think that creating product range only for girls is such a good idea. In fact, the “Friends” range did suffer from criticisms, being accused of sexism. Nowadays the trend is about reducing gender gaps, and Lego is also known for its historical gender equality value!

Playmobil

In all of our articles, we underlined the fact that Playmobil has clearly a timeless image. In fact, they don’t follow the trend nor buy license contrary to Lego. We think that it is a real strenght and that is a big part of their brand equity.

One of our advice is to keep this strategy to attract children and parents because as we saw before, toys brand have to influence the influencers.

Even if Playmobil have to keep its traditional characteristics, it can use new technologies to attract their targets more easily. In fact, children play more and more with these new toys. In fact, in 2012, according to parents, 71% of their children (less than 12 years old) are using frequently tablets present at home, 67% are using e-books, 55% are using the computer, 51% the TV and 43% the smartphone (source: http://www.huffingtonpost.fr/2012/09/26/enfance-et-nouvelles-technologies-smartphones-tablettes-12-ans_n_1915219.html).

One of the solution would be to create intellectual games online to educate children in a good way.

To attract more people, and impose Playmobil as the favorite toy that you can play everywhere, we think that developing a product range especially designed for the schoolyard games is a good idea. In fact, children spend most of their time at school, and they communicate there! So it could be a good way to sell more products and increase its popularity. Last but not least, we think it is a niche market, as we do not know any traditional toy brand strongly positioned on the schoolyards games market!

The end...

It has been a real pleasure to work on these two toy brands. We learnt a lot of concepts and brand strategies about Playmobil and Lego. We really enjoyed the experience and hope that you have find our articles interesting!

Now it’s time to close the blog...

See you soon for our next adventures!

Playmobil and Lego: what about advertising?

When we speak about Lego’s advertising, we think about a wide range of media channels: movie, print campaign, social networks, TV, press relation and websites. The target is also very large compared to Playmobil, as it concerns also adults and teenagers.

Media Support

Lego

Lego advertises on many different channels: print campaign, press, TV, social networks, display… But the most important support are print and TV. About TV, Lego is the first announcer on Disney Channel! They did for example launch a 4 weeks TV campaign about the range “Lego friends”.

About their advertising agencies, usually Lego works with big agencies on a project-by-project basis. From 2001 to 2004 therefore, they worked with the same agency for their global advertising: Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R. Another famous agency working for their global communication strategy has been McCann Erickson.

A main part of Lego’s advertising occurs on distributor’s channels, for example through specialized toy retailers’ catalogs, like JouéClub, Toy’s’Rus, or La Grande Récré.

Sources: JouéClub and Toyzmag.com

An example of a successful print campaign is “Creativity”, directed by the Grey Agency.

First issue: LEGO is not only the little brick.

Advertising answer: LEGO sets the children’s creativity free.

Credits: GREY Paris Agency

Source: CB News

They began this “Lego Creativity” campaign in 2012. This print campaign had a huge success and won for example the “SPEM” price, a price rewarding the best Magazine’s advertising campaign. In addition to the 5 visuals, they produced an interactive digital movie “We forgive everything to their creativity”, which is a “multiple choice” video, so you can interact with the story.

We could use an entire blog only dedicated to Lego’s communication, because its advertising strategy relies also on their partners and consumers. In fact, the Lego fans community are consumers and advertisers; there are a thousand of blogs, video and Facebook pages dedicated to their creation.

Playmobil

The main channels of Playmobil’s communication are also the print campaigns, their distributor’s websites and magazines, TV and display. As they do not have as many partnerships as Lego, toys retailers as Toy’s’Rus and JouéClub are their main support.

Source: Toysrus.fr

One of the most innovative advertising for Playmobil comes from a fan of the brand, a famous painter named Pierre-Adrien Sollier. He recreated the most famous paintings with Playmobil figures replacing humans. He painted the entire scenes each time, and this created the buzz on social networks, every influent blog wrote about it.

First picture: La Joconde, Léonard De Vinci

Second picture: Un dimanche après-midi à l’île de la Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat

Third picture: Le Radeau de la Méduse, Théodore Géricault

Source : http://iletaitunepub.fr/2014/07/24/les-chefs-doeuvre-peinture-version-playmobil/

This year, Playmobil celebrates its 40 years!

Source: Challenges.fr

For this anniversary, they organized two exhibitions: « Les 40 ans de PLAYMOBIL – un voyage à travers le temps » in the Museum of History Palatine, and « Le monde du jeu – 40 ans de PLAYMOBIL » in the Toy museum in Nuremberg.

Playmobil posts actively on their Youtube channel. As an example, they launched a special communication campaign entitled “Share the smile – 40 years of PLAYMOBIL”, which encountered a quite good success, as a lot of people around the world took the challenge and created a lot of videos (i.e. Céline's article about social media)

Source: clickeros

They also launched new products and a mini-website entirely dedicated to their 40 years anniversary:

http://download.playmobil.com/FunAction/Microsites/Jubilaeum14/

Advertising

A successful communication campaign is the one who represents the identity of the brand and shares its values to the consumers, while giving the maximum visibility upon its target to the brand.

Lego’s and Playmobil’s key of success is probably their consistency. In fact, they both want to promote creativity, and prove that kids are smart when they build universes with Lego’s bricks or Playmobil’s figurines.

Playmobil is more traditional, they could improve their creativity by using “hot topics” and twisting trendy pictures using the little figurines.

Lego is very strong with humoristic messages, using for example famous advert parody. To promote the Lego movie, they produced an entire commercial break with Lego figurines displayed on UK channels.

Even if we can find a lot of similarities between the different Lego ads since 1980, some criticisms occured when one ad from 1981 re-appeared on the Internet:

Source: Huffington post

Lego has been accused of sexism because when you compare their ads from 1980’s and the ads for the “Friends” range especially designed for girls, you see a negative evolution in the symbolic… Their past ads promoted gender equality, by showing girls’ constructions, equal to boys’, and how parents should be proud of their work. This is not girly, it is not about dreaming of princesses nor shiny worlds with colored horses, this is about building new worlds and mixing genders. Today, Lego tries to target girls separately from boys, which is a bad idea: the “Friends” products’ ads have been a lot criticized.

On the contrary, Playmobil uses its “timeless” universes in its advertising message, and this is successful because it is not about fashion, it is about nostalgia, traditional values and gender equality (both girls and boys like playing with pirates, animals, sea worlds…).

Source: Toysrus website

To go further, I invite you to look at each brand’s Youtube channel, where you can find funny and creative videos!

https://www.youtube.com/user/playmobil

https://www.youtube.com/user/LEGO

Delphine

Sources:

http://www.cbnews.fr/hit-parade/lego-creativite-a106571

http://dettacheedepresse.com/la-marque-lego-libere-la-creativite-des-enfants/

http://www.strategies.fr/actualites/marques/198078W/lego-incubateur-de-creativite.html

http://www.ladn.eu/actualites/dans-monde,lego-rejoue-pubs,36,20256.html

http://www.toysrus.fr/category/index.jsp?categoryId=3940401#

http://bigbrowser.blog.lemonde.fr/2014/02/12/deconstruire-le-sexisme-des-lego/

https://www.youtube.com/user/playmobil

http://www.playmobil.fr/on/demandware.store/Sites-FR-Site/fr_FR/Search-Show?cgid=S_ARTIKEL

http://www.m6.fr/emission-capital/videos/11262592-le_playmobil_a_40_ans.html

Brand Mantra: positioning and essence of the two brands

But what is exactly a brand mantra ?

