LEGO Brand Guide: Rebuilding the World Through Play

I think you’ll agree with me when I say…

LEGO is fun no matter what age you are! I love buying LEGO toys, mainly because I can see myself building them. 

Nothing beats spending hours building your structure before tumbling it down and trying to find all the pieces in the big ‘LEGO box’ that accumulated all those random pieces you had in your house.

Or did people put them back in there original boxes?

Whether you were a messy or more organised LEGO builder, the brand has stood the test of time and remains as popular as ever.

I’m going to show you why LEGO is worthy of a spot on your shelves, explain their philosophy and show you some of their best products.

Plus, you’ll improve your brand and product knowledge, which makes generating sales a lot easier!

Who Is LEGO?

Danish carpenter turned toymaker Ole Kirk Christiansen founded LEGO. In the 1930s, the great depression hit and his carpentry business suffered, so he put his production efforts into toy making.

In 1934 he opened up a competition to name the company with the prize being a bottle of his homemade wine. He called the company LEGO (a shortened version of the Danish word ‘play well’) and won the competition himself. Cheeky, huh?

The company expanded throughout the 40s and 50s and starting using a plastic moulding machine to produce plastic toys.

If you want to learn more about the brand, here’s a cool video explaining how it all began.

What Are the Company’s Values?

All the best companies have a robust set of values that help them connect with more customers and sell more products, and LEGO is no different. Here are some of their fundamental principles.

Imagination

Playing is how children develop their imagination and strengthen their ability to dream big and create new ideas. When have you ever seen a LEGO set and not been curious as to whether you could build it? And when have you ever seen a LEGO set and not imagined yourself standing next to the finished product?

Creativity

Creativity is an essential skill that all parents want their children to possess – it’s crucial to their development. LEGO’s unique brand of systematic creativity combines reasoning and logic with playfulness and imagination, so you can be sure you’re adding something special to your toy collection.

Fun

It’s wise to stock gifts that the whole family can get involved in, and ones that blend fun and learning. While LEGO allows us to develop critical skills that we can use later in life, it’s also great fun. The sets are immersive and engaging, and adults are usually just as enthusiastic as kids – look at the delight on mum or dad’s face when they’ve finished building the set! 

Learning

LEGO is a brilliant way for kids and adults to collaborate, experiment and expand their thinking together. Building, unbuilding and rebuilding allow people to develop new insight and skills and develop new ways of thinking about our surroundings and the world. ‘Learning’ presents are becoming more popular, so it’s worth stocking a few to give your customers variety.

Quality

If there’s one thing LEGO excel at it’s providing quality products, so it’s no surprise to see it as one of their core values. I don’t remember sending a LEGO product back or scouting for missing pieces; they have always made sturdy toys.

Caring

LEGO promotes its value as a brand that cares about children, partners, the planet and playing. They say they want to make a positive impact in the world and go the little bit extra because they want to – it’s safe to say they’ve succeeded in doing that.

How Does LEGO Uphold These Values?

LEGO Brand Framework

LEGO’s brand framework ensures their values are always upheld. Does it resonate with you?

Belief: children are our role models

Mission: Inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow

Vision: A global force for establishing and innovating learning through play

Idea: System in play

Values: Imagination – creativity – fun – learning – quality – caring

Promises: People promise – play promise – planet promise – partner promise

Spirit: Only the best is good enough

LEGO Promises

As well as a robust value system, LEGO offers four promises that build further trust with suppliers and customers:

1. People promise – LEGO uphold the human rights of all their employees and provide safe workspaces and champion responsible practices across the company.
2. Play promise – LEGO aim to provide the tools children need to survive in a complex world – creativity, imagination, problem-solving and resilience.
3. Planet promise – LEGO wants to play a part in sustaining a planet that their children will inherit, and aim for a zero environmental impact on the planet.
4. Partner promise – LEGO seeks to create partnerships with suppliers, customers and intellectual property partners to meet the challenges and complexities of today’s world.

What LEGO Toys Should You Stock?

LEGO’s range is vast, and many different sets appeal to people of different ages and interests. Here are some of my favourite products and bestsellers:

Duplo

Duplo LEGO is aimed at children from 1.5 years of age to 5 and is twice the size of a regular LEGO brick. As well as being easier to construct, these models are less likely to be swallowed by younger children because of their size. However, they can combine with regular LEGO bricks, so customers can still use them as their kids get older.

