Why Legos Are as Addictive as Your iPhone Article (Chapter 10)

Question 1

Legos hasn’t been recalled in more than a decade

Answer 1

• Efficiency
  — every brick comes with a numeric code, etched inside
  — Lego can send a replacement piece easily
  — operating margin was 34% (very high)
• Play studies
  — Lego employees go out into the world to study kids in their natural habitat
  — Lego Foundation is largest private sponsor of play research globally
  — watching subjects’ brains at play under an MRI to see how different toys change brain activity
  — found that kids were most engaged in play focusing on mastering a skill (like building something)

Question 2

Wide target audience

Answer 2

• Lego wants to understand the interplay and social dynamics between parents and children
  — kids get to master new skills
  — parents get to help them and watch them grow

Question 3

Large Twitter presence

Answer 3

• Puts pressure on kids to be more original and to stand out
  — gives kids feeling of “look what I built”

Question 4

Addicting toy nature

Answer 4

• Toys aren’t one-offs, they’re ecosystems
  — like Apple, where one product feeds another
• Company has humor and irreverence
• The Lego Movie
  — final message is that you don’t need to build according to the plan, you can use your imagination
  — song “everything is awesome when we’re living our dream” speaks to Lego’s company message