« A brand mantra is a 3 to 5 word shorthand encapsulation of your brand position. It is not an advertising slogan and it won’t be something you use publicly. A brand mantra is at its most powerful when it becomes a deeply resonant piece of the DNA of the company and is used as a touchstone to return when making difficult decisions. The brand mantra can be your guide to decide in which business you should operate, how to handle a crisis or how to make a painful choice. » (darkmatters.com)

The brand mantra could be divided in three parts : emotional modifier, descriptive modifier and brand function.

Before finding the brand mantra of Playmobil and Lego, we have to look quickly to their point of parity and their point of differences (previous article done by Cindy).

Thanks to that, we can highlight that even Playmobil and Lego are selling the same kind of products and they are trans-generational brands, they don’t have the same core values

We made a list of what these two brands make us think of and what they want us to think of.

Following this brainstorming, we chose these mantras :

Lego: “Fun, Construct , Create”

Playmobil: “Fun, Tradition, Play”

Charlotte

Points-of-parity / Points-of-difference

The first similarity between Playmobil and LEGO is their European origin (the countries are in addition neighboring ones). Both brands have been in business for decades and have now become immensely popular.

However, Playmobil and LEGO have their own customer group who have been following them for generations. While LEGO offers more customizing options with the figures being able to be changed in every possible way, Playmobil figurines are made with finest details and finishing to relate with real life figures.

Playmobil toys and sets are mainly targeting children. The figurines and related accessories are designed for children from 2 years old to play with by being imaginative and active in settling up the scenario. Even though toy collectors are also very interested in setting particular scenes and stories with Playmobil items, the number one fans of this brand remain children. Playmobil is a brand that focuses on delivering purely childhood-friendly toys which give them a pleasant view of the world they live in.

LEGO is on the other hand is a brand that is loved by the “bigger” children. Since they emphasize on the variety of customization rather than the precision of realistic appearance of the characters, children of 6+ years to even past teenage ones are the main fans for it.

One of LEGO’s key to success is probably their licensing strategy. They are currently working with 10 different licensors including prestigious ones such as Disney, Lucasfilm and Warner Bros.

This way, they offer a wide range of different products and are able to stick to new trends. Their sets include Pirates of Caribbean, Prince of Persia, Toy Story, Cars, Harry Potter, Spiderman, Sponge Bob and their greatest success Star Wars.

LEGO favours licenses that are globally relevant and known in the whole world. They also prefer to license mature properties or those with characteristics that present an opportunity to leverage both brands.

Playmobil on the other hand refuses to use licenses to increase sales: Bruno Bérard, Director of Playmobil France explained: “Using licenses is contrary to our DNA […]. Children have to imagine their own stories”.

Each year, LEGO also differentiates itself by organizing the LEGO Summer Beach Tour town to town across France. During this tour, children can play with giant LEGO figurines on the beach. It is a way for increasing awareness towards the brand.

In terms of corporate responsibilities, LEGO focuses on having a positive impact on the following areas: human rights, working environment, environment, anti-corruption, charity etc.

Playmobil on the other hand focuses on producing in its own facilities in modern manufacturing and limiting the “made in China” phenomenon (less than 5% of Playmobil items are “made in China”).

Playmobil and LEGO both have fun parks: several LEGOLAND and Playmobil Fun Parks located all around the world. In addition, they both enjoy having the biggest space as possible in stores (especially during Christmas) for demonstrating their products.

They are also both joining the social media trend (via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc.) and decided to launch Smartphones applications.

Cindy

Sources for the pictures :

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1mlSS5TIN-s/TviyP5z1etI/AAAAAAAAAHQ/SWCKQzn0cEc/s1600/giant_lego-man-lands-on-shore.jpg

http://www.legoland.com/gfx/21824%20LEGOLANDcom%20La_1D8827.png

Sources:

http://mackenzie.bc.libraries.coop/files/2014/08/Lego.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4H6Dc5C2A2Y/UgajOUoFjnI/AAAAAAAAAlM/NuRJvssOEFw/s1600/playmobil+2013.jpg

Brand Experience Scale

Following our interviews, and research on consumers, we are now able to draw a brand experience scale for Playmobil and Lego:

Playmobil

Lego

Playmobil is a little bit more present on the affective and intellectual levels, because it is a traditional, family-centered brand, and the game is about building stories and deploying a wealth of imagination. On these two scales, Lego has a lower position (compared to Playmobil, not compared to other toy brands) as it stimulates the brain, but it is more about the physical activity of construction, rather than thinking about new worlds in which figures interact.

That is why Lego is more powerful on the behavioral scale, as everybody, in all age groups, can (and will be eager to) play with the famous bricks. Lego is also more powerful in terms of sensory experiences, first because the brand is more present in the medias, and their ads play with the sensory aspect of the bricks, and also because the physical aspect of the bricks is analyzed in depth by the player, as building material.

Delphine

Brand Knowledge : Brand Awareness / Brand Image

Lego and Playmobil are famous right ? But does everyone know about them ? Here is the results from a short survey.

What is the toy brand which comes to your mind first ?

24% answered Lego

14% answered Playmobil

And many also answered Barbie, Mattel, Fisher Price and Toys’R’Us even if this is a retailer.

Lego and Playmobil were not top of mind. They are actually not strong recalled brand and so the awareness is not that good. We can note that Lego did a bit better than Playmobil for this respondent sample.

Logo

We show the logo in a way they had to know the brand to recognize the logo.

For the Lego logo, 92% of the respondents guessed the correct brand.

For the Playmobil logo, 73% of the respondents guessed the correct brand.

People are really familiar with the logo, more with Lego than Playmobil.

Words' associations

We asked the respondents to tell us what Lego and Playmobil make them think of. Thus we could

Lego words’ association

Construction, colors, boy, brick, creativity, quality, happiness, innovation, timeless, fun, childhood,

Playmobil words’ association

Stories, imagination, figurines, bob cut, childhood, en avant les histoires, mixed, farms, pirates,

PS : We wanted to test if people could identify the brand with only a piece of brick or figurines and thus we could have checked if Lego and Playmobil were part of the debranding phenomenon. Unfortunately, we could not test it since the respondents already guess the brands with the logo.

Desired VS perceived brand image?

We can evaluate the success of a brand positioning by the fact that the customers perceive the right brand identity. In other words, the brand desired image should match what people perceive. Lego and Playmobil have a strong image, as people are really attached to the brand when they used to be consumers.

On Lego’s website, we found the aspiration and values of the brand, which match the words people associate with the brand!

Source: Lego website

The key words are building, creativity, fun and imagination, quality: these are the precise words that people associated with Lego through our questionnaire! Following also our previous interviews and search on Lego’s consumers, we can say that the brand succeeds in conveying its identity through their communication.

About Playmobil now, it is a bit more difficult to appreciate the correlation between desired/perceived brand image, as they do not communicate so much compare to Lego.

