Lego is the world''s leading multinational toy company with a total value of 7 926 million dollars

--- Page 1 --- I. INTRODUCTION LEGO is the world''''s leading multinational toy company with a total value of 7.926 Million dollars (Brand Finance 2024). LEGO was founded in 1932 in Billund, Denmark. Since its founding, LEGO has always maintained the vision that "good play is the cornerstone of children''''s creative lives" (Zhou 2023). Currently, LEGO has 1,031 stores worldwide, 05 factories operating in Denmark, Hungary, Mexico, China and 02 factories under construction in the US and Vietnam (LEGO 2024a). This paper researchs LEGO''''s brand equity and internationalization strategy, assessing how the corporation has successfully grown into new markets while maintaining its unique identity. II. BRAND EQUITY 1. Brand awareness LEGO’s strongest recognition is its bricks, which have been patented since 1958 (Aten 2023). From the original exclusive bricks, LEGO allows players to create their own world with many different characters in a very unique way such as castles, robots, titanic ships, etc. made of bricks (Figure 1). From the unique assembly features of the product, LEGO has built its leading brand values ​​of imagination, creativity, fun, learning, caring, and quality (Lumencandela n.d). Figure 1: LEGO Exclusive Sets (LEGO, n.d,a) The warm, prominent and contrasting colors of the Logo help the LEGO brand stand out and stimulate the curiosity of consumers and also help create a different impression from other competitors such as Mattel, Hasbro, Playmates Toys. In a survey by Playmobilvslego (2014), up to 92% of participants correctly guessed the LEGO brand even though the Logo was intentionally missing letters (Figure 3). In the US, up to 89% of online consumers are actually aware of the LEGO brand (Statista 2023), this rate is even higher in the UK at 93% (Statista 2024). Figure 2: Logo of LEGO (LEGO n.db) Figure 3: The LEGO logo has been partially removed for a brand awareness survey (Playmobilvslego 2014). In addition, LEGO also takes advantage of social media platforms to implement marketing strategies, online contact with consumers to increase company recognition. According to Volkova et al. (2020), LEGO has used a variety of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest to communicate with their millions of consumers globally. In 2023, LEGO opened their Tiktok account and got 1.2 Millions followers on this platform (Figure 5). Figure 4: Number of followers of LEGO in 2015 and 2020 (Volkova et al. 2020) Figure 5: Official Tiktok account of LEGO (LEGO 2024.b) 2. Perceived Brand Quality According to Jian (2020), consumers typically view the Lego brand as being of a high caliber, inventive, and fascinating brand. Since its rebranding in 2004, LEGO has collaborated with many other brands to create their own LEGO worlds such as LEGO Batman, LEGO NINJAGO, LEGO Star War, LEGO Avenger, and so on. Lu (2023) argues that by collaborating with too many brands, LEGO may lose its brand identity and image in its campaigns. However, LEGO’s identity comes from its product “Bricks that fit together to form blocks”. Although the company has collaborated with many brands, they have transformed familiar characters into special versions created from bricks. This change further emphasizes the customer experience of the fun and endless creative potential of bricks (Notini 2016). 3. Brand Loyalty --- Page 2 --- In the US, 89% of customers are loyal to the LEGO brand (Statista 2023), while in the UK, this figure is 86% (Statista 2024). LEGO recently launched the LEGO Insiders membership program with the aim of building a stronger relationship between the brand and its customers (LEGO n.dc). LEGO Insiders members will be able to register for free and participate in purchases to earn membership points. The higher the points, the more chance to receive rewards, discounts, experiences, and more. This policy will enhance the long-term relationship between LEGO and customers, increase the shopping experience quality to enhance Brand Loyalty (Zhang et al. 2016). Figure 6: LEGO Insiders (LEGO n.dc) III. BRAND INTERNATIONALIZATION 1. Local Adaptation Strategy of LEGO As a Danish brand, it is easier for LEGO to win in the European and North American markets. However, when globalizing, the LEGO brand has to face the differences in culture and people of Asian countries because these countries have a rich feudal cultural history spanning thousands of years and are completely different from Western culture (Su 2022). This section will select three Asian countries, China, Korea and Thailand, to analyze LEGO''''s localization strategy, which is different in each host country compared to the home country. In its home country, LEGO uses a low-price strategy because it has factories and wants to be consumer-friendly. However, in other countries, LEGO has to change its strategy. Figure 7: Average LEGO prices in the world (Schwartz 2022) Figure 8: LEGO products in China, Korea, Thailand market (Brick Economy 2024; Sanghvi 2023;Shutterstock 2019). Figure 9: LEGO corporated with TENCENT, Wechat, Weibo (SEO Agency China 2023) Figure 10: Popup stores in Korea and (The Korea Bizwire 2023) Figure 11: Idols from groups ATEEZ play LEGO sets (ATEEZ 2022)

