...Short Answers 1. Explain the factors that may influence the organisation in adopting RM. 2. Suggest for a company with which you are familiar. Where would you place the company on the hypothetical RM/TM continuum? What factors led to your decision to place them at this point on the continuum? 3. What are the differences between Relationship Marketing and Transactional Marketing? 4. What effect do switching costs have on a relationship? 5. Explain the association between risk, salience and emotion. Part B: Case Study Lego is one of the world’s largest toy manufacturers. It is estimated that more than 400 million children and adults play with Lego each year. However, despite being voted the nation’s favourite toy for a number of successive years and a YouGov pool into the top ten favourite toys of the past century showing Lego as the clear winner (ahead of computer games, teddy bears, Meccano and train sets!) Lego is in serious financial difficulty! With an annual revenue of over £1 billion and employing around 8000 people in North and South America, Asia and Europe, the company has posted a loss for a number of consecutive years. After attempting unsuccessfully to redress its losses with new products such as computer games, the company is attempting to restructure so as to focus on its core values. As Frank Martin, of Hornby toys states, “Children are still interested in Playing. Blaming the TV or computer...
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...physical toys. Children are playing computer games at a younger age, eroding the share of their playtime that was once dominated by toys. 1.2.2 Demographics In developed countries, aging population coupled with lowering birth rates are the primary driving forces for industry players going forward. I believe that this should provide implications on the future directions that LEGO should take. 1.2 External Environment – SWOT Analysis 1.3.3 Strengths and Opportunities The LEGO brand itself is entrenched deeply within the building toys industry. This strength is especially valuable to certain sub-industries under the broader toys industry such as infants’ toys and serious gaming. LEGO is also a trusted brand in education and with parents. LEGO can leverage on this strong brand name to perhaps explore opportunities in non-traditional markets such as the silver industry. LEGO, being an established brand that the older generations are familiar with, can expand into these industries. In addition, the trend towards more playtimes spent on computer games opens up the digital market for LEGO as well. The culture of innovation and LEGO’s unique product offering – providing building blocks for players to create and invent is a valuable and complex strength embedded in its organizational culture that can be used to reliably gain a foothold in the digital games market. 1.3.4 Weaknesses and Threats The consolidation of licenses under Disney, coupled with LEGO’s...
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...5. Summarize the strategic risks using the Strategic Risk Management framework and map the risks on the LEGO PAPA model. The LEGO Group uses a four step Strategic Risk Management model which is comprised of Enterprise Risk Management, Monte Carlo Simulations, Active Risk and Opportunity Planning, and Preparing for Uncertainty. Using the Strategic Risk Management Framework, there are many different risks on the pyramid that the LEGO Group are open to. They are shaded and explained below. Customer Risk—LEGO’s products are geared to younger children. It needs to fulfill otherwise unmet customer needs in the Asian market to make a presence and gain market share in that market. “Market research firms noted a strong preference for preschool and educational toys in most emerging Asian economies. For example, Chinese sales of scientific/educational toys and construction toys had grown 20% between 2009 and 2010.” The LEGO Group has a plethora of construction toys and it prides itself on its ability to use consumer insight in product development. “Anyone can get consumer insight, but many people have a hard time dissecting this information and utilizing it in their product development.”1 We believe LEGO should proceed with caution and do more research because their own focus groups with Chinese mothers contradicts the preference above. “The post-eighties mums grew up in this hard school paradigm. They don’t want to offer their kids that same experience. These parents want...
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...LEGOLAND® Deutschland eröffnete im Jahr 2002 im bayrischen Günzburg, nahe der Autobahn 8 München - Stuttgart, seine Pforten ворота und ist der zweite Versuch попытка einen LEGO®-Park in Deutschland zu etablieren основывать. Den ersten Versuch gab es 1973-1976 in Sierksdorf, allerdings scheiterte неудалось,Dieser und wurde 1977 als Hansaland, dem heutigen Hansa Park, neu eröffnet. Viel durchgestylter hingegen, und mit den besten Attraktionen der weltweit drei anderen LEGO® Parks - Billund (1968), Windsor (1996), Kalifornien (1999) - ausgestattet, geht LEGOLAND® Deutschland an den Start. Allen Parks gemeinsam ist die einzigartige неповторимое Mischung aus Unterhaltung техническое обслуживание, und spielerischem Lernen, wobei причем das Miniland das Herzstück ядро jedes Parks ist. Das Miniland ist der maßstabsgetreue естественный масштаб Nachbau (1:20) berühmter Städte und Landschaften. Hierbei wird viel Wert ценный auf die Details gelegt, denn in fast jeder Szene gibt es sich bewegende движущиеся Objekte, die gerade den besonderen Witz ausmachen включена. Rund um das Miniland versammeln sich сосредотачиваются die fünf weiteren Themenbereiche тематические зоны (ohne Eingangsbereich) LEGO City, Knights Kingdom, Imagination, Land der Abenteuer und LEGO X-treme. Für ein Investitionsvolumen объем капиталовложений von mehr als 150 Millionen Euro wurden hier die Highlights der anderen Parks gebaut, darunter der Feuerdrache огнедышащий дракон oder die Projekt X - Teststrecke...