Source: Playmobil website

On Playmobil’s website, when they present the brand’s universe, they describe their identity using these key words: “world”, “figurines”, “histoires à l’infini”, “univers”, “imagination”, “emotion”, and “themes”. Here again, they do perfectly match the brand desired image, so Playmobil is also successful in communicating their values and global identity.

Primary or secondary demand?

We spend some time in toy shops, selling Playmobil and Lego, and we analyzed some consumer’s behaviors. When people are buying Lego’s bricks or Playmobil’s figurines, it is because they want precisely these particular objects, and not any common toys. In fact, quite everybody know these two brands, and they buy it because they are attached to Playmobil or Lego. Quite nobody go to a toy shop looking for colored bricks, they precisely want Lego. The small colored bricks design have become Lego’s property, as well as the the small figurines for Playmobil. For both brands, we can conclude that it is a secondary demand.

Delphine & Céline

Sources

http://www.playmobil.fr

http://www.lego.com/fr-fr/default.aspx

Kevin Roberts’ Lovemarks

The Lovemarker is a creative insight generator that measures emotional heat from the three characteristics of Lovemarks : Mystery, Sensuality and Intimacy.

How to use the Lovemarker

Score: 2 points for Hot, 1 point for Warm and 0 points for Cold.

No Respect, no Lovemark. That means you must score at least 25 Respect points to be considered for Lovemark status.

What your points mean

0 to 36 points = Commodity

37 to 40 = Brand

41+ = Lovemark

In order to evaluate both LEGO & Playmobil Lovemarks, I decided to run a quantitative survey based on Kevin Roberts’ theory. Through a simple survey, each respondent will be given a score which indicates how much love and respect they feel about each brand :

1st Category- Under 36: you are considered as a commodity, which means customers don’t feel neither love or respect about the company

2nd Category- Between 37 and 40: you are considered as a brand

3rd Category- Above 41 with less than 24 Respect points : customers love the company but you can’t achieve lovemark as they do not respect you enough

4th Category- Above 41 with more than 25 Respect points : you achieved lovemark! Customers love and respect you and therefore are loyal beyond reason.

Results:

I gathered the opinions of 32 respondents.

Quite surprisingly, only 25% of respondents’ scores were over 41 for LEGO and among these respondents, 30% scored more than 25 points in “LEGO & Your Respect”.

Regarding Playmobil, none of the respondents reached more than 41, 75% of respondents had a score lower than 36 and therefore considers Playmobil as a commodity. 25% of respondents had a score between 37 and 40, and therefore consider Playmobil as a brand.

Respect: LEGO’s average score is 21, and Playmobil’s is 16.

Love: LEGO’s average score is 16, and Playmobil’s is 12.

It is interesting to note that for both brands, “Love” scores are significantly lower than respect scores, because the “Love” part evaluates criteria that do not really apply to these 2 brands (Sound, Smell, Taste etc.).

LEGO achieved Lovemark, that means that customers love and respect LEGO and therefore are loyal beyond reason. LEGO therefore definitely has an edge over Playmobil but most respondents still consider both companies as commodities.

Cindy

Sources:

http://www.saatchikevin.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Lovemarker-Worksheet.pdf

http://www.lovemarks.com/?pageID=20040

SWOT

Here is the SWOT I have made for Lego and Playmobil.

Lego

Strengths

International firm: head office in Billund (Denmark) but subsidiaries and branches throughout the world. Presence in more than 130 countries

Strong and recognizable brand

Big production capacity : 1000 bricks per second

Wide range of products

Lego community

Phenomenon of the “second generation” : parents buy toys of their childhood

Ability to adapt to the trends : Star Wars, Minecrafts,..

Weaknesses

Price

Lego brand associated with children

Opportunities

Toy industry is stable

Licensing agreements : Star Wars, Minecraft,...

New adult market segment: architectures

Video games

Lego Duplo

Threats

Toy industry is changing : digital revolution

Substitution products : 3D printers, game consoles, tablet computers

Competition

Economic crisis

Counterfeiting

Playmobil

Strengths

Leader on the french toy market

Excellent brand recall, notoriety of the brand

Quality and reliability of products

Refreshed offer every 3 years

Phenomenon of the “seconde generation” : parents buy toys of their childhood

Funparks

Weaknesses

Price

Few diversification

Dependence on plastic prices

Opportunities

Toy industry is stable

Funparks

Threats

Toy industry is changing : digital revolution

Substitution products : 3D printers, game consoles, tablet computers

Competition

Economic crisis

Counterfeiting

Charlotte

Sources for the pictures:

http://brickartist.com/tag/lego-art/

http://www.uchronys.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=6196

Sources:

http://www.challenges.fr/entreprise/20140630.CHA5592/pourquoi-playmobil-ne-veut-pas-jouer-sur-le-terrain-de-lego.html

http://fr.scribd.com/doc/237230267/Lego-Group-Swot-Analysis

What Lego and Playmobil actually sell

Here is a short study about the different ranges of Lego and Playmobil and who they are targeted. I studied also the price and range and how they distribute their products. Both brands are very wide : many different themes to answer the best children’s expectations.

Lego

Duplo from 1 ½ to 5

Duplo is an endorsed brand from Lego. It targets very young children from 1 to 5 years old. The bricks are bigger and rounder, the figurines are not yellow. The need to build is still here.

Price range : starts from 7€ up to 65€

Junior, Creator, City : from 6 to 14

These 3 themes seem to me the most traditional ones. Children can build things which exists in the real world : car, planes, house, police or fireman station. Junior target the youngest with less to build and less small pieces. Creator is much more about construction : with one box, children can build 3 different structures with the same pieces. City recreates a city’s atmosphere with iconic buildings such as fire brigade.

Special Lego’s worlds from 7 to 14

Lego created its own worlds such as Legends of Chima which is really successful. These themes have their own characters and world. Chima is about new human-like animal warriors. Some themes were not so appreciated like Castle, according to a Lego’s salesperson.

Price range :

About all the licenses Lego got from 5 to ...

It is surely the licences which saved Lego. The most successful is Star Wars, but The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are also very appreciated. Super Heroes with Batman and Superman or Ninja Turtles are more recent. Children can play with their favorite characters and re-create the epic scene from the movies. Since adults still love their heroes from their childhood and in a way have kept their child spirit, some boxes have been made for them : more complex, more details, and more expensive.

Price range : from 10€ to 400€

Technic from 7 to ...

With Technic, Lego builders can realistic vehicles with real life functions such as gearboxes. This theme takes Lego bricks to a next level : to give life to bricks with a remote control.

Price range : from 13€ to 249€

Architecture from 16 to …

From 12 years old, Architecture range doesn’t have the role of a toy anymore. It is really about construction and even adults enjoy playing at it, like Laurent we met. Each box is about an iconic building and provides a booklet to learn more about these architectural masterpieces.

Price range : from 20€ to 100€

And more girly ranges…

Lego has developed Friends which is about real-life : stores, poney club, yacht with only girls figurines.

The licence with Disney called Disney Princess is about the most famous heroines : the little mermaid, Cinderella, Raiponce and Ribelle. Lego re-created their universe with bricks such as a horse-drawn coach.

Derivatives products

Watches, books, iPhone cases… Lego uses its brand to explore other products. The iPhone case for instance looks of course like a brick.

Playmobil

Playmobil 1 2 3 from 1 ½ to 4

Same as Lego, the figurines are more rounded and there are no small items. Playmobil targets children from 1 year and a half to 5 years old.

