Gifts / Sports & Toys

On June 20, the topic of "Lego will increase in price" appeared on Weibo's hot search. Previously, Lego Group announced overseas that Lego bricks will usher in a new wave of price increases in August and September this year.

"Hunger Marketing" Routine?

According to media reports, price changes in the Chinese market will take effect from August 1. Lego said that the price increase was due to the rising cost of energy, logistics and raw materials in the past two years. Lego currently has a total of about 600 products, and it is expected that about 25% of the products will increase in price. As for the price increase, the company did not disclose specific information. According to statistics from overseas media Stonewars.de, more than 100 LEGO products will increase in price, with an increase of about 5%-25%. Many popular products are listed, including "Ferrari", "Treehouse" and "Typewriter".

According to the LEGO price increase product map reported on the Internet, the official price of "Treehouse" will be adjusted from 1699 yuan to 2099 yuan, an increase of about 23%; the official price of "BMW Motorcycle" will be adjusted from 1799 yuan to 2099 yuan, an increase of about 16% %; The official price of "Frozen Castle" will be adjusted from 1899 yuan to 1999 yuan, an increase of about 5% and so on. Most of these products are aimed at adult consumers.

Regarding Lego's official statement that "price increases stem from rising costs", some netizens said that this is a "starvation marketing" and "price increase routine".

According to media reports, many LEGO daigou merchants began to "stop selling and stocking up", and the LEGO flagship store on the e-commerce platform also promoted product promotions on the grounds of price increases through live broadcasts. Although most of the popular building blocks in LEGO's official flagship store are not discounted, the same products can be much cheaper in stores directly operated by the same e-commerce platform.

Some people in the industry also said that due to the high price of Lego products in official channels, many players began to buy through other e-commerce platforms or overseas purchasing, and they can get discounts of varying degrees. In recent years, with the rise of the Chinese building block market, more players have turned their attention to domestic building block brands.

More people pay for domestic building blocks

Building blocks have always been an evergreen category in the global toy market, but the domestic building block market has been dominated by overseas brands for a long time.

In recent years, the domestic building block market has been very popular, sales and sales have continued to grow, and many "explosive models" have been born. The concept of the new generation of Chinese consumers is changing. They are no longer blindly pursuing international brands, and are more willing to pay for cost-effective and personalized products.

In 2021, the Chinese and Foreign Toys All Media Center has launched the "Top Brand Plan for Domestic Building Blocks", with more than 30 well-known domestic building block brands actively participating to help domestic building blocks strengthen their brand image and expand brand influence among enthusiasts and consumer groups.

Regarding the price increase of Lego, some industry insiders said that this may bring development opportunities to domestic building block toys - more consumers may turn their attention to other Chinese building block brands.

Recently, CCTV's special report on finance and economics also turned its attention to the most important production area of domestic building blocks - Chenghai, Guangdong. The report pointed out that among the many categories of toys, building blocks products have become the fastest growing in the toy industry belt of Chenghai in recent years. One of the most popular categories, many small and medium-sized manufacturers have flocked to the track. Competing for the market with international brands, the most important thing is quality. The improvement of product quality has helped Chenghai building block manufacturers get "basic points", but to increase the price, the greater challenge comes from design and branding.

"In the past 3 years in the building block category, you will see that LEGO has done a very strong user cultivation and education popularization in the Chinese market, and has reserved a very large growth potential for the domestic building block market. With the rise of the toy track, there is a lot of capital influx, and we will also see an echelon of domestic building blocks gradually formed on the platform.” Mosa, general manager of Trend Toys of Alibaba Taobao Tmall Industry and Operation Center, revealed that only in Taobao, Tianmao On the cat platform, building blocks have built up a market as large as tens of billions.

According to the data of the e-commerce platform, the compound annual growth rate of trendy and collectible toys has reached 26%. In the pre-sale of 618 this year, the sales growth rate of domestic building blocks exceeded 100% year-on-year.