Best Set for Younger Kids – LEGO Duplo Number Train

The perfect introduction to Duplo, the numbered components are colourful and are great for teaching children how to count. 

The set will help children develop fine motor skills as they stack the blocks, learn to distinguish different shapes and colours and promotes creativity and imagination as they learn to stack the blocks in various formations.

Contents:

• Includes two child Duplo figures, plus a cat figure
• Features a buildable locomotive and three wagons
• Includes bricks decorated with numbers 0 to 9
• 23 pieces altogether
• Train with wagons attached measures over 3” (10cm) high, 14” (37cm) long and 2” (6cm) wide

Begin your Duplo collection by adding some of the following sets:

• Duplo Bulldozer
• Duplo Town Plane
• Duplo My First Car Creations

LEGO City

LEGO City takes on a more realistic form, with buildings and vehicles that you’d see in everyday life such as a police car or a fire station. LEGO City allows kids to develop their understanding of the world and exercise their creativity at the same time. They may even help to ignite a passion that sticks with them throughout their life. Age ranges vary, although the sets have a minimum age of four years old.

Best Set for Action-Packed Play – LEGO City Police Highway Arrest

What could be better than teaching kids what happens if they’re naughty? This set is ideal for kids who love action-packed playtime, they’ll have as much fun building the set as they will zooming around with the cars afterwards chasing the bad guys. The set is based on the TV series, so plenty of kids will be familiar with the characters. The set is for children of ages five and above.

Contents:

• 1x toy police car and 1x thief’s getaway car
• Duke DeTain and thief Vito minifigures that recreate scenes from LEGO City Adventures TV series
• 1x stolen safe with gold bars and a banknote, 1x crate of fish, 1x handcuffs and 1x road stop to crash the cars
• Digital Instructions plus guide via the free LEGO Life app for smart devices helps kids to zoom, rotate and visualise the model as they build

Begin your LEGO City collection by adding some of the following sets:

• LEGO City Ocean Exploration Submarine
• LEGO City Forest Fire
• LEGO City Garbage Truck Set

Harry Potter LEGO

The famed wizard and his chums give a new edge to LEGO with these fantasy-themed sets. They’re ideal for children who are interested in the book or film series and are sure to provide hours of fun as they recreate their favourite scenes and build iconic characters.

Best for Fantasy Film Fanatics – Harry Potter Forbidden Forest Umbridges Encounter

Enter a world of fantasy and magic with Harry, Hermione and Dolores Umbridge as they enter the forbidden forest and encounter the giant, Grawp. Umbridge stands out in her signature pink outfit, making her an easy target for Grawp to pick up, and the Minifigures carry their wands while the centaurs are equipped with bow and arrow to defend themselves. The age range is slightly older for the Harry Potter Range, with this set being for ages eight and above. 

Contents:

• 3x Minifigures – Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Dolores Umbridge – plus 2x centaurs and 1x posable giant Grawp
• 1x enchanted tree
• 1x lantern, 1x bone, 1x turkey leg 1x bicycle handlebar with a bell for Grawp to hold

The buildable tree in the Forbidden Forest is complete with toadstools and spider hanging from a web; perfect for recreating movie scenes.

Begin your Harry Potter LEGO collection by adding some of the following sets:

• LEGO Harry Potter Hedwig
• LEGO Harry Potter Minifigures

LEGO Creator 3-in-1

LEGO Creator 3-in-1 is designed to entertain those with imagination, giving children a choice over what design they want to build. Theses inspired models will teach kids how to build and rebuild into something completely different, opening up a world of possibilities.

Best for Creative Builders – LEGO Creator Deep-Sea Creatures

Build and rebuild a shark, squid or an angler fish with this LEGO Creator 3-in-1 Deep Sea Creatures set.

Build the shark with crab and treasure, and then rebuild to create a flexible squid or a giant-mouthed angler fish.

The Deep-Sea Creatures set features a scary shark with an opening mouth, pointy teeth, posable fins, movable body joints and reflective eyes.

Contents:

• Contains 230 pieces

LEGO Advent Calendars

Advent calendars don’t only contain chocolate anymore. There are hundreds of options available, such as perfumes, jewellery and even pork scratchings! Not one to miss out, LEGO introduced their range, which contains various accessories and Minifigures that are sure to get the little ones excited for their (LEGO?) Christmas presents.

We have a selection of calendars available, such as:

• LEGO Advent Calendar Star Wars
• LEGO Advent Calendar Friends
• LEGO Advent Calendar Harry Potter
• LEGO Advent Calendar City

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