Lego Netnography: Advances in Digital Marketing

This document discusses the role of online communities in brand development and customer interaction using Lego Group as a case study. It explores the choice of online community, process of data collection, findings, discussion of the findings, and reflection on the research process. The document highlights the importance of support communities in providing innovative ideas for improving the brand and discusses the challenges faced during the research process.

Running head: 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 the modern world, online
communities play a crucial role in developing a brand and help in the interaction with the
customers. 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 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, which is a toy manufacturing company headquartered in Denmark.
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 across the community. The
reason for selecting support communities is that it further offers product tips for the
improvement of a brand (Agnihotri et al. 2016).

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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.
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 in turn are taken into account by the concerned brands or
companies. 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 support

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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 the quality of ideas that can be provided to the
companies. Han and Hyun (2015) state that the criteria involve individuals that have kids as
well as people that work in the manufacturing sectors. 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 within 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 and 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 changes that need to be done so that a brand can boost itself in the
market. 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 appropriate 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 innovative ideas that can be useful to the 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 towards the innovation of products for the success
of the brands. 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 pattern.

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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 established that the products
manufactured by Lego are on a mass production scale and with quality packaging (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 such
as BrickBuilders can help Lego Group to manufacture and ship products to countries with
which they have established a business association 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 provide to the

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Lego 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 there are too many branches of the company. The CEO of the company
had admitted to the fact that too many bricked toys were manufactured last year which has
become a problem for maintaining its stature in the manufacturing industry. As per Wang et
al. (2016) the support community can recognise the 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 in this case
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
led to a negative publicity for the company as it did not manage to continue with its rich
legacy toy manufacturing.
Therefore, the members of the supportive community can provide innovative ways to
divert from building blocks as a toy. It can develop jigsaw puzzles that can help in providing
children with experience of playing as well as develop the brain in an educated manner. As
stated by Kozinets (2015) the Lego Group can remain mindful of the consumer awareness

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and the environmental issues that may have a significant role in the development of the
brand. The supportive community has further offered ideas based on the use of wood for the
building blocks instead of plastic so that the environmental issues associated with the product
can be mitigated.
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 so that the thoughts of the community members can be conveyed while a
secondary analysis provides information on the rivalry within the market. In this regard, I can
state that my forte was in being able to utilise both these methods for research purposes. The
analysis of the primary data helped me to directly understand the opinions and behaviours of
the individuals within the community while the secondary data aimed to understand relevant
information related to the company.
Along with this, I faced several challenges during my research. I had faced challenges
while analysing the information that is relevant to the Lego Group mainly because the
information was kept confidential for ethical reasons. Therefore, the purpose of the research
that included identifying the effectiveness of online communities was almost jeopardised. As
a researcher, I had been a member of the group that conducted research on the company.
At the same time, I had to maintain two key ethical issues that dealt with conducting
the research. One of the issues was to make the online forum either private or public. In this
case, I had made the forum a private affair in which people had to answer a survey question
in order to become a member. This ensured that the authenticity of the research was
preserved.

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Along with this, I had to understand constitutes that involved the consent of the
research. For example, I needed to ensure that I understand the requirements and purpose of
the group and maintain all form of ethical considerations such as gaining the consent of each
member of the group before making any type of decisions that may affect the commitment of
the group as well as the Lego Company.
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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