关于对绿色营销的思考——以乐高公司为例

曲育靓

西交利物浦大学 江苏苏州 215123

1 Background

LEGO was founded in Denmark in 1932 by Ole Kirk Christiansen.The founder was a keen carpenter, his patchwork toys and the logo which inspired by Danish word “have fun” become a success in the world.In the recent days, they will officially open the LEGO Experience Center, pushing the company into a higher industry leadership position.

It was this small company that started with jigsaw not only became symbol of high-quality toy blocks, but also redefined people’s understanding of toys and brought new development ideas and models to the toy industry.

1.1 Current market position

In the international toy market, according to the Brand Finance Toys 25 2018 report, LEGO group was currently the world’s most valuable toy brand with a market value of $7.57 billion.What is more, as the reported by the Interbrand’s top 100 in October 2019, LEGO was ranked 75th.

In the Chinese toy market, while many Multinational companies have pulled out of China for a variety of reasons(Chitakornkijsil, 2011), LEGO leads the pack.It has not only built factories in China, but also expanded offline retail stores in various aspects to comprehensively develop online and offline sales, gradually developed into the most popular toy industry in the Chinese market.

1.2 Professional field

Fortune magazine named LEGO as “toy of the century”(Fortune, 2000).On the one hand, LEGO has developed a wide range of toys with different unique designs and has a wide range of products.On the other hand, LEGO is very popular all over the world, occupying the toy market share in more than 120 countries.

(1) Patterns of customer needs.A good enterprise needs to have a deep understanding of customers (Park,2019).Indepth understanding of customers strategy can open up the development prospects of the industry market.

In the face of the current development of the video game industry, LEGO has changed from “what kind of toy customers want” to “what customers really want”.The company has devised a new toy product design process, starting with a rough selection of new products each year, and then experimenting with samples from consumers’ journeys around the world to determine the most satisfying products.LEGO provides a new model for the toy industry, which can not only keep away from the shackles of traditional thinking mode for enterprises, but also maintain its vitality in the hearts of consumers.

(2) Align with the education industry.Education is a major concern for society and individuals (Esenowo and Lounasmaa,2019)， LEGO has successfully integrated the toy industry with education.In January 2017, LEGO Boost, a programmable building block for children was unveiled.Once the robot is assembled from building blocks, consumers can also enter simple code into a mobile app to control and study the robot’s actions.In addition, LEGO offers products in after-school tutoring scenarios and science competitions.In the Chinese market, this education and competition section has become an important means for LEGO to differentiate itself from other toy products.The corporation makes its own professional contributions to the toy industry and provides better services to consumers when combined with education.

(3) Combine low cost with differentiation.Michael Porter, who is a famous strategist, believes that it is difficult to achieve both low cost and differentiation.On the contrary, LEGO has broken that stereotype in the toy industry.At LEGO, the combination of low cost and differentiation is achieved by dividing a product into lower-cost parts of different sizes and colors, then let them randomly combine with each other.It can not only enhance the personalization of LEGO company, but also use the low cost of raw materials to achieve higher profits.

2 Problem

2.1 Market expansion requirements

In 2019, Toys R Us, which was the UK’s largest toy retailer,filed for liquidation in the UK after sales continue to fall (Raugust,2019).At the same time, well-known toymakers such as Hasbro and Mattel have also suffered from declining performance and other problems.

Due to the development of the electronic game industry and high-tech electronic equipment, the demand of children and parents for toys is gradually mature.In recent years, the toy market in Europe and America has been in a low growth state of saturation, so this kind of situation is also a big blow for LEGO.

2.2 Government legislative supervision

It is reported by medical professors that toxic chemicals found in plastic toys are known to cause developmental delays in children and pose a risk to human health (Turner,2018).Recently,Wal-Mart was sued for selling unqualified toys, which also reflected the supervision and management of the toy industry by the society and government.In the European Union market, toys exported to it are no longer allowed to use plasticizers containing phthalates.At the meanwhile, the combination of offline and online supervision has been adopted In the Chinese market.Under the pressure of the market, LEGO company is also faced with the selection and improvement of toy raw materials.How to choose the appropriate green material under the premise of ensuring the profit is a problem worth thinking about.

2.3 The trend of green marketing development

In the recent years, green marketing become more popular than before in the toy industry market.Green marketing refers to the marketing activities that meet the green needs of consumers by developing products from the angle of protecting environment and making full use of resources (Kemper and Ballantine,2019).With the rapid economic development, modern society is facing with serious pollution, greenhouse effect and other climate problems.The crisis of living environment causes human beings to reflect on their own behaviors.Therefore, green marketing strategy has gradually become the marketing development trend of enterprises, which requires LEGO to consider not only their own economic interests but also long-term interests into the marketing strategy.

2.4 Management holes

LEGO education has a worldwide reputation, but also has green channel management problems.For example, there are 180 officially licensed LEGO education training institutions in China, but there are countless other institutions and companies that have borrowed the LEGO’s reputation to fake and copy it.Fake educational institutions buy LEGO’s high-imitation green products and low-quality equipment through illegal channels, then charge higher fees than normal LEGO education.However, this bad result caused by this kind of the same industry competitor’s imitation behavior needs the original company to bear solve.Finally, this knockoff from LEGO which due to management problems disrupt the good impression in Chinese consumers.

3 Solution

Facing the new industry development environment, LEGO should pay more attention on green marketing and combine green marketing strategies with the 4P model.The marketing model 4P means of product, price, channel and promotion, while green marketing strategy has six main parts which has same four sections with 4P.If LEGO can maximize the application of models to green marketing strategies, it will make great progress in the future.

