Originally posted at 15inno on August 9th, 2010.
One thing that defines a strong, innovative company in the future is the interaction it has with its stakeholders and in particular with its customers.
Not many companies do this as well as Lego as you can tell from the below impressive list of fan communities, market places and more.
Dive in and get inspired…
Communities:
Lugnet.org: 3,844 Lego User Group members in 53 different groups.
1000steine.de: The biggest German fan site with 969.000 hits on Google. This community holds the annual 1000steineland exhibition that draws more than 10,000 Lego fans.
Brickshelf.com: A community concentrated on MOC’s (My Own Creations) with 3.2 million files.
Brickish.co.uk: A paid membership with their own magazines and special events.
Magazines and Clubs:
Lego Club: Three million kids that receive the Lego Magazine and participate in local events.
Brickmaster: A subscription-based club where members receive six magazines and six Lego sets a year and get discounts on other Lego buys.
Brickjournal.com: A fan-driven magazine with 8 annual issues at $8.95 each.
Enthusiasts:
MasterBuilders: 10-15 employees who build models for exhibitions and Legoland.
Lego-certified professionals: 9 Lego certified brick artists who do not work for Lego, but has created their own Lego-based businesses.
Fans: AFOL’s of ALE’s stands for Adult Fans of Lego or Adult Lego Enthusiasts. KFOL is the same for kids. AFOL Lego results in 387,000 hits on Google.
Lego Ambassadors: The current program has 42 adult volunteers from 26 countries. They help test and develop products.
Lego Education Centers: In the US, Spain, China, Korea, Japan and Australia.
FirstLegoLeague.org: A partnership with FIRST, a technology-promoting and charity organization with more than 140.000 kids in 56 countries.
Lego Learning Institute: Virtual research lab that focuses on children’s play, creativity and development.
Designbyme.lego.com: Here you can download Lego’s own design program, build a Lego model online, design your own box and have it send to mailed. It has more than 1500 unique design creations made by Lego fans.
Market places:
BrickLink: An unofficial Lego market place with more than 131.000 and more than 42 million visitors.
eBay: More than 41.000 Lego articles are on sale at eBay.
We need to give lots of credit to Tage Otkjer, who first created this list in Berlingske Nyhedsmagasin, a Danish business weekly. Thanks for your work…
Tage Otkjer also did some Google searches. Lego came up 41,1 million times, Barbie came up 53,4 million times and Coca-Cola came up 37 million times.
Lego is a very impressive company. Now the question is:
How can your company get closer to your stakeholders?
photo by Andrew Becraft
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