Lego at risk of 'genericide'

[AmperZand]

An interesting article on the BBC news site about brands suffering because they have become associated in the minds of consumers with all goods of that type, e.g. Aspirin, Escalator, Thermos, Hoover and Kleenex: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-27026704

Is the same thing happening to LEGO? With all the clone brands and counterfeits, does the general public think of LEGO as a class of toy building bricks? Do people (not AFOLs of course) say "Lego" when talking about other companies' products? My non-AFOL sister-in-law refers to Megabloks as "Lego" which makes my skin crawl.

[BirdOPrey5]

I think the clone brands will keep pressure on Lego to be innovative and keep prices lower than they would otherwise be. Of course Lego is the Kleenex of the brick world... I personally say "Lego-like" when talking about non-Lego brands but I don't take it for granted when talking to someone who isn't a fan if they say something like "Legos for sale" that they mean the Lego brand.

[wintermoon]

Ugh, I hate when I hear someome refer to any non-Lego as Lego.

[Dr Leg O Brick]

I read the same article, and I too thought of Lego. Almost everyone I know who isn't a Lego fan says "look at those Legos" when they see anything brick related. You think, though from a bias point of view, can you read?! It says Megablocks, not Lego!

Same thing in shops, you ask someone in a Charity shop, usually volunteers who are average people, "do you have any Lego?", and get shown a bucket of 20 year old Megablock Duplo. Even online, on eBay, "Huge massive cool nice 1000 piece Lego joblot 100% official no fakes bargain Star Wars" is a (made up, but still common) example of a pile of Megablocks. So yes, I do believe that anything that's a plastic brick nowadays is called "Lego" whether it is in fact or not.

[Chocolatecake]

The other day on an Instagrampicture the owner of the profile wrote on a picture with Megablocks Hello Kitty: LEGO cats.

So yes, LEGO means also plasticbricks of other brands, even written with capital letters.

[Mutant Orc]

And least everyone's minds are programmed to LEGO; it goes to show that Lego is still considered better, subconsciously at least, by those who are non-fans. I've never heard anyone go 'oh look Kreos/Megablocks!' when talking of Lego.

It's still annoying though! Especially when in supermarkets a child goes- Oh look mummy can I have this?-whilst talking of a decent lego set. Then the mother/parent generally goes-but this is better (AKA cheaper) whilst looking at a megablocks halo set....

[MAB]

Same thing in shops, you ask someone in a Charity shop, usually volunteers who are average people, "do you have any Lego?", and get shown a bucket of 20 year old Megablock Duplo.

Duplo IS Lego. Calling the larger Megablok parts Duplo is just as bad as calling the smaller parts Lego. :-)

[Dr Leg O Brick]

I know, and thanks, in future I will clarify further. I suppose "Duplo like" or "Duplo Clone" would be a better way to put it, just a habit I have because, in my mind, I separate Duplo from system, hence I say Megablock fake when in context to system, and Megablock Duplo, when in context to Duplo.

Edited May 28, 2014 by Dr Leg O Brick

[Godtshep]

Ugh, I hate when I hear someome refer to any non-Lego as Lego.

Same.

I think people do often associate all building toys with Lego despite there being no Lego on the box, which is kinda sad. Fortunately at my local charity shop they don't usually get Lego and Megabloks confused.

[legoman19892]

Firstly, I never considered Hoover and Aspirin to be common names for that product.

Secondly, I hear people asking for Call of Duty, Halo, Grumpy Sparrows, Star Trek, wrestling LEGO sets. Then I tell them those are, Megablok, Megablok, K'nex, Kreo, and C^3.

I even had a guy INSIST that that USS KItty Hawk Megablok set from their professional builder series was LEGO. That was 2 minutes of:

Man: "I know LEGO made it"

Me: "That is mageblok"

Man: "No, it was LEGO."

Me: "IT'S FROM MEGABLOK!"

[Rick]

This is exactly why TLG (not LEGO :wink) stresses that the LEGO trademark should always be used as an adjective, not as a noun.

Proper Use of the LEGO Trademark on a Web Site

If the LEGO trademark is used at all, it should always be used as an adjective, not as a noun. For example, say "MODELS BUILT OF LEGO BRICKS". Never say "MODELS BUILT OF LEGOs".Also, the trademark should appear in the same typeface as the surrounding text and should not be isolated or set apart from the surrounding text. In other words, the trademarks should not be emphasized or highlighted. Finally, the LEGO trademark should always appear with a ® symbol each time it is used.

(from "Fair Play")

[Cult_Of_Skaro]

Firstly, I never considered Hoover and Aspirin to be common names for that product.

I dunno about Aspirin, as I hear that quite a lot stateside, but 'Hoover' as a catch-all for vaccum cleaners is a British-only thing. Although Hoover sells to the US too, it hasn't become a generic name over here.

[dr_spock]

I use BandAid when refering to a bandage like "I cut myself and need a BandAid." The IP lawyers can patrol the web and print to enforce the trademarks. Once something become common language in daily conversations, it's hard to suck it back in the box with the Hoover. I'll take an Aspirin and face the general public when dealing with their building block toy chats.

[Faefrost]

Yes Lego was hit very deeply by this, particularly in the 90's when a ton of patents expired. It is still an ongoing issue, but they have taken steps to push back against it, if you will. And the steps seem to be working. Lego is growing strongly.

- Licenses. I know some of the old school purists hate the licensed lines. But they are key to differentiation. When the core product becomes the generic use term they need to refocus people's attention on something only they provide. Hence Lego Star Wars.