Price range : starts from 6,5€ up to 50€

Themes for girls from 4 to 10

Dollhouse, Princess and Fairies are the main themes for girls. Once children assembled all the pieces to create the house or castle, Playmobil is really about role play.

Price range : 10€ to 149,90€

Themes for boys from 4 to 10

City action is the most realistic policeman, fireman or even builders. Dragons, knight, pirates, western are also traditional themes for toys but deals with imaginary.

Price : 5€ to 196,90€

Mixed themes from 4 to 10

Country, summer fun , city life are once again really about role-play in a farm, poney-club, holiday camps or school. Both boys and girls can play with this theme which are detailed enough to look like real life.

Price range : 6€ to 99,90€

Advent calendars

Playmobil created special advent calendars and the daily rewards are playmobil figurine or accessories. There are different themes, like the main ones : Country, Cityaction or Dragons. Thus, children discover a new theme and may ask for Christmas boxes from the same themes to complete what they have got with the advent calendars. Moreover, the price is quite attractive : 15€90

Conclusion

Playmobil is mainly a game for children from 5 to 12 years old. Themes are different but target remains the same and each theme has quite the same features. Some themes target more boys, some are more for girls but there are many themes which are quite mixed. Only one range is for much younger children. But there are no special range for young adults. Lego can actually target all ages through different themes, both boys and girls.

About Playmobil, every themes can be completed. If you buy the doll house, then you have to buy the furnitures like in real life actually : kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms... On the contrary, there is no synergy between the different boxes from the same theme. You can add them but they are not meant to be completed. Here is an interesting point for Playmobil : every theme is about complementary purchase.

Lego and Playmobil are mostly sold in the same toy stores : Toys R Us, Joué Club, King Jouet and La Grande Récré for France. Both of them have special corners dedicated to their brands. But Lego has an advantage : it has flagship stores where Lego can create a very Lego atmosphere : huge boxes where you can touch and pick up some bricks and why not creating something.

And more

I need to add that both Lego and Playmobil want to reach a next level through theme parks around the world. Legoland and Funpark bring visitors into their worlds and families experience totally the brand. Children can play with thousands of toys inside scale-full size Playmobil castle or house. However, Lego added rides which is not only about playing with toys. Lego did a Duplo train for instance and Legoland is then much more about amusement park than Funpark from Playmobil. Once again it is impressive to see how strong these two brands are : families come to share a fun day, surely because parents used to play with these toys and their children play with them now. A nice way to create a community around toys, from generation to the next one.

Lego

Duplo from 1 ½ to 5

Duplo is an endorsed brand from Lego. It targets very young children from 1 to 5 years old. The bricks are bigger and rounder, the figurines are not yellow. The need to build is still here.

Price range : starts from 7€ up to 65€

Junior, Creator, City : from 6 to 14

Special Lego’s worlds from 7 to 14

Price range :

About all the licenses Lego got from 5 to ...

Price range : from 10€ to 400€

Technic from 7 to ...

With Technic, Lego builders can realistic vehicles with real life functions such as gearboxes. This theme takes Lego bricks to a next level : to give life to bricks with a remote control.

Price range : from 13€ to 249€

Architecture from 16 to …

Price range : from 20€ to 100€

And more girly ranges…

Lego has developed Friends which is about real-life : stores, poney club, yacht with only girls figurines.

Derivatives products

Watches, books, iPhone cases… Lego uses its brand to explore other products. The iPhone case for instance looks of course like a brick.

Playmobil

Playmobil 1 2 3 from 1 ½ to 4

Same as Lego, the figurines are more rounded and there are no small items. Playmobil targets children from 1 year and a half to 5 years old.

Price range : starts from 6,5€ up to 50€

Themes for girls from 4 to 10

Dollhouse, Princess and Fairies are the main themes for girls. Once children assembled all the pieces to create the house or castle, Playmobil is really about role play.

Price range : 10€ to 149,90€

Themes for boys from 4 to 10

City action is the most realistic policeman, fireman or even builders. Dragons, knight, pirates, western are also traditional themes for toys but deals with imaginary.

Price : 5€ to 196,90€

Mixed themes from 4 to 10

Price range : 6€ to 99,90€

Advent calendars

Conclusion

And more

Céline

Sources for pictures and text:

http://www.playmobil.fr/

http://www.lego.com/fr-fr/default.aspx

http://www.legoland.co.uk

Is it still possible to find ethical toys on the globalized market ?

Since the 90’s, China became the first producer of toys in the world. Most of toys brands have factories in China because of the low costs of production and the huge production capacity of the country.

Today , more than 2/3 of toys bought in France come from China.

There are a lot of debates on the quality of products “made in China”.

For example, Mattel removed two million toys " made in China" of the market in 2007. The American manufacturer sold, with full knowledge of the facts, toys with painting which contained a lead rate upper to the European and American standards.

Moreover, there are also some debates about the impact on the environment.

Lego, a controversial partnership with shell

Recently, Greenpeace led a fight against Lego. In fact they convinced Lego to end its partnership with the tanker Shell, accused of participating in the destruction of the Arctic.

This fight paid because Lego will not renew its contract with Shell.

16 million Shell branded LEGO sets have been sold or given away at petrol stations in 26 countries

Playmobil: an european manufacturing against the mainstream

There are four production plants in Europe:

two in Germany

one in Spain

one in Malta.

It allows a quality control of every stage and an immediate reactivity in case of stock shortage. The main production site is Dietenhofen in Germany: about 10 million parts are produced every day thanks to 420 machines…

The last five years, the brand invested more than 150 million euros in its European production sites, mainly for the Dietenhofen site in Bavaria (which covers more than 60 % of the total volume of the production) to remain a competitive and European firm.

For Playmobil, the quality and the safety of toys is an essential element.

The raw material of Playmobil is plastic ABS of high quality. More than 17 000 tons of aggregates are used every year to meet the needs of the production.

To make sure of the good quality of components, random takings are made and the fluidity as well as the resistance of the aggregate are controlled.

In our globalized market, toy market is victim of controversial issues as environmental impact and “made in china” production. Nevertheless, there are still firms as Playmobil which take advantage of the “made in Europe” even if the costs are higher: this is a real part of the brand.

Charlotte

Sources

http://www.ethicalcorp.com/supply-chains/analysis-toy-manufacturing-lego-builds-sustainable-supply-chain

http://www.biftech.fr/dans-les-coulisses-de-playmobil/

http://danishresponsibility.dk/danish-responsibility/innovation-and-sustainability-lego-create-consumer-confidence

http://www.theplayethic.com/2008/04/the-play-ethic.html

Sources for visuals

http://djcadchina.wordpress.com/2012/02/28/made-in-china-dundee/

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/multimedia/slideshows/LEGO-Figures-Protest-Against-Shell-Around-The-World-/

http://s-www.leprogres.fr/images/49633604-3332-4CC3-B184-702B39C5EAD0/LPR_17/assemblage-en-cours-pour-un-

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/multimedia/slideshows/LEGO-Figures-Protest-Against-Shell-Around-The-World-/

Playmobil: consumer's perspective

I did a short interview of Fanny, a 9 years old girl, and her mother, Véronique, a teacher. They currently live in Italy and they both play or played with Playmobil. As it was a free interview, which evolved a lot, I did not put the comprehensive transcription, but below are the main and significant points we discussed. At the end you will find marketing recommendations, with one brilliant idea coming from the interviewee!