3.1 Green planning

Firstly, for the potential market.With the shrinking foreign toy market, China has provided LEGO with a new development environment (CONICK,2019).China is famous for its rich and unique history and culture.There are many LEGO new products that can be used as materials for product design, such as the four ancient beauties, historical figures or fairy tales in the four great classical novels.These products with Chinese characteristics not only meet the needs of Chinese consumers,but also attract the interests of international consumers who has interests in Chinese culture.

Secondly, for the potential customer.The progress of science and the development of electronic products have brought new ways of entertainment to children, so the toys are no longer a single entertainment carrier.On the contrary, adults become keen on collecting toys, which stems from their love and nostalgia for childhood, which become the key point for enterprises to improve customers’ trust and dependence on the brand (Tao, Tong and Raymond R,2019).In this situation,LEGO should use questionnaire survey, internet survey and other methods to conduct market research, and define adults as their new potential customers.What is more, adults have more stable and reliable purchasing power, they are more willing to spend money to collect the products they are interested in, which can further expand LEGO’s market share and increase the company’s revenue.

3.2 Green product brand

First of all, the product materials should be improved constantly in protecting environment.“Improving materials is the first step in our commitment to sustainable manufacturing,”said Tim Books, LEGO’s vice President of environmental responsibility.In 2018, LEGO proposed using sugarcane certified by an international nonprofit organization, to make polyethylene plastic from the ethanol used to make LEGO’s plant-based building blocks, such as leaves, shrubs and trees.But in fact,the majority of all LEGO products currently use ABS plastic, and only about 1 to 2 percent use sustainable polyethylene.

In the future, LEGO should be conducted with BFA and other environmental protection organizations to ensure the continuous purchase of raw materials in the biological plastics industry,which can develop green marketing on raw materials.

Then, package is a problem for LEGO.In both online and offline stores, LEGO still uses traditional packaging materials and styles.As we all know, under the social pressure of environmental protection awareness, consumers are more inclined to reduce use cloth bags instead of plastic bags.With the development of shopping network, express packaging is also gradually increased.In this situation, LEGO should focus on the green nature of the product packaging.For example, using sustainable or recycled paper or cloth packaging, which can improve green product brand on packaging.

Finally, except by designing Tree House model, LEGO should spread the idea and concept of protecting the environment to consumers by different kinds of products, which are good ways to deepen the brand image of green products.

3.3 Green price

Pricing is one of the important means to help companies occupy the markets, it is determined by many factors, like production and logistics costs.In LEGO, the pricing of products is also influenced by the cost of research and innovation of their own products.In the situation of the development of countries in the world is not balanced, LEGO should price itself according to its market environment in different markets.

In developed countries, customers prefer to choose green products from green companies, LEGO can price the product according to the normal pricing strategy, sometimes can even improve pricing when the product is performing well.On the contrary, some developing countries have not yet fully embraced the concept of green marketing, LEGO may use low price strategy to attract the attention of consumers, while promoting the company’s green marketing concept to make them gradually accept.

3.4 Green channel

“Climate change is a major challenge for the planet,so LEGO has a responsibility to minimize our impact on the planet.” said Marjorie Lao, LEGO group’s chief financial officer.Since LEGO joined WWF’s climate protection program in 2014, the group in company has decided not only to develop a green brand itself, but also to find green intermediaries in the process of cooperating with key suppliers, which can reduce carbon dioxide targets throughout the supply chain.Although progress has been made in this area, reducing carbon dioxide emissions from factories and the entire supply chain should continue to think for LEGO corporation.

3.5 Green promotion

The promotion of green marketing strategy refers to establish the green and healthy image of the enterprise through relevant public welfare and environmental protection activities,so as to consolidate the market position of its green products and expand the green market capacity (Loan,2011).

For the company, it needs to engage in social interaction in areas such as education and entertainment.It is reported by LEGO website in 2018, the company offered coding and robotics-based challenges to 3,000 primary school children in London to help them build confidence and solve problems creatively.Therefore, LEGO should continue to carry out such public education programs in China, Mexico, the United States and other countries.

For the society, on the one hand, it is necessary to promote the concept of green marketing and the importance of environmental protection, such as through designing the toy scene of carbon emissions or publish small games about collecting water-saving tips to reward toys, which can be a good way to enhance the public’s green awareness, especially for children who has weak awareness of environmental protection.On the other hand, the company can also utilize their own reputation to make donations or partnerships with charities to help raise funds for pollution control.

3.6 Green service

Through the reuse of resources and sustainable development, the value of green products in the market can be maximized in advance.What is more, the key point of green service is recycle and sustainable.

The LEGO group decided to use only paper from forests managed under sustainable principles in 2012, and it also joined the How2Recycle initiative of the sustainable packaging alliance in 2018, which included develop recycling labels for markets and show consumers how to use the labels.

However, some language issues have limited this green process, LEGO should continue to think about designing the labels with diverse national characteristics, which let the green service can be accepted by consumers from different countries.

3.7 Green management

In the modern society, enterprises should not only integrate the green concept into their production, but also the green concept also should be added into operation and management activities.

In particular, the environmental protection should be incorporated into the management decisions of LEGO enterprise and emphasize the research on environmental protection and related environmental countermeasures.At the same time, LEGO should also strengthen patent protection of green products and cultivate employees’ awareness of environmental protection and establish a green image of the enterprise.

4 Evaluation

The existence and expansion of the green marketing is not only a motivation for LEGO to adopt environmentally friendly behaviors, but also a market opportunity that can be exploited.LEGO’s combined application of green marketing strategies and marketing model can meet the growing green demand in the market and play a positive role in environmental protection.

However, LEGO needs to be clear that green marketing still subject to much debate in methods of utilizing.In conclusion,with the improvement of people’s living standards and the enhancement of consumers’ green consciousness, it is still an inevitable choice for LEGO to continue to implement green marketing strategy.