I INTRODUCTION

LEGO is the world's leading multinational toy company with a total value of 7.926 Million dollars (Brand Finance 2024) LEGO was founded in 1932 in Billund, Denmark Since its founding, LEGO has always maintained the vision that "good play is the cornerstone of children's creative lives" (Zhou 2023) Currently, LEGO has 1,031 stores worldwide, 05 factories operating in Denmark, Hungary, Mexico, China and 02 factories under construction in the US and Vietnam (LEGO 2024a) This paper researchs LEGO's brand equity and internationalization strategy, assessing how the corporation has successfully grown into new markets while maintaining its unique identity

II BRAND EQUITY

1 Brand awareness

LEGO’s strongest recognition is its bricks, which have been patented since 1958 (Aten 2023) From the original exclusive bricks, LEGO allows players to create their own world with many different characters in a very unique way such as castles, robots, titanic ships, etc made of bricks (Figure 1) From the unique assembly features of the product, LEGO has built its leading brand values of imagination, creativity, fun, learning, caring, and quality (Lumencandela n.d)

Figure 1: LEGO Exclusive Sets (LEGO, n.d,a)

The warm, prominent and contrasting colors of the Logo help the LEGO brand stand out and stimulate the curiosity of consumers and also help create a different impression from other competitors such as Mattel, Hasbro, Playmates Toys In a survey by Playmobilvslego (2014), up to 92% of participants correctly guessed the LEGO brand even though the Logo was intentionally missing letters (Figure 3) In the US, up to 89% of online consumers are actually aware of the LEGO brand (Statista 2023), this rate is even higher in the UK at 93% (Statista 2024)

Figure 2: Logo of LEGO (LEGO n.db)

Figure 3: The LEGO logo has been partially removed for a brand awareness survey

(Playmobilvslego 2014).

In addition, LEGO also takes advantage of social media platforms to implement marketing strategies, online contact with consumers to increase company recognition According to Volkova et al (2020), LEGO has used a variety of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest to communicate with their millions of consumers globally In 2023, LEGO opened their Tiktok account and got 1.2 Millions followers on this platform (Figure 5)

Figure 4: Number of followers of LEGO in 2015 and 2020 (Volkova et al 2020)

Figure 5: Official Tiktok account of LEGO (LEGO 2024.b)

2 Perceived Brand Quality

According to Jian (2020), consumers typically view the Lego brand as being of a high caliber, inventive, and fascinating brand Since its rebranding in 2004, LEGO has collaborated with many other brands to create their own LEGO worlds such as LEGO Batman, LEGO NINJAGO, LEGO Star War, LEGO Avenger, and so on Lu (2023) argues that by collaborating with too many brands, LEGO may lose its brand identity and image in its campaigns However, LEGO’s identity comes from its product “Bricks that fit together to form blocks” Although the company has

collaborated with many brands, they have transformed familiar characters into special versions created from bricks This change further emphasizes the customer experience of the fun and endless creative potential of bricks (Notini 2016)

3 Brand Loyalty

In the US, 89% of customers are loyal to the LEGO brand (Statista 2023), while in the UK, this figure is 86% (Statista 2024) LEGO recently launched the LEGO Insiders membership program with the aim of building a stronger relationship between the brand and its customers (LEGO n.dc) LEGO Insiders members will

be able to register for free and participate in purchases to earn membership points The higher the points, the more chance to receive rewards, discounts, experiences, and more This policy will enhance the long-term relationship between LEGO and customers, increase the shopping experience quality to enhance Brand Loyalty (Zhang et al 2016)

Figure 6: LEGO Insiders (LEGO n.dc)

III BRAND INTERNATIONALIZATION

1 Local Adaptation Strategy of LEGO

As a Danish brand, it is easier for LEGO to win in the European and North American markets However, when globalizing, the LEGO brand has to face the differences in culture and people of Asian countries because these countries have

a rich feudal cultural history spanning thousands of years and are completely different from Western culture (Su 2022) This section will select three Asian countries, China, Korea and Thailand, to analyze LEGO's localization strategy, which is different in each host country compared to the home country In its home country, LEGO uses a low-price strategy because it has factories and wants

to be consumer-friendly However, in other countries, LEGO has to change its strategy

Price In its home country, the average price of LEGO is the fourth lowest

in the world ($287) The average price in China is $377 In Korea and Thailand, the average selling price of LEGO is considered high,

at $409 and $415 respectively Prices in each country are different, LEGO must offer prices that are suitable for local consumption needs while still ensuring LEGO's brand value In China, LEGO can keep prices low because household spending is low- $4,617 (World Bank 2023) In South Korea, this figure is much higher at $15,975

so LEGO does not have to worry too much about low-price strategies However in Thailand, it cannot be lower because it affects LEGO's high-end brand positioning

