Legos Anthros

When it comes to play, boys covet mastery while for girls it’s all about beauty, reports Brad Wieners in Bloomberg Businessweek (12/19/11). That’s what Lego’s anthropologists — or anthros — discovered after digging into what motivates kids at play. Their first clue came from an 11-year-old German boy who said his most prized possession was his sneakers — not because of the brand but because the way they were worn down on the sides and bottom confirmed his mastery of certain skateboard techniques. The attitude is similar with videogames, where it’s all about "scoring, ranking and levels of play."

However, among girls, playtime is more about aesthetics, and this was a problem for Lego, whose deliberately boy-centric marketing strategy wasn’t exactly pretty — least of all "its boxy minifigure, its 4-centimeter plastic man with swiveling legs, a yellow jug-head and a painted-on face." (image) It’s an icon among boys, but not girls. "Let’s be honest: Girls hate him," says Mads Nipper, Lego’s chief marketing officer. So, in its bid to make Lego attractive to girls, the brand is introducing Lego Friends, a series of 29 "mini-doll figures" based on "five main figures" who come complete with "names and backstories," sort of like American Girl dolls.

"The girls needed a figure they could identify with, that looks like them," says Rosario Costa, a Lego design director. But the real insight is that Lego can be just as appealing to girls as boys. Studies also find that Legos help both genders "develop spatial, mathematical and fine motor skills." Lego Friends will be introduced in the US in early 2012, and Target’s plan is to shelve it with other girls products, not other Lego sets (which of course are in the boys’ section). "I don’t have any illusions that the girls business will be bigger than the boys," says Lego CEO Jorgen Vig Knudstorp, "but at least for those who are looking for it, we have something to offer."