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...This is one of Nathan Sawaya’s signature piece titled “Yellow”. At a glance, the first words that we think of are ‘yellow’, ‘Lego’ and ‘torn’. However, if we look at this sculpture patiently, then more complicated and abstract words like ‘repent’, ‘suffering’, and “absolvent” come to mind. The reason I found this exhibit so intriguing is because of the world of opposite going on within it. Play bricks or Lego, which are such simple and innocent play toys for children have been used to construct a sculpture which has a very eerie and dark vibe emitting from it. The color ‘yellow’ too, adds to this one of a kind ‘unity in conflict’. One would associate yellow with happiness, laughter and maybe even hope. However, the kinds of emotion and sentiment this sculpture screams out are those of a darker shade like black and maroon. I believe this unison of light and dark elements of the sculpture is what gives it its balanced and at the same time, intriguing appeal. My imagination makes me believe that light plays a very important role in the whole exhibit. Without the lighting, the ‘story’ would be incomplete. The sculpture looks up as if it were reaching out to a higher, more divine entity. There are several interpretations that resonate in the sculpture - A devotee performing a cleansing ritual for the God he believes in, a sinner in the middle of a confession, a commoner trying to relieve himself of stress or maybe even a lover ‘pouring his heart out’ to his long lost love! Imagination...
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...3 STEPS TO LEGO GROUP FINANCIAL TURNAROUND * Easy, Fast & Quick Results EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Rivkin, Thomke and Beyersdorfer (2013) suggested in 2004, the market size of the toy industry is worth $61% billion in the wholesales revenue, with a steady growth of 4% per year in the retail market for toys. Thousands of toymakers flourish the market to serve global demand while keeping track of the 3 new trends in the industry which are toys demand rise while product life cycles decline, children has less time to play, and lastly increase demand of technology integration in physical toy or online worlds. Changes in conduct of competitors have change as witnessed by manufacturing in Asia, entering diverse retail channels and engaging in heavy marketing efforts. Therefore, we recommends LEGO Group to first, bring back LEGO DUPLO concepts and offer to unexplored market by establish strategic partnerships. Second, increase investment in R&D of new product designs and innovations. Third, adopt internal supply chain monitoring system and LEGO retailers’ system integrator. As external analysis has suggested increase of retail competition sector in the toy industry and this will have effect on LEGO Group because internal analysis shows that firms have high operational costs and as a result the firm is making no profit. By implementing these recommendations LEGO Group will achieve lower operational cost, establish sustained competitive advantages which will led to higher market shares...
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...and be. When going to any type of toy store, people can clearly see difference between the toys for girls and the toys for boys. Even the simplest of toys are separated by gender just because of the color scheme that it holds. Legos are simple toy blocks, but they have two separate sets, one for girls and one for boys. The appearance of the toy, the activities of each set, and the packaging of the toy reinforces stereotypes and the connotative meaning of boys and girls. One difference between the girl and boy Legos are their packaging. The packaging of the girl and boy Lego sets are almost completely different. The boy packaging has dark colors, such as blues, blacks, greens, yellows and reds. Some of the boy packaging also has just boys playing with the Legos on the front of it. When it comes to the boys’ Legos none of the colors are bright and colorful, but the girls’ Legos...
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...Part 1: Background info In 2004, Lego found itself losing up to $1 million dollars a day (page 39), a position no big company wishes to find itself in. It had been determined that new leadership was vital to the company’s survival. As a result, Jorden Vig Knudstorp took over as CEO five years later. Knudstorp immediately noticed poor internal organizational structure that ultimately resulted in frustrated retailers and less shelf space (page 39). Knudstorp successfully cut production costs by creating new designs. He also successfully introduced new markets for Lego products, such as movie collection and video game products targeting adults and girls. From within the organization of the company, Knudstorp successfully shifted the culture away from ineffective and costly innovation and geared more towards profit. Some of these organizational changes included incentives for developing cost cutting methods, innovation and sales. He also took the initiative to create new markets in the virtual world through video games and movies (page 40). With these changes brought about by Knudstorp, Lego found itself in a situation where they were successfully developing new technology, new methods and a more simplified information of enterprise systems, all which were cost effective and ultimately brought the company back to success. Part 2 (discussion questions at the back of the book) The key change in business strategy was to cut costs and gear more towards profit. The objective was...