Product Each country has its own unique traditional culture, so when

entering the market, LEGO must launch products that reflect their culture in order to adapt better For example, LEGO made sets that are based on Chinese literature and history such as LEGO replicas

of the Lunar New Year Parade and Dragon Boat Race sets, and so

on (Belanger 2023) In Korea, LEGO launches products close to Korean traditional and Kpop culture such as LEGO BTS, LEGO Wooyoung, K-Pawp Concert, etc In Thailand, LEGO has also created products that replicate the typical architectural works of this country such as Thai Royal ceremony temple, Thai House Thai Temple, etc Meanwhile, LEGO products in Denmark are still standard products sold in other countries

Place LEGO has chosen the locations of its stores in countries to meet

consumer demand based on population density In a market with a billion people like China, LEGO opened 170 stores to serve their high consumer demand; in South Korea, where demand is high but population is lower, LEGO opened 23 stores; Thailand is a market with little potential due to low consumer demand, so LEGO only has five stores (LEGO n.dd) In Denmark, LEGO has only three official stores in Billund and Copenhagen due to relatively low

consumer demand.

Promotion Langer (2019) defined that Digital marketing is the most effective

way for Western brands to use in China Therefore, right from the beginning of entering the market, LEGO quickly combined with major Chinese media companies such as TENCENT, Alibaba, Wechat, Weibo, etc to develop online marketing (SEO Agency China 2023)

Seo-young (2024) notes that the trend of opening pop-up stores to display new products is very popular in Korea Therefore, LEGO also opens pop-up stores to enhance customer experience and also to adapt to domestic marketing trends Besides, the Idol entertainment industry in Korea is very influential, so LEGO also utilizes influencer marketing through influencers and Idols such as ATEEZ (Figure 11)

In Thailand, Businesses often run discount programs with free gifts

to meet people's demand for discounted goods (Jitpleecheep 2001), thus LEGO runs big discount programs to attract more local customers, and to compete with domestic rivals In Denmark, LEGO's promotional activities in its home country are linked to values of brand as LEGO House is designed with the colors, figure

of the basic bricks of the brand LEGOLAND has LEGO museum, helping tourist understand about the history of LEGO (Nikel 2023)

Figure 7: Average LEGO prices in the world (Schwartz 2022)

Figure 8: LEGO products in China, Korea, Thailand market (Brick Economy 2024;

Sanghvi 2023;Shutterstock 2019).

Figure 9: LEGO corporated with TENCENT, Wechat, Weibo (SEO Agency China

2023)

Figure 10: Popup stores in Korea and (The Korea Bizwire 2023)

Figure 11: Idols from groups ATEEZ play LEGO sets (ATEEZ 2022)

Figure 12: Discount banner of LEGO Thailand (BKK Kids 2024; Sale here 2024)

Figure 13: LEGO House in Billund, Denmark (Nikel 2023)

2 Standardisation Strategy of LEGO

Along with localization strategies, LEGO also applies brand standardization strategies Firstly, LEGO's standardization comes from the quality of its products

Regardless of the local area, LEGO produces bricks that meet the same quality standards in terms of size, quality, and color (LEGO 2023) Acorrding to Song (2021), standardization not only helps save production costs, control quality everywhere, but it also helps maintain a consistent brand image

Secondly, LEGO defines their sales segment as being of many ages and having medium to high incomes and they pursue product quality so their product prices Wherever they are, there are no cheap LEGO products released This is the reason why LEGO's business location orientation is in big cities, and crowded areas with high incomes

Thirdly, LEGO always maintains a standard brand image so that global consumers will still recognize them even if they are implementing a localization campaign For example, the main color of LEGO stores is yellow; LEGOLAND theme parks are always decorated with Lego bricks in many colors (see Figure 14 and 15)

Figure 14: LEGO Stores in Thailand, Korea, China and Denmark from left to right

Figure 15: LEGOLAND in different countries including Korea, Japan, the US, and

Denmark (LEGOLAND n.d)

IV CONCLUSION

LEGO has used marketing strategies very effectively, combining standardization and localization, thanks to which LEGO has regained its reputation after rebuilding the brand Although it is the world's leading toy brand, when expanding to international markets, LEGO still enhances its brand adaptability through localization strategies to suit diverse markets Balancing standardization and localization strategies would improve LEGO worldwide brand reputation Maintaining a focus on customer-centricity and making targeted market adjustme nts will help LEGO maintain its position as the world's top toy company

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