Fanny, 9 years old

Why does Fanny play ?

Fanny always played with Playmobil, since her first age. She has 3 older sisters and 1 older brother, who played with Playmobil as well. Her parents like Playmobil (her mother had some during her childhood, which are still in her parent’s home) and bought them for their children, so she has always been used to.

How does she play ?

Frequency: She plays quite every time she gets free time. She received new boxes for “the big occasions” (birthdays, christmas…) and sometimes on an exceptionnal basis.

What kind of Playmobil ? She noticed that she has more boys than girls’ characters, she has as much parents as children figurines, and she quite always identify them as a family. The last box she received was the swimming pool. She does not have a strong preference for one particular world or box (even if she spokes more about the Egyptian’s world).

Mix with other games: The first thing she told me when we spoke about her favorite category was that she mixed Playmobil and Kapla. Kapla is a construction play in wood material, and she uses it to build the Playmobil’s homes. Her favorite world would be the Egyptians, for which she build the “Pharaon” house with Kapla.

Game: she likes to create universes, her exact sentence was that she “like[s] the ability to create new worlds”. She plays quite equally with all the boxes, creating each time different worlds. She build the story as she plays, it evolves during the game.

Number of players: younger, Fanny played with her big sisters but now she plays alone or with her friends (mostly girls). Most of the time she plays alone, creating her own universe, but when she goes to her friends places or when they come to her home, they play with their particular vision of Playmobil. Each one of them has her own universe, but they pretend they are neighbors, so that they can mix their worlds.

Why does she like Playmobil so much, and what are the limits to this game?

Overall, she likes the fact that she can create different worlds, but also that she is able to “play with the personages in [her] own way”. The only negative thing she told me about was a physical limit: the Playmobil cannot entirely raise their arms.

Véronique, the mother

When and where did she buys Playmobil for her children?

Playmobil is a family game for Veronique, as her 5 kids and herself played with it, and they have never been interested in Lego. However, she reminded that when her kids were very young (between 1 and 4-5 years old), they did play with Duplo (Lego for the youngest), but then, they began to play with Playmobil right away and did not follow the “Lego evolution”.

She buys Playmobil boxes for special occasions: birthdays, Christmas… It is always a surprise, as Fanny does not told her which box she would like to receive, her mother decides. Fanny and her sisters did play with all the Playmobil they received.

The playmobil boxes are for 50% new and for 50% second hand. The “second hand” ones come from Fanny’s older sisters, or sometimes from “Le bon coin”, and a few years ago from “La foire aux trocs”.

What she observes:

Timeless game: They begin to play around 4 years old, till 11-12. Veronique herself did play as a child, and kept her old boxes at her parent’s place. Fanny and her sisters used to play with their mother’s boxes when they visit their grandmother.

Figurines better than houses: her children use more the figurines and accessories than houses or pre-build environment. In fact they prefer to imagine and build the universe around the Playmobil characters themselves, they are quickly bored with a universe entirely elaborated.

What does she like about Playmobil?

Definitively the creativity, as it develops the imagination with infinite possibilities of games. As an example of creativity, her kids decided themselves to mix the Playmobil figurines with the Kapla constructions. For her, it is the only game designed for every child allowing them to build a infinite amount of worlds.

How does she perceive the brand’s evolution?

Very positively. She thinks the brand did extend its range of products in a good way, as now more and more characters, universes are offered. She remembered that a few decades ago, Playmobil was more designed for boys, with Cowboys and Policemen characters, but now, it is more mixt. Girls and boys seem equally targeted, sometimes with the same products, sometimes it is more for one gender, like the family in the house, the princess for girls.

She does not see any negative point in the brand evolution, nor in its new products, as they follow the same values.

France – Italy differences?

As they have moved to Italy a year ago, I asked both of them about the Italian game habits. They told me that they could find and buy Playmobil in Italy as easily as in France, and that Fanny played with her Italian friends, who have quite the same boxes and game habits than her.

What about Playmobil’s media / advertising?

Veronique did not know about the Playmobil website and its mini-games online, she does not really see their advertising as they don’t watch TV and don’t go on the website. However, they went to the FunPark several times, in family, and they all enjoy it. She thinks it is better to go with several kids and not only one, as it is difficult for the child to find a game partner among all the unknown children.

Credit blog “lactudaudrey”

Any idea of evolution?

We spoke about the other games Fanny uses to play, and then Veronique realized that Playmobil is not a game you play at school, at least not in the schoolyard. She thinks the reason is probably the price and the value of the Playmobil boxes, especially the small pieces, which can easily be lost or stolen. So the justification of the absence of Playmobil in the schoolyard would be the fear of the parents.

Recommendations for Playmobil

What they should keep: the brand values

their image of “tradition”, “family”, and “safety”

their non-fashionable position: as we saw in previous articles, they promote the fact that they are not “fashion”, in order to be timeless, and it works!

the key words are still definitely “Imagination”, “build universes”, and “infinite stories”

Which axes of evolution they should keep:

Not being associated with “star of the moment” characters, or tendencies, for two main reasons. The first is to remain timeless, and the second one is to have neutral products, neutral enough so that the kid has a wide possibility of building many stories around the character.

Diversification of the products and gender mixing.

New evolution’s idea:

Move the Playmobil from homes to the schoolyard!

This could be done by two strategies, depending mainly on the reason why children don’t play with Playmobil there. The brand should conduct a consumer analysis (for both parents and children), which would say if this is because of rational motivation (Playmobil figurines too small and too expensive to be brought to school), or because of subjective, cultural reasons (simply not used to).

Credit: apefcpemilhaud.centerblog.net

Two strategies appear there:

1- We consider that children don’t play with Playmobil in schoolyard because they are not used to, and not because of any objective reasons. The solution would then be: make it a habit! This will go through a new advertising message, showing kids playing with Playmobil in the schoolyard, developing new games rules especially for the school and for groups play, available online.

2- We consider that parents think the Playmobil figurines are too expensive to be lost, and the accessories too small, so it seems too dangerous to be brought to school. Even if we could oppose the argument that the logs are very small, and the pokemon cards are expensive (to quote 2 famous schoolyard games), we should overall consider this argument and develop a new category of Playmobil!

This new Playmobil collection should be especially designed for the schoolyard games: easy to transport but not too small, no accessories, and a bit cheaper than the existing ones. They should also be designed in a way that each figurine complete each other, so the children can exchange them.

Key of success:

In any case, to make a kid play a game, particularly a group game, we have to give them rules! Like for a card play, the brand should assign game rules to the Playmobil school figures, and launch it on social networks, link it to their website (where the children could put their score for example, in a dedicated space on the website). The game should also be organized in the FunPark and sometimes in shops like a temporary event.

I hope this will give new development ideas to Playmobil!

Delphine

Competition

The toy industry is a stable, low-growth industry that is also very competitive with low barriers to entry, and traditional toy manufacturers are seeing increasing competition from digital gaming products.

The size of the global toy market was estimated to be at 84 billion U.S. dollars in 2012, of which 20 billion U.S. dollars are attributable to the U.S. market.

