LEGO's fairytail

As this week’s main focus was on storytelling, we have tried to find further successful implementations of this very important marketing technique. In fact, the process of storytelling is also used to produce movies and theatre performance.

One example of successful storytelling can be found for LEGO.

The story they are telling to their customers about the history of the company follows all the rules of a successful storytelling. 

1. Act: At the beginning we get to know the founder of the LEGO Company, the grandfather of the current owner. The sad story of his declining business as a carpenter is told and we get a sense of the current situation. Then towards the end of the first act we learn about his tragic loss of his wife and that he is now fully responsible for his 4 children. This is the turning point in the first act. 

2. Act: After the death of his wife, Ole has to come up with an idea to keep his business running in order to take care of his 4 children. He first decides to change his business from carpentering to toy making in which he gets support from his son Godtfred. They have to go through many setbacks such as the work shed burning down and low sales.
These setbacks have an end as we reach the second turning point as Ole discovers a plastic molding machine. 

3. Act: with the discovery of the plastic modling machine Ole and Godtfred soon start producing the famous LEGO bricks and the huge success story starts. The video telling the family history ends surprisingly by revealing that Ole’s grandson Kjeld has been telling the whole story and therefore once again brings the close family touch of LEGO to the forefront. 

We think that this touching and fairytale-like story about the makings of LEGO and the family behind it involves all the storytelling characteristics. The hero who just wants to produce toys with the highest possible quality but is stroke by bad luck until he finds the ultimate solution. 

See the full LEGO story:

The Quest of the Blonde Salad

A "random" Italian girl starts posting her outfits on Pinterest and now is the most influential fashion blogger of the world. With millions of clicks to her fashion-blog each day, Chiara Ferragni has reached what many girls dream of. Not only is she the founder of her blog, but she also owns her own shoe line called the "Chiara Ferragni Shoes". She now owns a company, which she refers to as "TBS Crew" with twelve people working for her shoe line and her online fashion magazine.

The Blonde Salad Crew (http://www.theblondesalad.com/tbs-crew)

We have learned in class, that a extraordinary success in business usually has it's roots in a distinct product and a unforgettable story behind it. So what is the Holywood secret of The Blonde Salad?

Fashionable girl from Milan, posts pictures of herself and her distinct style on Pinterest and decides to create a blog in 2009. Together with her super cute boyfriend Riccardo Pozzoli they sell the perfect Italian fashion and love-story and soon banish thousands of followers. She seems to have the life many girls dream about. A walk-inn wardrobe full of shoes, handbags and couture from high-end brands like Chanel, Valentino and Hermès. Not to mention her cute little dog "Matilda" with whom she gains empathy from the animal lovers too. She travels the world with her Louis Vuitton luggage and gains international attention. Covers with VOGUE, cooperation with luxury-brands such as Cartier and invitations to the Cannes Film Festival follow.

Her now former boyfriend, business student Riccardo Pozzoli, is the Co-Founder and CEO of her fashion empire. They followed the distinct strategy to turn their blog into an online fashion magazine and focus on collaboration with high-end brands. They decided to work together with young talents and moved to Los Angeles. The city of young talents.

With a revenue of $8 million a year it's no wonder they gained Harvard Business Schools attention who wanted to create a case study for their MBA program. The case study is available under the following link:

http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=48520

What a wonderfully perfect example of successful self-marketing in the digital world we are living in.