Lego Netnography: Advances in Digital Marketing

This document explores the role of online communities in brand development and support, using Lego Group as a case study. It discusses the importance of support communities in providing innovative ideas for product improvement and establishing brand loyalty. The document also highlights the process of data collection and presents findings and discussions based on the analysis of the support community's suggestions.

Running head: ADVANCES IN DIGITAL MARKETING
Lego Netnography
Advances in Digital Marketing
Majd Al Habbal
Heriot-Watt University

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Table of Contents
Choice of online community......................................................................................................2
Process of data collection...........................................................................................................3
Findings......................................................................................................................................4
Discussion of the findings..........................................................................................................5
Reflection...................................................................................................................................7
Reference....................................................................................................................................9

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Choice of online community
Online communities have become a place of gathering and “belonging” that help
create value and empowerment in a brand community. In today’s tech-savvy world, online
communities play a vital role in brand development and support in the interaction with
consumers. Further, this provides opportunities for interaction between online communities,
brand and the customers involved as stakeholders. According to Hill and Brierley (2017),
members associated with an online community usually take part in sites that provide
opportunities for interaction with different customers along with the focused brand. Hence, a
brand can be considered so that it can be used for identifying any impact it may have on the
choices of the consumers. For this research, the brand that has been selected is the Lego
Group.
Lego Group is a one of the reputed private toy manufacturing company that is famous
for developing plastic bricks that can be interlocked. Ole Kirk Christiansen founded the
company on 10th August 1932. The headquarters of the company is in Billund, Denmark with
42 offices consisting of over 19,000 employees (Lego.com 2019). Hence, the online
community selected for gaining access to the consumers’ mind-set for the improvement of
the brand is that of the support community. BrickBuilders is a fan-based online Lego
community that gives its members a sense of belonging where they can co-create value
together, share similar inspirations and re-inforce social bonds. The reason for selecting
support communities is that it additionally offers product tips for the development of a brand
(Agnihotri et al. 2016).
Further and in the context of association to the brand, the community helps in
bringing together a diversity of consumers who want to showcase and discuss their love for

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the brand – from enthusiasts, collectors, new users, and even those who played with Legos
while growing up; in turn establishing brand loyalty and legacy.
The classification of online community brands can be made into four types with
unique characteristics that help in the interaction with customers as well as companies.
Zablah et al. (2016) is of the opinion that online community brands can be either social
communities, support communities, advocate communities or insight communities.
For the case associated with the Lego Group, the support communities can be
implemented as the reason for its appropriateness is that as a company Lego Group has been
in operation for more than 100 years. Hence, it is essential to formulate new ideas that can be
made for the development of Lego Group in order to meet the expectations attested on the
company by the customers.
Moreover, Blut et al. (2015) claim that members associated with the support
communities have an opportunity to share their opinion with other consumers about the
potential future purchase of products which are in turn taken into account by the relevant
brand or company. In the case of the Lego Group, the advantage to such support communities
can provide assistance to the company with ideas related to innovation and the methods in
which improvements can be made in terms of the toys manufacturing process. Further, the
support communities also help organisations and brands to continue implementing a
systematic source required for gaining information related to the product and service.
According to Saeidi et al. (2015), more than 81% companies seek the services offered by the

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support communities so that they can gather relevant details that are associated with the
products and services.
In this regard, certain criteria should be maintained so that individuals can join the
supportive community. Hence, appropriate criteria need to be identified based on which
individuals can be selected to become members of the supportive communities. Han and
Hyun (2015) states that the criteria involve individuals that have kids as well as individuals
that work in manufacturing sectors. Individuals possessing these criteria can provide
companies with recommendations based on their quality of innovation and progress. Hence,
every individual that fulfils the criteria stated above can become a member of the supportive
community that helps Lego Group to gain further reputation and establish brand loyalty
across the market.
Process of data collection
To understand the changes that are required to be made in a brand, it is necessary to
understand the specific manner in which information can be gathered so that the authenticity
of data can be preserved. A specific data gathering technique needs to be selected so that
changes and their relevance can be discussed and applied towards the collection of relevant
information. According to Sorescu (2016), there are two types of data collection processes,
which are the primary data collection and the secondary data collection. While undertaking
primary data collection, interactions can be made with the target market directly with the aim
to gather relevant ideas on a particular product or service. This can help in specifying the
exact modifications that need to be made so that a brand can gain further market share. While
in secondary data collection, information is gathered from different journals, websites and
books.