Mattel, Hasbro and Lego are worldwide leaders for traditional toys and games. However, in some countries such as China, other companies are omnipresent and leaders on the national market (Guangdong Alpha Animation, Toyroyal Co Ltd etc.) In terms of sales revenue, Mattel is the worldwide leader of the toy industry with 7.1B dollars of gross sales, more than 900 million net income, nearly 30,000 employees in offices across 40 countries and products for sale in more than 150 markets (2013 figures).

It is the world’s largest toy company and includes some of the most iconic toys of all time such as Barbie, Hot Wheels, Fisher Price etc.

Mattel has also successfully built a strong digital eco-system with more than 35 million Facebook fans liking, sharing, commenting and exploring content across the pages, 60 million people downloading the mobile app and YouTube videos all having more than 1 billion views.

Mattel’s strength has also clearly been reinforced by its power to innovate, as it has successfully implemented a strategy aiming at introducing new products while keeping core brands fresh through innovative marketing campaigns.

As an example, in 2014, Mattel’s partnership with Marvel for the creation of a co-branded range of Hot Wheel cars (even though its competitor Hasbro currently has a license with Marvel to make toys and games based on characters in the Marvel universe until 2017) could be the first step toward Disney eventually choosing Mattel over Hasbro for the rest of its Marvel-themed toys.

Another good example of innovation, this time through acquisition is MEGA Brands, a small Canadian toy company specialized in construction toys (direct competitor to Lego). As construction is one of the fastest growing areas of the toy market, this acquisition places Mattel into a market with significant growth prospects.

Hasbro is second in the toy industry in terms of sales revenue, with more than $4 billion of gross sales in 2013. Hasbro offers a large portfolio of brands including TRANSFORMERS, MONOPOLY, SCRABBLE, PLAY-DOH, MY LITTLE PONY, NERF and LITTLEST PET SHOP.

Hasbro’s strategy can surely be summed up by the motto “Play Together wherever you are”. They extended their game range from traditional board games that can be played at home to mobile and tablets app but also online versions of Hasbro’s games.

One cannot speak about Hasbro’s strategy without mentioning Hasbro studios which has successfully allowed them to expand into television and promote their core brands through movies and entertainment. While choosing this route involved numerous risks including box-office bombs, they have instead become one of the smartest and most forward thinking companies in the ever-competitive toy industry. Hasbro Studios develops and produces television programming for more than 180 territories around the world.

Mattel and Hasbro are the two biggest players in the toy industry, closely followed by Lego. They both offer a very wide range of brands, which allows them to target different categories of customers (children).

Hasbro is however still behind Mattel because it heavily relies on board games and puzzles, which are becoming less popular.

Here is a perception map about how brands/ games are viewed.

The demand for toys has experienced a massive change and the concept of “edutainment” has emerged. Toys are no longer only considered to fulfil the entertainment, requirements of a child. Through technology, toys are becoming more educational and engaging, companies are aiming at offering innovative and eco-friendly toys to customers. Leapfrog surely understood that and is now a leading manufacturer of innovative and technology-based educational products worldwide.

Cindy

Sources

http://investor.hasbro.com/annuals.cfm

http://investor.shareholder.com/mattel/annuals.cfm

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/04/17/why-mattels-earnings-are-better-than-they-appear.aspx

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/02/19/this-toy-maker-expects-a-blockbuster-year.aspx

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2012/10/21/hasbro-earnings-recap.aspx

http://investorplace.com/2012/10/toy-maker-throwdown-hasbro-vs-mattel/#.VGj77vTF9ss

http://www.statista.com/topics/1108/toy-industry/

Sources for visuals

http://www.hothbricks.com/2014/02/mattel-rachete-mega-brands/

http://www.toysrus.com/buy/building-sets-blocks/mega-bloks-80-piece-big-building-bag-classic-8217-15303646

http://lizhassan.com/hasbro.html

http://fr.slideshare.net/KristinBorradaileCohen/mattel-final-19nov2010

When Lego and Playmobil become pieces of art

It is really impressive to see how many artists chose these toys as raw materials for their creations. They have become more than just toys, and using Lego and Playmobil can also be a way to express art or talk about History. In a way, artists promote themselves these toys and increase brand awareness of Lego and Playmobil. Strategically speaking, it is definitely a chance for Lego and Playmobil : a uncommon and passive way to communicate on their brand.

Richard Unglik

Richard Unglik is a French photographer and moviemaker. In 2000, he had the idea to revisit History with Playmobil figures: famous paintings & sculptures, movies, musicians or even well-known figures in a humoristic way. He dressed up each Playmobil figures to make them look like real persons and then photographed the stagings. The Last Supper, the Raft of the Medusa or Abbey Road were parodied. Four books were published gathering all of his pictures and he also launched an exhibition at the Château de Chillon in Switzerland and at the Glasgow-Monceau hotel in Paris. It certainly is a nice way to teach History to children …

Jan Vormann

Jan Vormann, a German artist, started his “Dispatchwork” in 2007 in a small village in Italy. The goal was to repair broken walls and fill them with Lego bricks all over the world. There is no special meaning for his art, but he wanted to draw the attention of visitors when they walk in front of these colorful compositions. He invited people to do the same and it actually became quite popular. Lego Bricks can be found in the streets of London, Venice, Paris, New York and even on the Great Wall of China.

Rodrigo Pereira

In the streets of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, the artist Rodrigo Pereira painted Playmobil heads over the street parking obstacles. He rejuvenated Rio and the smile of Playmobil became contagious :)

Nathan Sawaya

This New York-based artist, Nathan Sawaya, transformed simple Lego bricks into pieces of art. He is able to create anything only using Lego bricks : a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton, life-size humans or a cello. His unique sculptures are touring through various museums and he named his exhibition “The Art of Bricks”. He also received private orders from around the world for his creations.

The little artists

The English collective The Little Artists transformed 30 famous cultural figures as artists, musicians or Olympians into a Lego figure.

It surely isn’t just a happy coincidence. Lego bricks and playmobil figurines are meant to develop children’s creativity. It therefor sounds logical that some artists use these toys to express their creativity as well. They also use them because they are famous… Even if art is not supposed to be marketed, these two brands make their exhibitions more attractive and may also popularize their pieces of art. Indeed, a child could think it is funny to find its favorite toys in museum used for artistic or cultural goal. For adults, the art dealer Benoît Ramognino even says Lego are like the Madeline from Proust, because Lego is just between childhood and imaginary for people who are around 40 today. Here are some examples. In a nutshell, Lego and Playmobil have such strong brand awareness that they are part of the pop culture nowadays.

Céline

Sources for information and visuals

http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/galeries-photos/photo/20130313.OBS1668/les-playmobil-dans-tous-leurs-etats-de-richard-unglik.html

http://streeetart.wordpress.com/2011/11/12/lego-street-art/ http://www.janvormann.com/testbild/dispatchwork/

http://www.thetrendygirl.net/2010/03/playmobil-street-art.html

http://brickartist.com/about/

http://littleartist.co.uk http://www.lefigaro.fr/arts-expositions/2014/03/18/03015-20140318ARTFIG00009-lego-playmobil-les-nouvelles-tetes-de-l-art.php

#art #popart #legoart #playmobil

Kidexpo

The « Kidexpo » probably is an inevitable event when studying Lego and Playmobil brand strategy, which is why I decided to attend this event taking place from October 23rd to October 27th 2014 in Paris.

