Product development

Product development strategies are claimed to be part of the Lego growth strategy as they focus on their existing customers by introducing new products.

69 Digital solutions

Progression of digitalization is pushing boundaries and changes the way the children play as there is an increasing demand for digital play that are adding value beyond simple traditional toy and games.

Increasing demands from the customers put pressure on Lego to develop solutions that provide more digital products and to minimize the gap between traditional toys and digital play. Lego must offer solutions that meet the customers’ requirements and therefore focus on elements that are valued when introducing new products in their existing markets. In recent years Lego has introduced a combination of traditional and digital play in their products, and it is therefore assessed that Lego has a strong understanding of their current market and can provide innovative solutions to meet the needs of the future market.

Augmented reality and interactive experiences

Children today have greater exposure to technology and digitalization. This tendency has resulted in Lego adapting several of their products to fit the recent technological trends (Euromonitor, Lego in Toys and Games).

In February 2019 Lego launched Lego Hidden Side which fully and seamlessly integrates augmented reality. By using an app, it is possible to reveal a hidden world of interactive play. The augmented reality app brings the model to life and reveals a world of mysteries and challenges which the child must solve.

Lego has focused on providing a new type of play where the physical world influences the augmented reality version, instead of the opposite. This creates a dynamic form of gameplay where the child is required to keep one hand in each of the worlds in order to progress the play. To continue to play and keep the child amused, the app will continue to expand with new additions such as new ghosts, new challenges and experiences so that the child will gain a different experience when playing (LEGO.com, N).

Lego® Duplo® and Amazon Alexa

Lego has brought audio into the equation of play where they combine physical and digital play in their Lego Duplo sets by introducing stories. Lego has collaborated with Amazon to enable Lego stories in Alexa so that the demand from parents on inspiration is fulfilled. Amazon Alexa will become an interactive storyteller which will create an experience of fun explorative play for children in the age 2-5 years.

Parents and child can choose between 10 themes, including five vehicle and five animal stories. The child will gain constructive, explorative and roleplay skills and accomplish numeric exercises, color

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recognition, creative building challenges and articulation practices. This is one of the first products which combines physical play and interactive audio (Webwire.com).

STEAM – Educational Spike

As previously mentioned in the PESTEL analysis, Lego has a product portfolio containing STEAM products which encourage and teaches children several significant abilities. STEAM toys are a category of high interest in developed markets why it continues to receive attention from many traditional toy manufacturers as well. STEAM products are categorized either as mass STEAM or as speciality STEAM.

Mass market STEAM toys have an educational benefit and are the largest category. Speciality STEAM is primarily targeting parents who are passionate about what their child play with (Euromonitor, STEM Opportunities in Toys and Games).

The strong growth in STEM products is a result of an increased parental desire of parents on having a more active hand in their child’s education in the aim of fostering greater early educational developments in their child. The aim of the parents is to prepare their child for college better and hopefully their future careers. Mass STEM toys are primarily marketed for entertainment purposes and are created mainly through construction, games, and puzzle products which Lego especially offers.

In August 2019 Lego launched a new STEAM product, Education Spike, which is specifically targeting the grades from sixth to eight. Education Spike combines the traditional Lego bricks with motors, speakers, input/output ports, sensors and the “Prime Hub” (Heater, 2019). Education Spike is a system which can be controlled through a mobile device app and features several 45 minutes lessons. The digital solution is heavily appearing in this STEAM product and focuses on encouraging children to learn and develop their skills. Education Spike is mentioned as the Spike Prime and conducts that it aims at helping the student learn the essentials and gain the skills needed to become more confident and the innovative minds of tomorrow (ibid).

Nintendo – New Physical play

Nintendo and Lego both have a passion for innovation and play, which have resulted in a product collaboration. The companies have innovated and created a new way to play which is inspired by the video game, Super Mario (LEGO.com, O). The new product is neither a traditional Lego brick set nor a video game. Lego Super MarioTM is enabling a unique building experience where the product contains features of interactive play. The product includes a Lego Super Mario figure which is used to collect coins in a real-life game which is created with Lego bricks (ibid).

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The fantasy of the child is a key factor as the sets will allow the child to build their own levels, hidden places where coins have to be collected, include enemies to challenge and add a flag to reach at the end of the game, so it becomes very similar to the video games. Furthermore, besides the display, Lego and Nintendo have also included various iconic sounds and music from the game, which will be played around the world (Cowley, 2020).

The purpose of the collaboration has been to introduce a new way of playing, and there is a great excitement of the figure becoming a real friend to the child as well as them playing in the worlds they imagined themselves. With the products, Lego Group has created an app with supporting features that encroaches the child to further rebuilding. Furthermore, the app provides instructions and suggestions on other creative ways to play and build (Nintendo.com).