The Lego Effect
K.I.S.S. Method
The best ideas are the simplest ideas. In 1958 a Danish carpenter, named Ole Kirk Christiansen, working in his wood shop started making connective wooden blocks. 400 billion plastic blocks later, LEGO later grew into the world’s largets and most valuable toy company with a value of over $14.6 billion, making 36,000 bricks every minute.
Developing and delivering a brands’ marketing message effectively should follow this same K.I.S.S. axiom. Today’s consumers of marketing messages are bombarded from every direction across many communications channels. Overly complicated messages are seen as noise and skipped over completely. The average consumer takes less than (3) seconds to digest whether they will give a message their attention.
like the Lego block, the best and most simplest messages can spark great things. [Author Note: This author has two son’s who spent numerous hours of their youth playing with Lego blocks building inspired creations from space vehicles, buildings, or creatures. Both boys later credit their Lego playing time as having unlocked their imagination AND heavily influenced their career choice in aerospace engineering and environmental science engineering. They also credit their thought processes, imagination, and problem solving skills and abilities to playing with these simple blocks. I guess all those mornings of me stepping on a messy pile of colorful little bits made a difference.]
Little did Mr. Chistiansen know that his simple concept of interconnecting building blocks would instill the level of creativity, problem solving and inspiration that it has in millions of kids and adults alike.
Marketing and creative strategies should be kept as simple and direct as a lego block. [Author note: I keep a Lego block on my desk to remind me of this each day.] If you find your messaging getting more complicated, break them down into their components and make sure your strategies allow your target market to digest smaller pieces of information that their minds can wrap around in the short 3 seconds they will give it initially. You don’t have to tell your target everything about you all at once. Allow your strategies to unfold like an onion – one layer at a time. Once the first layer grabs their attention, allow the next layer to appear and provide more for them to digest. Each layer giving them the information they want and at the time they want it. Eventually you have built a relationship while communicating your brands core values. Don’t try to build a billion dollar relationship instantly.
Imagine a group of adults faced with a messy pile of colorful plastic bits spilled in the middle of a conference table and are asked to make something. You might here, where are the directions? Or, what are we supposed to do with these? That is, until their inner creativity kicks in and they inherently begin to piece together something unique from their imagination. I believe that because the Lego block is so basic AND created within it is an understanding of what to do with them. One side has raised bumps and the other indentations that fit those bumps. Imaginations takes over from there. Remember, don’t argue your limitations: The fact the blocks have 90 degree corners has never stopped anyone from making very elaborate curved creations.