Both brands were well represented.

Playmobil

Celebrating its 40th birthday, Playmobil invited both children and adults to discover its huge Asian knights and dragons figurines. Iconic sets, figurines, and accessories were available in the play area for children aged between 18 months and 12 years old.

Playmobil’s presence was surely reinforced by the WE LOVE PLAYMO contest.

The goal was to show its love for Playmobil on a picture and then share it on Facebook #WELOVEPLAYMO. People visiting the Playmobil booth at the Kidexpo were then able to vote for their favourite picture, and the winner won the equivalent of his weight in Playmobil figurines.

The Kidexpo also offered the opportunity to discover very well elaborated Playmobil constructions created by the GénérationS Playmo (organization gathering several Playmobil’ collectors around their passion for the brand). Générations Playmo is quite well known in France and participates in many events in order to share their passion.

For more information on GénérationS Playmo, please visit the website: http://www.generations-playmo.info/

Lego

A large amount of space was dedicated to Lego at the Kidexpo, separated among 4 divisions:

· Lego (gathering Lego’s most famous ranges such as Lego Star Wars)

· Lego Friends (targeting young girls)

· The Lego movie

· Lego Duplo (targeting the youngest)

Lego’s presence at the Kidexpo was surely reinforced, not only by these divisions and the launch of the “Batman 3 contest” for kids, but also thanks to the AFM Telethon challenge.

Indeed, Lego and AFM Telethon reunited themselves in order to raise money for the association. The idea was to create a giant fresco using Lego bricks. Each participant could build a square of the fresco in Lego bricks, in exchange for 2 euros. He was then able to add it to the rest of the fresco. The goal here was to have 50,000 bricks assembled. The funds have been given to the AFM Telethon association whose objective is to overcome diseases.

What was interesting at the Kidexpo was the fact that it really focused on providing activities for kids that mostly didn’t involve digital games.

Apart from Lego and Playmobil, activities such as swimming, horse riding, cooking etc. were indeed highly emphasized which shows that new generations are not that obsessed with digital games.

Another interesting point is that parents are most likely to go for Lego and Playmobil which present themselves as a fun way of developing kids imagination and creativity rather than choosing to buy video games for their kids. Lego and Playmobil are very popular among parents (also because, as its been said in previous articles, parents may be old or current Lego/ Playmobil players and fans).

One last interesting point is that both Playmobil and Lego are aware that they’ve become more than just “Toys for kids”. They now are a social phenomenon and therefore target not only kids but also collectors (Lego collectors were also present at the Kidexpo and presented various constructions).

Cindy

#kidexpo #telethon

How Playmobil and Lego are doing on social networks

I did a short study about Playmobil and Lego on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to see how they perform on social media. We will see how each brand interact with their customers and how effective it is.

Some figures to start.

Facebook

Lego : more than 9 million likes on the international official page

Playmobil : 250 000 likes is the total of the different national pages

We also need to add Lego has different pages according to the different ranges of products and licenses. Lego actually has much more likes that Playmobil.

Instagram

Lego : more than 300 000 followers

Playmobil : 9 000 followers

Twitter

Lego : 197 000 followers

Playmobil : almost 8 000 followers

But figures don’t say much, let’s see the content.

Playmobil - what happened recently

Mostly, Playmobil share pictures of the figurines in different situations. It was about the time change last Saturday or lately about Halloween with the hashtag #playmoween. It also share fan pictures or videos on their page and some made really impressive video with Playmobil.

#Dracula is out tonight! | #PLAYMOBIL fan picture of the day by @NicolaBuckPhoto #PLAYMOWEEN #Halloween #vampire pic.twitter.com/EUQebISl61

— PLAYMOBIL (@playmobil)

31 Octobre 2014

Playmobil organized a worldwide event to celebrate its 40 years anniversary on Sept 13th. In eight cities, it put 40 000 figurines in the streets and passersby could play with them. It created the hashtag #sharethesmile and fans of Playmobil spread this hashtag by taking pictures of the figurines. Here is the video.

Happy 40! #PLAYMOBIL #ShareTheSmile!

Une photo publiée par PLAYMOBIL (@playmobil) le Sept. 9, 2014 at 5:20 PDT

More recently at Kidexpo, a toy fair in Paris, Playmobil exposed the 40 pictures of winners from #WeLovePlaymo contest also organized for its 40 years anniversary. Cindy will be telling you more about this fair and event in the next article.

Lego - what happened recently

Lego interacts with its customers by directly asking questions about its products. It really uses social networks as a tool to have comments. The last question was about its Bike Shop & Café set and asked what people would add. Then, they invite people to upload their creative builds with the hashtag #beALEGOcreator.

We want to know what you would add to our Bike Shop & Café set. Upload your creative builds & tag w/ #BeALEGOCreator pic.twitter.com/AHgdAmOzzr

— LEGO (@LEGO_Group)

10 Octobre 2014

It did a countdown to announce the come-back of the Bionicle range for January 2015. A good way to make people excited about a new launch ! Fans can also try to guess what it will be and they post many comments to share their guess.

Only 2 days left until we reveal the BIG secret! It's guaranteed to be a good one, so keep your eyes peeled! Have you had a guess yet? #LEGO #News

Une photo publiée par LEGO (@lego) le Sept. 9, 2014 at 7:48 PDT

For the release in December 2014 of the third and last chapter of the Hobbit, Lego just announced new Lego @TheHobbitMovie sets were available on its Twitter page. Moreover, Lego even re-create and parody some famous scene like the one with the Dragon.

Also, some fans create their own movie with Lego sets. Here is one nicely done which last 72 seconds instead of 33 000 seconds from Peter Jackson’s version…

Why Lego seems to be more powerful than Playmobil on social medias

First of all, Lego communicates a lot about their new products and it seems that Playmobil forgot to appeal. It doesn’t excite their customers since it doesn’t tell them what is going on for Playmobil and for their products. However, Playmobil did some events for its 40th anniversary and interacts with its fans with the pictures contest. On the other side, Lego interacts a lot with its fans about its products and even ask them directly how it could improve some sets.

Playmobil only posts some pictures of figurines or some fans’ pictures but it doesn’t create any movie good enough that could make its fans say : “Oh gosh, nicely done, I love it !”. It did some about Knights and Indians but you need to really search for them to find them. Lego just does it better. On their Facebook pages, you can also see easily that Lego answer more often to the comments of its fans than Playmobil. Playmobil talk - to - its fan whereas Lego talk - with - its fans. Lego therefore built a stronger relationship with its customers than Playmobil.

Community

Both of them succeed in creating a strong community on social medias. Even if kids are the first customers for toys, Playmobil and Lego brought together people who used to play with theses toys. These people are now adults or grand-parents and as Charlotte said, these brands just influence the influencers. Because they used to play with Lego or Playmobil sets and they are nostalgic about it, then what will they do when they see a toy box while trying to find a Christmas gift for their kid(s) ? They’ll end up buying the same toy they used to play with ! This is how Lego and Playmobil became successful toy brands : it is even a total way of life and become a brand religion.

