Lego Store

Last weekend I visited the LEGO store at the Mall of America. It is an unusual and extraordinary store, in the middle of a concourse, built as a set of yellow semi-opened plastic boxes with eight huge models on top, including a LEGO robot towering over 34 feet tall.

It is the shape of the store that firstly got my attention, then all the intense colors of the structure and of the toys inside. I immediately noticed how the colors, grandeur, and peculiarity of the store drew the attention both of children and parents, who are the target costumers. Unlike the norm, it seemed to me that adults were really happy to get in this kid-store. This may be because of the memories they have of when they were children playing with LEGOs, but also because they think of LEGO as a "clever game" - that is, at the same time, fun and educational, that stimulates creativity and imagination, and that is made of high-quality components and is safe. As soon as I walked in, I was struck not just by the store itself (that is beautiful, full of LEGO models and shelves with LEGO boxes of all types and for all ages), but rather from the atmosphere, made of colors, children playing, and parents smiling. It was a frisky and joyous environment.

The retailers were young guys and they were taking care more of the adults than of the children; they were explaining to parents the characteristic of some LEGOs they were interested in for their sons. Moreover, they were promoting family events that are going to take place in the store, and loyalty programs, such as the LEGO Club Membership, that allow members to get promotions, to have the LEGO magazine for free every month (with comic strips, games, puzzles, and news), to participate in competitions, special "building" events, and exclusive meetings. The reason why retailers do not directly take care of children is that they are not looking for information but only for fun, and the environment itself provides all the fun they need. The shop is designed to instill in children these emotions: attention, interest, desire. Their desire to have LEGO toys, together with the effort of retailers in influencing adults' behavior, create a similar sequence of emotions in parents: attention, interest, conviction, desire, and action. From the action, namely the purchase, originates satisfaction both for children and parents.

Besides retailers' attention for parents, there is an additional aspect that made me understand that the core target customers are not only children but also adults. When I took a careful look at the LEGO bricks, I noticed that they are made with exceptional attention to details, design, and quality. These features are obviously more likely to be appreciated by adults than children.

We can consider loyalty programs and family events promoted by the retailers in the store as LEGO's crucial marketing strategy. Also the store itself, with its colorful and bizarre shapes, and deals with marketing. All these strategies are only minimally focused on providing information about the product. Their main objective is to provide entertainment, and "create powerful images that spill over onto products, making them more enjoyable" (P.A. Ubel, Marketing and the Science of Persuasion). The LEGO store I visited and the relative initiatives connected to it (e.g., "building" events, competitions, family meetings, etc.) do not have only the purpose of encouraging customers to buy products, but also to create a high experiential impact on both children and parents, providing to them new/innovative forms of gratification. For example, one initiative promoted through some posters inside the store was the Monthly Mini Model Build. In this monthly meeting,