Retailing Spaces with Entertaining Places

It seems like the LEGOŽ plastic building bricks have always been around. But while the basic “hands-on creation” idea behind the internationally popular construction toy has remained the same since its introduction in 1947, the retailing of the brand has changed. Consum-ers can still, as they always have, go to a toy or department store to purchase components or kits of the perennially favorite building system. But in recognition of changing markets and audiences for their products, the company has developed its own store concept that provides a unique combination of retailing and entertainment.

According to Bill Higgins, director of retail and special projects for LEGO Systems, Inc., the LEGO Imagination CenterŽ retail concept was developed to meet the growing popularity of increasingly sophisticated LEGO systems. The Imagination Centers feature giant displays of LEGO creations designed to provide entire families with ideas of the possibilities offered by the various LEGO products. Play areas provide hands-on experience with thousands of LEGO and DUPLOŽ bricks for children to let their imaginations go free. After they have been entertained and intrigued, store guests then have complete retail accessibility to the entire LEGO product line.

LEGO artists created a true-to-scale model of an Imagination Center for an in-store display.

Two centers are open so far, both in locations drawing high family traffic. The first LEGO Imagination Center opened in 1992 in Bloomington, Minnesota at the Mall of America. The 5,300-sq.ft., three-story store demonstrates the versatility of LEGO toys with more than 90 large-scale LEGO models displayed, including a 25-foot tall clock tower; a blimp made with more than 130,000 LEGO bricks; dinosaurs; and spaceships. The center includes a 1,500-sq.ft. retail section featuring LEGO products and licensed items and a play area where children can build their own LEGO creations.
The second Imagination Center opened in 1997 at the Downtown Disney Marketplace in Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. This 4,400-sq.ft. freestanding store features more than 100 LEGO models from the company’s play themes. More than five million bricks were used in the construction of the models at the center, where approximately 15,000 customers go through the play area every hour.

“It’s not about creating a store,” says Higgins. “It’s about having the Imagination Center function as a store without making it look like one. It’s not just another store, but rather as unique as the product line.”
Expansion of the concept is planned in what LEGO terms “global cities,” meaning tourist or entertainment destinations with a high volume of family traffic. The company plans to open two or three Imagination Centers this year, with three to four planned for the following year. Space required includes 5,000 sq.ft. for retail use; 3,000 sq.ft outside space for a play area where children are given the opportunity to explore the potential of the toys; and 1,000 sq.ft. for model displays. Average leases are five to 10 years. Company officials note that the choice of expansion sites will not be based so much on an area’s population as its draw as a major tourist location. A high turnover of customers is desirable, as it is difficult to change the huge LEGO models.

A LEGO model designer puts the finishing touches on a dinosaur model for the LEGO Imagination Center at Downtown Disney.

LEGO has been using the displays, as well as the
accompanying hands-on play areas, for more than 30 years
in its highly successful LEGOLAND theme parks.

The popularity of its Imagination Centers reflects the successful approach LEGO has taken in other retail endeavors. In October 1999, the company opened two LEGO Factory Outlet Stores at the North Georgia Premium Outlet Center near Atlanta and at Potomac Mills in Prince William, Virginia, just south of Washington, D.C. As the outlet stores are a new endeavor, the company needs time to evaluate them and does not plan further expansion at this time. The two stores carry a variety of discontinued LEGO items at a discount as well as some new items at full price. Each store offers a play area where children can build their own LEGO and DUPLO creations and features the signature display of LEGO models.

The Imagination Center functions as a store without looking like one.
“It’s not just another store, but rather as unique as the product line.”

Even though they are expensive and require huge amounts of time to create, the LEGO models are proven crowd pleasers. LEGO has been using the displays, as well as the accompanying hands-on play areas, for more than 30 years in its highly successful LEGOLAND theme parks, which all feature retail areas.

The first LEGOLAND Park opened in 1968 in Billund, Denmark, home of the company’s corporate headquarters. The park entertained more than 625,000 visitors in its first season and has become a worldwide entertainment destination. The park offers scenes from many countries created true to a 1:20 scale from a total of 45 million LEGO bricks, such as one where electronically-powered miniature boats move across tiny seas in a model of the port of Copenhagen. Seedlings provide “trees” proportioned to the landscape. From its very beginning, the park provided opportunities for hands-on activities for children and adults, with bins of LEGO blocks available for the construction of individual creations or to enhance existing scenes.

The success of the park resulted in two additional locations. A second LEGOLAND opened in Windsor, Great Britain in March 1996 and a third park opened in March 1999 in Carlsbad, California, just outside San Diego. All the parks offer LEGO displays, play areas and retail areas, the long-lived success of which translated into the Imagination Center concept.

The appeal of the LEGO model displays also allowed the company to develop another way of marketing its diverse product line. Traveling exhibits of LEGO models are making appearances nationwide, allowing the company to target specific audiences. The LEGO Ocean Adventure, for example, is designed to interest children in the undersea world while encouraging play experiences. LEGO/Major League Soccer (MLS) will be visiting all 12 MLS stadiums, beginning its tour in June of this year. Over the 2000 holiday season, a MINDSTORMS™ exhibit will again visit area malls nationwide to wow audiences with creations made from the high-tech robotics LEGO line.

What began in 1932 as an idea by a Danish carpenter, Ole Kirk Christiansen, has become a worldwide phenomenon. Even today, in a high-tech world intrigued by the Internet and mesmerized by action computer games, the LEGO building concept has maintained its popularity and has retained old audiences while creating new ones. It is said that Christiansen chose the name LEGO in 1934 because it was a contraction of two Danish words meaning “play well.” Coincidentally, it also means “I put together” in Latin.

Just as its name implies, LEGO has put together a marketing and retailing plan that has played very well and is building on past success.

For more information, contact Bill Higgins, director of retail and special projects, LEGO Systems, Inc., 860-749-2291, Ext. 6816, Fax 860-763-7772.