Céline

Sources

Lego and Playmobil Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages

#community #socialmedia

Marketing to children: from moral criticism to digital trends

The first thing that comes in mind when speaking about kids marketing is moral criticism: we cannot sell to children, we cannot target young people who are constructing their mental spirit and can be easily influenced. The use of psychologists to help marketers create new strategies, by understanding the inherent needs of the children, is also very controversial.

In France, a law limiting the advertising to children has been submitted for agreement, but the main concern about kids marketing is for food, and not so much for the toy industry at the moment.

Source: http://foodmatters.tv/images/marketing_kids.jpg

The thing is, there is no such thing as a “Children” target , because there are too many differences between a 3 year old boy and an 8 year old girl. They evolve so quickly that they are niche markets, and the important point is to have a precise segmentation with good knowledge and understanding of each segment; their need, their want etc. Toy industries have to adapt their communication to each age.

Another important thing when speaking about kids marketing is social construction. Playing has an essential role in children's’ development, which begins with the relation with other people. The toy industry focus on how their products will be played between different children with different imaginations.

Some marketing techniques used for children

1. Psychology: understand the children and their inherent mechanisms

Power of the children to annoy their parents until they buy them the game: many brands rely on that in their strategies!

Some companies, in their advertising for adult products (like a video game for people aged over 16) directly target the children, in order to make them loyal to the brand. In fact, they try to answer a want of the children, who want to be like the “grown-ups”, and access the same things as their big sister, brother or cousin.

2. Packaging: we know that children, especially the youngest, love colors, grabbing things, and easily identify to mascots.

According to centers for a new American dream, babies at 6 month old can already visualize logos, and they should be able to remember a brand, and thus begin the brand loyalty process at only 2 years old! The packaging is very important, for babies it is sometimes more interesting than the product itself…

3. Viral marketing and interactive advertising: the child consumers of the XXI century are connected.

Viral marketing: especially for teenagers, the brands target the “influencers” which will speak about the product in school or better, launch new ideas on a discussion forum on internet.

“Advert games”: the new promotion in children’s marketing is online, through the creation of interactive website, with games, competition, club and forum, to promote the young customers relation and retention. Very few children are able to identify these type of interactive platforms as advertising. Sometimes the brands make them look like educational in order to avoid the criticisms.

Lego and Playmobil

We could think that the new generation changed with the IT revolution, and the ongoing success of the digital games. Actually, the success of the “old” brands like Lego and Playmobil shows that children expectations and needs in the play area are not so different today.

When we interviewed the salesman from Playmobil and Laurent, the fan of Lego, we noticed that the video games and other digital way of playing were not a real threat for the old –already famous- toy companies, as children, especially the youngest, will always need to use their senses through the use of traditional toys. For Playmobil in fact, there is no trendiness effect in the toy industry, as the consumers never cease to renew themselves. This is why Lego and Playmobil did not change drastically their kids marketing strategy.

The message is still the same: use your imagination to invent stories with Playmobil, and build your world or the world of your favorite characters with Lego. Imagination is the keyword, the key to success in kids marketing. New products and their advertising have to give some frame for a fictive universe, giving enough freedom so that the possibilities of game won’t be quickly saturated. The way of delivering the message is the only thing that changed. Definitively, the trend of the marketing to children is now the digital communication: gaming platforms, social networks, interactive advert… Lego and Playmobil created their universe online, through games or video; it is the same brand universe which appears in Legoland theme parks, or Playmobil Funpark, and in the shops.

Lego created online games, videos, which are displayed on the official website. Each game or video is always linked to a Lego product, and often lead directly to the shop page. They created a “club”, using the social interactions between children to promote the brand, by creating the community. Children are consumers and advertisers.

Source: http://www.lego.com/en-us

Playmobil has also developed some mini-sites, games and videos, but we can see that it is more traditional, as the website offers drawings, colorings, comic books, things to print and manual activities.

Source: http://www.playmobil.fr/

Another difference on their websites is that Lego clearly targets children (trying to make them play video games), when Playmobil uses the “educational card” with the “Did you know it?” rubric, which is designed for parents as well as for children.

As we saw with Charlotte’s article “Marketing to parents”, the parents remain the final buyer, so the target of toy industries is still shared between children and adults; the brands influence both, the parents influence children through education, and the children influence parents with their request.

The real change in kids marketing is the support: now the promotion goes by digital communication; interaction, imagination and segmentation remaining the keywords!

Delphine

Sources

http://www.e-marketing.fr/Thematique/Tendances-1000/Consommation-10000/Breves/Marketing-enfants-de-la-cour-de-recre-au-tout-digital-53628.htm

http://www.marketresearchnews.fr/archives-dossiers-du-mois/comment-reussir-son-marketing-aupres-des-enfants/evitons-au-moins-les-plus-grandes-erreurs.html

http://kids-marketing.over-blog.com/5-index.html

http://habilomedias.ca/publicite-consommation/comment-specialistes-marketing-ciblent-enfants

http://toussurlamemeplanete.overblog.com/2013/12/la-pub-et-le-marketing-aux-enfants-normal-ou-pas.html

Marketing to parents: influencing the influencers

Toys brand don’t have to forget that parents occupy an important place in the choice of toys!

Who buy toys for children?

Parents : 37,1%

Grand parents: 31,5%

Children: (ONLY) 1,60%

To target parents, Lego and Playmobil have different kind of strategies.

In April 2014, Lego created a new website for the young parents: Lego creativity (http://www.legocreativite.fr). This one relieves contextual operations such as games or communication operations.

“Kids corner” and “Mom corner” are existing and thanks to these different tabs, Lego create a real and strong link with children and parents!

For Stéphane Knapp, the previous marketing director of Lego France, Parents are boring of video games and want to limit the time spent by their children in front of screens and come back to the real experiences of toys.

Moreover, according to Stéphane Drilhon, the marketing director of Playmobil France, there is the effect of “the second generation”: young parents played with Playmobil figures and buy them for ther children. In fact when we compare the two figures below, we can see that there are not so many changes.

PLAYMOBIL FIGURE IN 1974 PLAYMOBIL FIGURE IN 2014

Create real family events is also one of the srategy of Playmobil. Funpark is one of the example: children can play during hours with their favorite figures whereas parents can drink a cofee or play with them!

Brands shouldn’t only be a company, they also have to be partners in child advocacy. In fact, for example, Lego use the violence of the TV to warn the parents of the dangers of the new technologies for the children.

Toys brands have to target parents who are the main influencer on purchasing. Lego and Playmobil have to prove that they are trustworthy brands.

Nevertheless, both parents and children have to be targeted because “You can spend $10 million to market a toy, but if the kids don't like it the advertising won't matter"....

Charlotte

Sources

http://www.legocreativite.fr/blogs/actualites/surprenants-creativite-lego/

http://www.juniorsandco.com/nos-etudes-en-souscription/les-juniors-leurs-parents-les-jouets-et-les-marques-un-menage-a-4/

http://homepages.rpi.edu/~woodhe/pdfs/childr.pdf

Sources for visuals

http://www.legocreativite.fr

http://www.playmobil.fr/

http://www.lepetitmoutard.fr/place/playmobil-fun-park_fresnes_1104/photo

http://www.asdlabs.com/blog/2009/09/11/lego-kids-shouldnt-watch-too-much-tv/

#kids #influence #creativity #parents

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