- Multimedia, things that hook people and kids before they get to the toy aisle. Ninjago, Chima, the Lego Movie, etc.

- Using their power in the market to control the shelf space that their product sits on. Making sure actual Lego product is most prominent in retail stores. Clone product is not shelved with theirs and is not benefiting from their marketing.

[Mutant Orc]

Hoover is very generally used over in Britain, more common though is the use of Sellotape for most types of sticky tape.

In Welsh it could be seen as an even worse scenario- I've never heard sticky tape used, it's always 'selotep' or 'tap selo' (don't ask for the way it is accented it's too complex to explain!!) .

Edited May 28, 2014 by Mutant Orc

[Erik Leppen]

It happens. All we can do is accept it. It will happen anyway. That's how I look at it.

If you say "it's not Lego" when it's clearly building blocks (hence Lego to those people), they will think you're either crazy or pedantic (and in fact, the latter would be true).

So instead of saying "it's not Lego" you could go with the flow and say "it's fake Lego. This here, this is real Lego".

[Lyichir]

I don't think Lego is at significantly more risk of their brand name becoming generic than they were back at the advent of clone brands like Mega Bloks. In fact, Lego has done a lot to keep such a thing from happening, and I think the brand itself is more well-known than ever, thanks in part to their media presence with brands like The Lego Movie or the Lego licensed video games. Sure, people not in the know will call Mega Bloks Lego—but they've been doing that for years, and the people who matter most (Lego's customers) are very picky about getting the real deal. Also, keep in mind that brands like Kleenex, Hoover, and even Sellotape have significant competition in the products they provide. Lego, on the other hand, dominates the building toy market to the point where their main competition isn't "clone brands" but rather large toy companies like Hasbro and Mattel.

[snefroe]

i've heard people using the term "Lego" for other construction toys as well. Not sure if that's a serious issue though. In most cases it's just some one who doesn't know all too much of this world of toys. People simply recognise the Lego concept, which has become a universal building technique. I don't think there's a serious threat. It would become a problem if the general public would associate Lego bricks with construction toys of a lower quality, but I'd say that, right now, the high price of Lego bricks is a more important issue. Besides, I'm sure the company is protecting its Lego brand pretty well...

[mrfuture]

I think people use the popular brand of a product to talk about similar products before they know the difference (some times after also). Like Walkman, that was a Sony product but it turned out to be the name every one used for every small portable cassette player.

[b-ran]

With brands like Kleenex, BandAid, or Aspirin, they struggle more with their names being used to describe a type of product due to other products being of almost -- if not equal -- quality. I think Lego will be able to go to the levels of the Kleenex, BandAid or Aspirin through just being much higher quality than the others, and being able to brand themselves differently. Unfortunately, there are plenty who still use Lego as a synonym for any building block toy, but I don't think it is as bad, or ever will be as bad as other brands. I don't know of anyone so loyal to the brands of Kleenex, Bandaid, etc that will get so angry over using the wrong name because they value the brand like we will with Lego :)

[ShaydDeGrai]

So instead of saying "it's not Lego" you could go with the flow and say "it's fake Lego. This here, this is real Lego".

An old classmate of my wife came to visit from Hong Kong and brought her two daughters with her. To keep the kids entertained, I gave them a couple bags of random brick to play with that I hadn't gotten around to sorting yet. The older daughter dumped out her bag on the table and her eyes lit up. "Did you hear that?" she asked her sister, scooping up a handful of pieces and dropping them again. "You can tell from the sound, this is real Lego Lego, not that crappy Lego Ping buys."

Out of the mouths of babes...

[Hrw-Amen]

Yes, I hear that all the time in my local store, parents say things like "Those Kreo LEGOs we bought the other day were rubbish." or "That cheap LEGO is OK but you need to be able to glue it together otherwise the bricks don't stay in place."

[Anathaema]

Just the other day I was passing by a mother with her 2 kids (about 5 & 6 or so of age) and they were looking at some LEGO replicas.

One of the boys said that he wants a LEGO from there.

Overhearing and knowing that the store sells only china crap, I stopped, got the boy's attention and told him : Those aren't LEGO, just cheap replicas that will break when you least expect it. You can find LEGO at Carrefour".

And then I left, quite satisfied !

[ZORK64]

Here in Germany, I'm pretty sure most folks refer to clone brands as Legos as well, but they're not that common. Toys'R'Us and Müller have a handful of Megabloks sets (but not much, and it varies - the Halo ones are pretty much TRU exclusive), and I sometime stumble across Best-Lock bricks (actually bought to big boxes for a rather cheap price out of curiosity), but other than those, LEGO is still the most common brick-building toy.

On that note, I also already came across various fake transformers which aren't from Hasbro (and thus, not even called Transformers) but still are named "Transformers" on their pricetags.

[The Rancor]

I was frankly repulsed when I walked into TRU the other day and found that the massive Lego Movie display had turned into a display of Kreo or something, I didn't really take note of what it was as soon as I realised the whole display had no Lego sets at all. Fortunately my parents or other relatives never mistook anything else for Lego and any concerns about cost just meant smaller sets were bought. Despite what I just opened with, I don't think clone brands are much of a problem in the UK as they might be in other countries. The fact that Lego is pretty expensive here would indicate a lack of competition to need to lower the price. I think a particular problem comes when clone brands sell sets which are deliberately trying to look like Lego boxes or claim compatibility, because compatibility would suggest all bricks are Lego to the less initiated