LEGO publishes annual report: 15% growth in 2014

The company profile document is not accessible.

Yep - the 'short presentation' is a broken link.

I think I contributed to this annual growth quite a lot! 8-D

I was personally responsible for most of that growth.

Another map without New Zealand on it...

Thanks for this.

Page 27 - The LEGO brand name must never be used as a generic term
or in plural or as a possessive pronoun, e.g. “LEGO’s”.

That puts to bed the long standing argument of using LEGO's.

No it really doesn't. If I want to say LEGOs I will. I don't care what the company says. No one but crazy LEGO fans care about that "argument".

@ The Green Brick Giant.
Well, if you want to be taken seriously in any fan community... :P

^ indeed.

"No true LEGO fan would dare say "LEGOs"
:D

I'm pretty sure Vizzini had the 'no true Scotsman' fallacy at number three on his list (right behind challenging a Sicilian). Of course, if you want to be taken seriously in any fan community...

In all seriousness, The LEGO Group puts this call-to-arms in these kinds of publications to avoid the legal ramifications of brand genericization. They can't stop people from using the term" Legos"--the actual genericization of the brand name is already widespread and inevitable. But if it ever came to legal trial, they can prove their active efforts to protect their trademark, giving them a case to maintain the word LEGO as a defensible and exclusive trademark solely for use by The LEGO Group.

Google Duncan Yo-Yo for a counterexample. Heck, speaking of brand genericization, google "google".

Thanks to Huw for posting this presentation; I don't think I am ever interested in reading these kinds of documents about any other company, but I always find the one from TLG fascinating in a way.

I really don't car what a bunch of crazy fanboys think. It's like arguing with Nintendo fanboys when Nintendo 10 years ago explained how to spell their systems correctly. People just want to argue and fight over every little thing. It's incredibly unwelcoming and useless when all I want to do is play with LEGOs.

"I really don't car what a bunch of crazy fanboys think."

Though you do care enough to post twice on an issue you don't care about! Also no one is 'fighting' over it just have an informative discussion.

Ignoring the Lego vs. Legos debate...

What I find key is the following quote from the annual report (link listed in the original post), especially since they directly call out LEGO Friends as one of three top selling lines. That is huge.

"Among the top selling lines in 2014 were core
themes like LEGO® City, LEGO® Star Wars™ and
LEGO Friends.
Another significant contributor to sales growth in
2014 was THE LEGO® MOVIE™ product line that
launched in conjunction with the release of THE
LEGO MOVIE feature film in early 2014.
LEGO Creator products as well as the LEGO
Technic designed for an older age group also
experienced high growth rates in 2014.
Finally, the LEGO Group’s sale of products to
the educational sector achieved strong doubledigit
growth."

Jørgen Vig Knudstorp can get another raise! But before we get jaloux, he proberly already own all LEGO sets produced. So there isnt much fun stuff left to spend money on ;-)

@icey - there's always islands, yachts, other countries..lots of fun stuff he can buy with what he makes : )

"LEGO" is a word meaning a category or a collection of things, like "furniture" or "clothing". If you say "I like Legos" you sound like you are saying "I sit on furnitures" or "I wear clothings".

Well, I guess quality goes out the window so long as its labeled Star Wars... A huge majority of the Winter Star Wars and City sets were utter garbage.

Still, this is quite predictable... except for one part where it says there are 3,500 current active LEGO parts. That's not true, that can't have dropped 50% since 2004, in fact I rather think that's messed up and it's 8500 active molds.

I just notice that the name of Lego's Presss Officer is "Roar Rude..."

Bwaha..ha.ha...

@tamamahm I think you've read too much into that statement, they're not calling Friends one of their top 3 selling lines. They're saying that amongst the top selling lines were core themes citing Friends as one example.

Where it actually sits depends on how many lines they define as top selling. If it's 5, or 10, Friends might be at the bottom of that list. The report author has simply just thrown a few names out in their top selling list without specifying where in the list they come, most likely they wanted to make it clear that a female oriented line was in the top selling list to show that they're doing a decent job of reaching a wide audience (hence the follow on about themes for older people), even if it's further down that list.

It only seems to be Americans who say "Legos" so I suspect it is a historical misunderstanding, and so entrenched now that it is hard to overcome.

"I really don't car what a bunch of crazy fanboys think."

It's not "what a bunch of crazy fanboys think". It's what the company wants and expects for its brand.

The stubbornness over this issue, really in my opinion, shows a lack of respect and regard to the company that we are all fans of.

My father is not a grammarian; he is really a blue collar worker who really doesn't like to use more words than he had, but being a fan of the LEGO brand and wanting to teach his children to be respectful especially for want is loved, he raised both my brother and me to use the word "LEGO" correctly.

Internet (specifically message boards & comments) decorum:

1. Do not make purposefully inflammatory comments (trolling).
2. Do not respond to inflammatory comments (feeding the troll).

Now pardon me whilst I don my asbestos suit and sit out the flame war.

:)

Nice little presentation, which is better than the accounts, accounts, account and yet more accounts.

"The LEGO Club has 5 million members..." Perhaps they mean "magazine subscribers"?

Because I can't see 5 million members. 5 million subscribers is easy to see, but not really members?