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...Alisa Olson MGT405 Section 7 Sunduramurthy 29 November 2012 Case Write Up: LEGO Group LEGO Group has been a successful company in the toy industry since they started in 1949. As of 2010, LEGO remained a privately held company by the Kirk Kristiansen family. Annual sales reached an all-time high equaling over $3.7 billion. The company’s strongest lines were LEGO Star Wars, LEGO City, and LEGO DUPLO. Even though the company has maintained a competitive advantage, they face some seriously threatening issues. Some of the current issues they face are maintaining patents, company acquisitions, court battles, and new competition. In 1984, TYCO introduced Super Blocks, which were almost identical to the plastic brick design that LEGO has. TYCO had advertisements that stated “if you can’t tell the difference, why pay the difference”. LEGO launched a four year lawsuit against them, but by 1988 the patent for LEGO’s building block design expired, so they lost the lawsuit. All the effort against TYCO was wasted. LEGO should have renewed their patent to prevent incidents such as this one from happening. Once this patent expired, the barriers of competition were lowered significantly in the building toy market. In 2009, Disney acquired the comic book company Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion. This provided Disney with control over Marvel’s vast catalogue of over 5,000 comic book characters to be used in future publishing, movie production, and licensing operations. This was...
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...Case Studies Lego The Danish company Lego is one of the most famous brands in the world when it comes to children’s toys and has grown since it was founded in 1932 into a global business. Its origins lie with Ole Kirk Christiansen, a carpenter from Billund (where the firm is still based) who bought a woodworking business in 1916 and made furniture for local farmers. For various reasons he shifted his production range in the 1930s to make children’s toys and in 1934 named the company ‘Lego’ from the Danish words leg and godt, meaning ‘play well’. His early products - wooden pull toys, piggy banks, cars and trucks – were reasonably successful but a key turning point for the business came in the 1940s when they began making plastic toys including a truck which could be taken apart and re-assembled. In 1949 Lego began producing a set of interlocking bricks (based on an original patent by the UK Kiddicraft company for which they bought the rights) made from cellulose acetate and using an early version of a hollow design with holes and studs. The now familiar Lego bricks appeared on the market in 1953 but were not initially very successful, partly due to poor perceptions amongst consumers and retailers of plastic toys. The key was probably the emergence of the idea of a building system based on interlocking bricks – an idea which took some time to develop and is closely linked to the son of the founder, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen. His discussions with buyers, especially in the USA...
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...Tim Chou Spring 2014 Fact Paper LEGO “It’s not a franchise, it’s a highly sophisticated interlocking brick system,” says Will Ferrell to his adolescent son in the recently released mega blockbuster hit The LEGO Movie. Yellow, vibrant, educational, and fun, LEGO’s have been around for generations. Created by Danish carpenter Ole Kirk Kristiansen in 1932, and derived from the Danish words “Leg Godt” which means “play well”, LEGO’s have made a remarkable recovery from almost being bankrupt in the early 2000s, to the very much alive and thriving business it is now. Jorgen Vig Knudstorp, who came to be the LEGO CEO in 2004, helped them become the most profitable and fastest growing company in the toy industry besides Mattel. Their products are developed with the upmost care; as stated in their motto: “Kun det bedste er godt nok” which means 'only the best is good enough', and is marketed at children but bought and collected and loved by adult fans as well. LEGO’s have not only stood and passed the test of time, it is also a “psychological tool and a way to relax”, quoted by leading psychologist Jon Sutton, and proven to help children’s play, creativity, and imagination. In the Lego Movie, Emmet Brickowski (The LEGO Movie’s protagonist) uses creativity and intelligent management to save his city of Bricksburg. Coincidentally, the same went for Knudstorp who saved the LEGO Company from almost certain bankruptcy. In the 1990s, LEGO was facing bankruptcy due to a few major...
