Choice of Online Community for Data Collection: A Case Study on Lego Group's Support Communities

In this research, the choice of online community for data collection was discussed, focusing on the Lego Group as the selected brand. The support communities were identified as appropriate for gathering customer insights and improving the brand. The process of data collection involved both primary and secondary methods, with an emphasis on maintaining anonymity. The findings highlighted themes such as product quality and manufacturing operations, suggesting potential changes for Lego Group. The discussion emphasized the role of support communities in providing ideas and suggestions for competitive advantage. Reflection on the research process acknowledged the use of netnography and identified challenges in finding Lego enthusiasts and analyzing confidential information.

Running head: MARKETING
Marketing
Name of Student
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Author Note

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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
The recent world 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 customers. For the research, the brand that has been selected is the Lego
Group, which is a toy manufacturing company headquartered in Denmark.
Lego Group is 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 mindset about the customers about Lego Group
so that an opportunity can be found for the improvement of the brand is that of the support
communities. Agnihotri et al. (2016) are of the opinion that support communities have been
chosen as it provides product tips so that an improvement of the brand can take place for the
improvement of a brand.
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 are the
1. Social communities
2. Support communities
3. Advocate communities

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4. 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 the Lego Group in order to meet the expectations attested on the
company by the customers.
Blut et al. (2015) are of the opinion that members associated with the support
communities get an opportunity to provide an opinion to customers about the purchase of
products that is to be made. It concerns the brands or the loyalty of the customers about a
brand. For Lego Group, the implementation of the members that can be associated with the
support communities can provide assistance to the company with ideas related to innovation
and the manner in which improvement can be made while manufacturing the toys. Along
with this 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% of companies seek the services
offered by the support communities so that they can gather relevant details that are associated
with the products and services.
In this regard, criteria can be maintained so that individuals can be associated with the
supportive community. Hence, proper criteria need to be identified based on which people
can be selected for being a part of the supportive communities. Han and Hyun (2015) are of
the opinion that the criteria involve people that have kids as well as people that work in
manufacturing sectors. Individuals possessing these criteria can provide companies with an
idea based on the quality of ideas that can be provided to the companies. Hence, every

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individual that fulfils the criteria stated can be a member of the supportive community that
helps Lego Group to gain reputation in 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 maintained. A specific data gathering technique need to be selected so that
changes and its importance can be talked about and used for the collection of relevant
information. According to Sorescu and Sorescu (2016), there are usually two types of the data
collection process. These types are the primary data collection and secondary data collection.
While undertaking primary data collection, interactions can be made with the target people
directly with an aim to gather relevant ideas on a particular product or service. In secondary
data collection, information is gathered from different journals, websites and books.
The members associated with the support community that provide ideas and unique
innovative suggestions to the Lego Group, the application of primary as well as secondary
data can be used. Fornell, Morgeson and Hult (2016) are of the opinion that primary
collection of data is appropriate in a case like this as the members belonging to the support
community can identify the ideas based on the experiences they possess. Therefore, the
changes that are required to be made can be implemented in a specific manner that in turn can
help Lego Group to remain competitive in the market. Secondary data can be implemented as
other cases related to innovation and effectiveness of ideas provided by support communities
can be analysed.
The basis of conducting the analysis can be based on the research related to the sales
that the company has managed after the implementation of ideas. At the same time, it is
necessary to maintain the anonymity of each of the members so that the suggestions and ideas

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provided by them can be made a secret. This is mainly required for maintaining the identity
of the members so that they cannot be singled out by the other participants (Sasmita and Suki
2015). Hence, the adoption of primary as well as the secondary collection of data is suitable
for making suggestions that can be associated with Lego Group.
Findings
Every member of a support community needs to maintain the objectives so that it can
provide relevant ideas that can be related to making innovation of products for the success of
the brands. Barreda et al. (2015) are of the opinion 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 the thematic pattern.
The 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 seen officially that the products
manufactured by Lego as per mass production with quality packaging and being shipped with
a large scale of production (Lego.com 2019). Therefore, the manufacturing and shipping
process can be a theme based on which analysis can be made by collecting data. Hence, the
association of support communities can help Lego Group to manufacture products and ship it
to the countries with which the country possess business association.
In this regard, examples need to be considered based on the secondary analysis. The
example is based on the existence of a production 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.

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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 support communities that provide suggestions about changing
the manufacturing operation base to the United States with which trading is simpler. The
analysis of the examples have been conducted by collecting newspaper articles that were
published in various news sites such as The Guardian, BBC news and the NYTimes
(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 support communities can provide to Lego
Group. The company need to maintain trust in the group to implement the suggested ideas for
competitive advantage. Foroudi (2019) is of the opinion that an analysis of the pattern can be
made that can help in sorting out any issues related to the manufacturing of the toys.
As seen from the analysis, Lego Group consists of many branches. The admission was
made by company CEO about the excess number of bricked toys manufactured for the
industry. In the words of Wang et al. (2016) the support community can recognise the
resources that can be used to mitigate the activities of the manufacturing department and
deliver the toys on a timely basis. Therefore, the issues associated with manufacturing
communities can be made by conducting a secondary analysis of the data collection method.
Another theme of the Lego Group can be associated with the remaking of the toy
bricks. This can be done by the support community so that prove can be provided about the

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impact of companies related to the diversion of the manufacturing of toys. An example can be
provided in this case related to the manufacturing company Funskool after the company had
made diversions from developing 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 helped in gaining positive publicity of the company as it managed to
continue with the legacy it has on manufacturing toys.
Kozinets (2015) stated that the support community can place ideas regarding the
application of wood for the manufacturing of the toys. This is because plastics may have a
negative impact on the environment of a company. Hence, sustainable issues need to be taken
into consideration while manufacturing the toys.
Reflection
Based on the analysis reflective idea can be identified with the application of
netnography which can help the process necessary for conducting the research. My analysis
was done by taking assistance from the primary data collection so that the thoughts of the
people can be understood along with this a secondary analysis is made that provides an
analysis of the competition in the market. Hence, based on this, I can understand my strength.
My strength is that I had used the primary as well as the secondary methods for conducting
the research properly. The primary data analysis can assist in understanding the mindsets of
the people associated with the community in a direct manner. The secondary data can help
me to know about the relevant information that can be related to Lego Group.
Along with this, I faced several challenges during my research. An example of it was
that I had a difficult time to search for people enthusiast about Lego toys. Hence, it was
challenging to find these people. I had faced challenges while analysing any information that
is relevant about Lego Group mainly because the information was confidential for the

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purpose of ethics. Hence, the research purpose could not be met with the confidential
information available. I had been involved with the support community of Lego Group.
I also had to maintain two essential ethical issues that can be associated with the
research. One such ethical issue involved making the online community private or public
base. I had to make the community private wherein people needed to respond to questions
related to Lego or manufacturing to be a member of the community.
The second ethical issue was to provide consent forms to the members. This was done
to understand any requirements and ensure that the purpose of the group is maintained.
Various forms of ethical considerations like gathering the consent certificate of every
member belonging to the group were essential. At the same time, every member needed to be
involved before making any decisions about the company.

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