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The application of primary as well as secondary data can be employed in relevance to
the members associated with the support community that provide ideas and unique innovative
suggestions to the Lego Group. Fornell, Morgeson and Hult (2016) argue that primary
collection of data is appropriate in this case as the members of the support community can
identify and suggest innovative ideas based on the previous experiences they had acquired.
Therefore, the changes that need to be made can be implemented in a specific manner that in
turn can help the Lego Group to remain competitive in the market. While secondary data
collection may not be applicable here as it does not straightforwardly deliver the experiences
of the members, it can still be analysed in relation to the innovation and effectiveness of ideas
put forth by the support community.
The core of conducting the analysis can be based on the research related to the sales
that the company has managed after the implementation of the suggested ideas or
recommendations. However, it is necessary to maintain the anonymity of each of the
members so that they cannot be singled out by neither other participants nor the brand itself
(Sasmita and Suki 2015). Hence, the adoption of primary as well as secondary data collection
is sought as appropriate for suggesting novel ideas that can be useful to the Lego Group.
Findings
Every member of a support community needs to uhold the objectives of that
community so that it can provide relevant ideas that can be addressed towards the innovation
of products for the success of the brand. Barreda et al. (2015) state that support communities
help to analyse competitors along with the products that are manufactured by the company.
Similar identification can be made of the Lego Group so that its competitive advantage can
be determined. Therefore, the suitable method that can be utilised for conducting the analysis
may be the interpretation of qualitative data related to thematic patterns.

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The first theme that can be associated with Lego Group is that of the quality of the
materials used for the manufacturing of the toys. It has been established that the products
manufactured by Lego are launched on a mass production scale and with quality packaging
(Lego.com 2019). In this regard, the manufacturing and shipping process can be a theme
based on which an analysis can be made by collecting data. Hence, the association of support
communities such as BrickBuilders can help Lego Group to manufacture and ship products to
countries with which they have established a business relationship with.
In this regard, examples need to be considered based on secondary analysis. The
example is based on the existence of a productive facility as a branch of Lego by the name of
Lego Produktion AG. The company had to close in 2001 despite manufacturing up to 30% of
the products provided to the company (Lego.com 2019). The reason for the closure of the
store is due to the shipping costs that are related to the trading relationship with Switzerland.
Presently, only the sales and finance departments exist in the country (Lego.com 2019).
Hence, this is a major theme for continuing with the discussion.
Newmeyer et al. (2018) stated that the themes can help in convincing the managers to
change the manufacturing base of the products of the company. An example can be given
about the contribution of the BrickBuilders community that provide suggestions about
shifting the manufacturing operation base to the United States with which trading is simpler.
The analysis of the examples has been conducted by further collecting newspaper articles that
were published in various news sites such as The Guardian, BBC news and the Nsytimes
(Lego.com 2019).
Discussion of the findings
The analysis of the findings can prompt up a discussion as well as interpretation about
the support and ideas that the members of the BrickBuilders community can offer to the Lego

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Group. The company needs to maintain trust in the community in order to implement the
suggested ideas for a competitive advantage in the market. Foroudi (2019) states that an
analysis of the patterns can help in sorting out any issues related to the sales and
manufacturing of the toys.
BrickBuilders was observed throughout January 2019, I have received several private
e-mails and frequently participated within’ that community by posting comments, asking
questions and receiving feedback from the enthusiast members. It has been discussed within’
the community that the company has too many branches. The group’s CEO had further stated
that an excess of bricked toys hit the market last year which has become problematic for
preserving its status within the manufacturing industry. As per Wang et al. (2016) the support
community can recognise the required resources that can be used to mitigate the activities of
the manufacturing department as to reduce manufacturing and transportation costs and
deliver the toys on a timely and adequate basis.
Another theme for the Lego Group is associated with the fact that the company aims
to remake the toy bricks. The BrickBuilders community drew up an example which struck
out in the discussion, in this case it is related to the manufacturing company Funskool, after
the company had made departures from developing its GI Joe action figures. Instead, it
started to focus on the development of DC and Marvel action figures much to the amazement
of the public (Alhaddad 2015). This sparked a damaging publicity for Funskool as it did not
commit to its iconic legacy of toy manufacturing.
Kozinets (2015) stated that the Lego Group can remain sensible to key environmental
awareness issues that hold a significant influence on the development of the brand image.
The supportive community has further made suggestions on the use of wood instead for the
manufacturing of the toys. Several keywords in the discussion identified members that were

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advocating for more environmentally friendly materials (ex: “plastic”, “non-sustainable”,
“eco-friendly”, “harmful”). This is because plastic has a damaging impact on the environment
and individuals have become more and more aware of its negative toll over the past years.
Hence, sustainable issues such as this need to be taken into consideration while
manufacturing the toys.
Reflection
Based on the analysis, a reflection can be provided on the Netnography study that
portrays the process for conducting my research. My analysis was done through the primary
data collection which implements the thoughts and attitudes of the community members,
while a secondary analysis provides information on rivalry within the market. In this regard, I
believe that my strength was in being able to employ both these methods within’ my research.
The analysis of the primary data helped me to better recognize the thoughts and behaviours of
the BrickBuilders community members, while the secondary information helped me to
comprehend other important data to the Lego Group.
Along with this, I faced several challenges during my research, mainly the fact that
analysing the information which was found relevant to the Lego Group, especially because
much of that information was kept confidential for ethical reasons. Another ethical dilemma
which arose during my research was whether to set the online forum to either a private or
public group. In this case, I chose to make the group a private one where members had to
answer a survey question in order to be able to join. I also obtained the consent of each
member of the group; this ensured that the authenticity of my research was not jeopardized.
In conclusion, I have found evidence of brand empowerment, loyalty and value co-
creation within’ the online community, where members not only share a common interest and
enthusiasm but mutual support as well that extends well beyond the Lego building hobby.

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