Playing it up at the store

LEGO, from the stables of Funskool, is a brand to reckon with when it comes to toys, which sure knows how to keep its little shoppers happy. With a new 700 sq ft LEGO section in Hamleys, Phoenix Market City, Mumbai, the brand now aims at providing an all-under-one-roof experience for the entire LEGO range to its shoppers.
 
Says Jeswant, Vice President, Marketing and Sales, Funskool India Ltd, "The Indian toy market has been growing over 12% -15% and the Indian industry has maintained that growth for 5 years now. India is only 0.5% of the international toy market and the potential we see is huge due to growing awareness among younger parents and we are expecting an accelerated growth in years to come. We are happy that retailers like Landmark, Hamleys are willing to work closely with us and are committed towards a successful association. We would love to create more such sections near future.”

On similar lines he adds, "We have been in India since 2010 and have grown very well since then. Lego is internationally renowned brand and we aim to make the brand as big as possible.”

At the Hamleys LEGO section, the bright colors of yellow and red play accentuate the young look and feel. The placement of the units too is in consistent with the brand imagery. Life size units and the seating arrangement s spread across further lend the entire section a warm and welcome feel.

Mahesh Shinde, Director, DMS Retail Works, the company that was involved with the creation of the space at retail adds, "The concept for the Hamleys SIS was created by the client's international design team. We made the working drawings to suit the space available and then manufactured the same.” Explaining further he says, "The major area consists of wooden units that are Duco painted to match the Lego yellow. There are acrylic elements and backlit signage and lit shelves to highlight some sections. There are also lit showcases to display Lego formations. LCD screens are used and a play table and seats are also a part of the section.  We have walls with tiles where one can create their own Lego figure as well.”

The Denmark based LEGO Group is well known for its building bricks and is today one of the largest toy companies in the world. With an aim of ensuring its presence and popularity across cities, Funskool also recently opened its first LEGO store in Chennai. Speaking in this context Jeswant adds, "The idea behind the Lego brand store is to showcase the entire range of the brand in India. If there is space is available why not use it to enhance our brand presence through retail? We wanted to give our shoppers a feel of the entire range.”

All these are part of the brand's efforts to connect with their young shoppers and create a universal brand value across countries and the response seems to vindicate their decisions, according to Jeswant, "The response has been extremely good. We opened as on 10th August and we are happy that our Lego customers are enjoying the complete range of toys in one roof. We have displays created of LEGO and they include cities, monuments like Taj Mahal and figures of animals like Giraffe created entirely from Lego which greets the children at our stores.  Ambience plays a very important role for us and each item in our store builds up towards an ambience.” He sums up by speaking on the future plans of the brand, "We intend to expand the Lego chain brand in three metropolitan cities including Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore and implement our learning's on our way.”