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...Caso LEGO 1. Why did LEGO's first turnaround effort (Ploughman 1999-2004) fail and its second attempt (Knudstorp, 2004-2010) succeed? La administración de Ploughman(1999 -2004), fue afectada por factores externos al Grupo LEGO. Debido a que la compañía se encontraba en una industria altamente competitiva, con productos cuyo ciclo de vida era cada vez más corto, por lo difícil que resultaba diferenciarlos, entró en una guerra constante en la que la competencia ofrecía imitaciones a menores precios. Otro de los factores que influyó en el retroceso de la empresa fue el hecho de que los niños contaban con menos tiempo para jugar, por otras actividades extracurriculares, reduciendo su tiempo libre. Además, la introducción de los videojuegos y actividades en Internet, redujo la etapa de niñez y perdiendo el interés por los juegos para pequeños. Ploughman decidió atacar con una estrategia demasiado agresiva, que consistía en diversificar sus productos. Hasta llegar a un punto en el que era demasiada la diversidad de productos y no existía ningún control para limitar la diversificación. Pasaron de ofrecer únicamente juguetes a invertirle en productos como camisetas, relojes e incluso la apertura de parques temáticos. Ellos esperaban que al incluir estos productos en su portafolio les generaría mayores ingresos, pero sucedió lo contrario, puesto que la inversión fue muy alta, aumentando sus costos de operación y generando un inventario “slow-moving” con una retorno sobre la inversión...
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...Lego Case Study -Avinash Mavireddi 1. After Knudstorp has taken the control of Lego, the first thing he stressed on was the Supply Chain Management. Earlier, the components produced by Lego were primarily used for only one pattern or model. So the prototype designers were asked to use the same blocks for more than one design. This was the first step taken by Knudstorp that resulted in reducing the production of Lego components to almost half of what they were producing before. It also helped in reducing the expenses on the components mold significantly. The new approach has generalized the Lego components and this gave children an unlimited ability to think and create different models and design beyond what they can imagine. On the whole it even widened the range of products that Lego had. Another strategy that Lego employed was to induce the themes of films that were a huge success like Indian Jones and Star Wars. They didn’t stop at this and started to carefully maneuver into the Video games which featured animated Lego cast. All this growth in the company created a pressure on the Information Systems. Order management and fulfillment were the two sectors that were impacted severely and in turn it resulted in missing the customer demands. To overcome this situation, Employee management systems were widened by adding new employees to the stability and growth at many new locations. Product design and development were the other two modules which needs to be concentrated now...
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...1. Home CM LEGO Store is the biggest online destination for Lego Enthusiasts around the globe. Selling Over 300 products and 20 books that can be borrowed for free, we provide you information and online order systems everything else about Lego. 2. Gallery * buku1: The LEGO® Minifigure: Year by Year detail: Follow the evolution of the LEGO® minifigure, year by year, in all of your favorite themes, with fun facts and expert info! Link: http://shop.lego.com/en-US/The-LEGO-Minifigure-Year-by-Year-5002888?fromListing=listing * Buku2: The LEGO® Book Dive behind the bricks and into the history of the LEGO® world in this updated, full-color version of The LEGO Book! http://shop.lego.com/en-US/The-LEGO-Book-5002887?fromListing=listing * Buku3: The LEGO® Ideas Book Get building with more than 500 fan-submitted building ideas in a colorful book featuring LEGO® brick-based creation inspiration! http://shop.lego.com/en-US/The-LEGO-Ideas-Book-5000672?fromListing=listing * Buku4: LEGO® Play Book Learn over 500 tips and tricks to get the most out of your LEGO® bricks in this fun-to-read, full-color guidebook, featuring 200+ builds! http://shop.lego.com/en-US/LEGO-Play-Book-5002780?fromListing=listing * Lego.png: Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other parts. Lego bricks can be assembled and connected in many ways, to construct such objects as vehicles, buildings,...
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...construction plans in its film-franchised LEGO sets was the right strategy or not, it’s important to start with what the company itself stands for. The name LEGO means “play well”—the focus of the toy manufacturer being “play.” The perennial toy maker has a brand that stands for “self-expression,” and “sponteneity,” and “innovation.” That is, the core of LEGO is not jus that it’s a toy, but that it encourages children to be imaginative and creative with it’s simple interlocking bricks—a child can build anything that he or she can dream up with LEGO products. In fact, LEGO itself recognizes that two of its sources of competitive advantage are creativity and innovation. These are the decisive points for LEGO. They are what make LEGO, LEGO. Creativity and innovation are the product’s differentiators. They are the source of the company’s competitive advantage and, therefore, a key element in the company’s strategy. These differentiators are what propelled LEGO to a peak 85% market share of the construction-toy market. While licensing film francises into its merchandise wasn’t the wrong strategy, including detailed construction plans with those LEGO sets was the wrong strategy. By including detailed construction plans with its products, the company is sending cues to its customers that its products are not designed for creative, innovative play. Instead, construction plans are prescriptive step-by-step instructions—a dichotomous concept to the one that LEGO stands for where it wants to encourage...
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