Cluetrain @ 10: How LEGO Toys Caught the Cluetrain by Listening to Adult Enthusiasts - Jake McKee, Ant's Eye View

Didn't get Cluetrain until he walked into Lego and saw adult enthusiasts who could erect gigantic structures in malls over a weekend. Most kids had some Legos, but the company really didn't understand their customers. Wal-Mart came in 1999 and said "We know that we're your customer, but why don't you know who your customers are? Why do you not know that?" The company was disassociated with the end user, were actively not paying attention to the adult demographic. Didn't accept unsolicited product ideas. Decided not to do anything about this, consumer was at arm's length. How do you pay attention to a minority of customers effectively? Adults were about 5 percent of clients, didn't think about how to excite someone to do something that could excite their core marketplace. "Fans are wierd," but enthusiast events prompt sales. How do you change the environment from being about products to being about a "higher calling" to serve the markets? Position Lego as a creative medium, not just a product. 

Effected change on an old, Danish, rather Socialist company. but losses racked up and things started to change. Cluetrain Manifesto #50: "The org chart is hyperlinked, not hierarchal." Lego was still strongly hierarchical, but had "ground cover" and tenacity, could respectfully say what needed to be done. Moved quickly to get management in front of new ideas and customers. Most fans knew more about the product line. Managers didn't know about many things that fans knew very well. Put the right people in the room - brought adult customers in with products, got some very raw ideas that were turned into successful products. CM # 12: "There are no secrets." 85 percent of product secrets weren't really needed as secrets. For specific types of plastic bricks, they were afraid that releasing details on bricks because they'd be exposing themselves to Chinese knockoffs, but then realized the equipment needed to do that would cost $250, why bother. 

Skip the NDA - it inhibits conversations, people forget what they can't talk about, communication stops, things don't get done efficiently.  Legal tries to eliminate risk, companies try to manage it. Got people out of the office, helped them to interact with enthusiasts at events. Had to walk through what people were doing with the products with markeitng managers, had to explain what a hobby was all about.  became an internal advocate. Enabled them to see the potential of basic sets, not just $500, 5,000 piece sets. Kids are happy to have much simpler tools, returns tools to parents working with kids. Star Wars set very popular. Had demonstration projects that had enthusiasts and product people working side by side.

Q: Why are you no longer at Lego?

A: When Wired story came out, they restructured company, time to move on.

QUICK TAKE: There's a lot more of this type of interaction these days, most companies have learned how to get outside of the "box," more blogs, more listening to bloggers - we've come a long way. In many ways this is now today's Marketing 101.