網購方興未艾，樂高卻開設了其史上最大的實體店

樂高最新的旗艦店于周四在倫敦的萊斯特廣場開業。這家兩層樓的店面是該公司在全球最大的實體店，擁有一個按原物比例、用637,903塊磚搭建的倫敦地鐵車廂和20英尺高的大本鐘。

在盛大的開業儀式之后，《財富》雜志采訪了樂高集團執行副總裁兼首席財務官約翰·古德溫，探討了樂高新倫敦中心，英國脫歐和唐納德·特朗普的當選對公司的影響，以及公司的未來發展方向。

《財富》：眼下，眾多的人都會在線購買玩具，為什么要開設這樣一家實體店？

約翰·古德溫：我們認為，實體店是樂高品牌主張非常重要的一部分。這些店不僅僅是為了展示我們的產品，更重要的是，它們為人們提供了一個能夠直接觀看和感受模型和美妙建筑的沉浸式體驗。這并不是說在線購物不重要，但我們認為其目的在于為消費者提供不同的產品接觸點。

《財富》：這家新店都有哪些獨特之處？

約翰·古德溫：這是我們第131家店，因此我們從此前開設的店面中吸取了很多經驗，我們也將這些經驗運用在了這家新店上。該店面的一個獨特之處在于樓上的馬賽克肖像系統。人們可以在照相亭里照相，然后它會自動生成一個照相人的馬賽克臉部模型。然后，顧客會獲得盒子裝好的模型，這樣，人們就可以用樂高積木來搭建自己的畫像。這一過程都是在同一天完成的。我們希望，它將成為店面眾多亮點中備受歡迎的項目。

Lego’s latest flagship store opened Thursday in London’s Leicester Square. The two-storey store—complete with a life-sized London Underground tube carriage made up of 637,903 bricks and a 20-foot replica of Big Ben—is the largest of its kind in the world.

As the store held its grand opening, Fortune met with John Goodwin, executive vice president and chief financial officer of the Lego Group, to discuss Lego’s new London hub, how Brexit and Donald Trump’s election will affect the company, and what’s next for the tiny yellow bricks.

Fortune: At a time when so many people are buying their toys online, what is the need for a traditional brick-and-mortar store?

John Goodwin: We believe that physical stores are a really important part of our overall Lego brand proposition. These stores are so much more than just a way to see the face of the products that we have to offer—they are environments for people to immerse themselves in and see and experience models and fantastic constructions firsthand. It’s not that we think online shopping is not important, but we think it’s all about providing multiple touch points for consumers.

F: What makes this new store unique?

JG: This is our 131st store, so we’ve gained a lot of experience from previous stores that we’ve looked to bring in here. One thing that is unique about this London store is the Mosaic Portrait system that we have upstairs. You can have your photograph taken in the booth, and it automatically creates a mosaic model of your face. That is then presented to you in a box so you can make your own portrait out of Lego bricks. That all happens in the same day. We’re hopeful that it’s going to be a really popular addition to our store repertoire.

《財富》：隨著虛擬和增強現實技術的出現，公司是否會有數字化的壓力？

古德溫：我們的首席執行官有一句名言：“技術僅適用于那些你出生后才出現的事物?！逼桨搴椭悄苁謾C并非是針對現如今出生的兒童而設計的技術；它們是這個時代的產物。在未來，虛擬現實和現實增強僅會構成未來兒童的生活環境。因此，最為重要的一點在于，樂高品牌應該與時俱進，因此我們一直在不斷地發展，以確保樂高不會與時代脫節。

《財富》：樂高下一步都有哪些計劃？

古德溫：下周，我們在上海附近的嘉興工廠將開始運行，其目的是為了供應中國市場，這對我們來說是一個絕佳的機遇。我們開設這一工廠的目的并不是把產品發往歐洲，而是供應亞洲市場，尤其是中國市場。目前，占公司銷售額80%的市場所擁有的兒童數量僅占世界兒童總數的20%，因此，這些市場之外還存在很多的機遇。

《財富》：你是否會對當選總統特朗普可能執行的關稅政策感到擔憂？

古德溫：美國的樂高產品來自于墨西哥，因此我們正在密切地關注這一局勢；自由貿易對我們來說非常重要，因為它是我們業務模式的核心部分。至于我們是否會因為目前的一些聲明就遷回美國，目前還難以給出定論，但對于我們來說，最重要的事情莫過于能夠繼續向美國兒童提供樂高產品，公司也將為此保駕護航。

《財富》：英國脫歐是否對樂高有影響，你認為未來是否會產生影響？

古德溫：因為自由貿易對我們來說至關重要，因此我們必須密切關注脫歐事態的進展。此外，英國在樂高全球業務中也扮演著十分重要的角色，因為我們的全球中心位于倫敦，在這里，我們開展一系列能夠影響公司全球產品的業務，而且也擁有來自于各個不同背景的員工。關注脫歐進展的目的在于確保公司能夠繼續利用倫敦巨大的吸引力。我們一直在盡力保持公司的政治中立性，但公司一心致力于為所有的兒童提供服務，并在尋找實現這一目標的途徑。

