Drucker in the Workplace

When I signed up for this class I was expecting to learn more about the 4 P’s and looking for ways to better collaborate with my marketing colleagues.  However, as a member of the Sales Department at LEGO, I learned from Drucker that Marketing and Selling are not the same thing and in fact not even complementary.  In addition, Drucker mentioned that all businesses depend on two functions, marketing and innovation.

As I took this in and realized how important the Marketing Department is at LEGO, I wanted to take a look at how LEGO’s innovation has created a customer.  Drucker believed that the ultimate purpose of any business was not to make a profit; rather it was to create a customer.

First LEGO Wooden Toy

LEGO started in Denmark in the 1930s by a master carpenter, Ole Kirk Kristiansen.  He manufactured stepladders, ironing boards, stools, and wooden toys.  In the 1940s, LEGO was the first in Denmark to buy plastic injection-molding machines for their toy production.  This was innovative at the time as the competition was producing wooden toys and the plastic material allowed LEGO to be more durable than other toys.  In addition, in the 40s they introduced their trademark look and play of the binding brick pattern.  This allowed consumers to create and build as they wish, which was innovative in Denmark at the time.  This new play pattern created new customers to the toy market, which grew the LEGO brand.

Within the 1950s LEGO fine tuned their brand in order to market a larger audience.  LEGO wanted to stay innovative and ahead of consumer demand.  Thus, they started to create new sets that allowed free-build capabilities instead of providing a book with instructions on how to build a set.  This allowed creativity to flow within customers and inspired customers to build real-life cars, buildings, etc., out of LEGO.  Also, in the 50s, LEGO turned into a global brand selling to their first foreign accounts and creating customers outside of Denmark. 

As LEGO continues to grow and inspire builders of tomorrow, they still understand how important innovation is to their success.  Over the last three years LEGO has produced two play lines called Ninjago and LEGO Friends.  Ninjago has been extremely successful and for the first time LEGO partnered with Cartoon Network to create a TV series, which became the highest rated TV series in Cartoon Network history.  LEGO Friends has seen its share of critics, yet it remains a strong category for Girls.  LEGO research concluded that Girls wanted to play with LEGO just as much as their brothers, so they created a line tailored for them.  This again was innovative for LEGO as it was the first line produced for Girls that was a building set.  The typical Girls toy is a doll or a plush animal, so being innovative here created a need within Girls and thus created new customers.  As Drucker mentioned, being innovative is one function of a successful business and I can clearly see that working at LEGO.