《財富》：說道保持政治中立性，樂高本周終止了與英國右翼傾向的報紙《The Daily Mail》的合作，并因此而上了新聞（樂高最近表示，公司將不再通過本報紙發送免費贈品。而一周期，一名家長曾向樂高寫了一專封公開信，投訴該報對“社會不同階層存在令人發指的歧視”）。這對于公司來說是一個重大決定嗎？

古德溫：我們曾與該報合作，開展贈送推廣活動，目前已經結束，而且在可預見的未來，我們也沒有計劃再次開展合作。我認為，傾聽消費者的心聲對于我們來說是非常重要的，它一直是我們的動力。我們擁有180萬個消費者聯系方式，例如像倫敦這樣的店面，或消費者幫助熱線。我們一直在努力地傾聽兒童、家長和其祖父母所關心的話題，并對此作出響應。

在我于樂高供職的4年多時間里，我們的動力絕非來自于政治因素，而一直是源于消費者，我們會隨著消費者情緒的變化而改變。

《財富》：樂高是一家私營公司，它會上市嗎？

公司的家族所有者完全致力于拓展樂高在全球的娛樂體驗。我個人認為這一點在任何情況下都不會改變。

《財富》：在過去，樂高因打造性別傾向型玩具而遭到抨擊，對此你怎么看？

古德溫：在歷史上，我們從未打算賦予樂高產品性別色彩，但我們一直在努力開發適用于不同游戲模式的產品?，F實在于，某些兒童，尤其是男孩，喜歡沖突類游戲環境，而其他兒童，尤其是女孩，喜歡關系類游戲環境。我們一直在嘗試打造能夠吸引擁有不同興趣兒童的產品主題，有時候，人們會把這一舉措誤認為，“這款玩具僅適用于女孩或僅適用于男孩”，但這并不是我們的意圖。

《財富》：你最喜歡樂高的哪套玩具？

古德溫：我喜歡所有的產品系列，但如果非得選的話，我會選擇“創造者”產品線，它將真實體驗與非常有趣的模型結合起來，同時預留了供個人發揮的空間。（財富中文網）

譯者：Charlie

審校：詹妮

F: With the advent of technology like virtual and augmented reality, do you feel the pressure to digitalize?

JG: Our CEO has a great saying: “‘Technology’ only applies to those things that occur after you’re born.” Tablets and smartphones are not technology for children born today; it’s just the world that they came into. And in the future, VR and AR are just going to be the world children are born into. So what’s really important is that the Lego brand is relevant in that world, so we’re constantly evolving and ensuring that Lego remains relevant.

F: What sort of developments are in the pipeline for Lego?

JG: Next week we are opening a Chinese factory in Jiaxing, near Shanghai, in order to supply the Chinese market, which is an amazing opportunity for us. We’re building the factory not to ship products over to Europe, but to supply to the Asian market and particularly the Chinese market. About 80% of our sales currently come from markets that only contain 20% of the world’s children, so there are lots of opportunities out there for us.

F: Do you have concerns about the tariffs that President-elect Trump may enforce?

JG: America’s Legos come from Mexico, so we’re monitoring the situation very carefully; free trade’s very important to us as it’s a central part of our business model. It’s too early to say whether we’ll move back to the U.S. based on the statements that have been made, but the most important thing for us is to be able to keep delivering Legos to U.S. children—and we’ll make sure we can keep doing that.

F: Has Brexit had any effect on Lego and do you expect it to in the future?

JG: As free trade is so important to us, we have to monitor the developments of Brexit carefully. Also, the U.K. plays an important role for us globally because we have global hub based in London, where we do a number of activities that impact our products around the globe and people are recruited from all backgrounds. We’ll need to monitor Brexit developments to ensure we can still leverage the great attraction of London. We try very hard to be non-political, but we are strongly committed to reaching all children and finding a way to do that.

F: In terms of being non-political, Lego was in the news this week for ending its relationship with the right-leaning British tabloid, The Daily Mail. (Lego recently said it would no longer run giveaways with the paper a week after a parent penned an open letter to Lego complaining of the Mail’s “unashamed discrimination towards sections of our society.”) Was that a significant decision for the company?

JG: We were running a distribution promotion with the Mail that has now ended, and we’ve got no plans in the foreseeable future to do that again. I think it’s important for us to listen to our consumers; that always drives us. We have 1.8 million different consumer contacts, whether that be in stores like this or a consumer helpline, and we try very hard to listen to what’s important to children, their parents, and their grandparents and to respond to that.

In my four-plus years with the company, it’s never been political things that have driven us—it’s always the consumer that drives what we do, and as the consumers’ moods change then we change too.

F: Lego is a private company—would it ever go public?

JG: Our family owners are completely committed to expanding Lego play experiences throughout the whole world. I personally cannot conceive of any circumstance in which that would change.

F: Lego has come under fire in the past for creating toys that play to gender stereotypes. What do you say to that?

JG: We’ve never in our history intended Lego to be gender-specific, but what we do try to do is develop products that appeal to different play patterns. What’s a reality is certain children—typically boys—like conflict-based play environments and other children—typically girls—like relationship-based play environments. We’ve tried to create product themes that appeal to all of these different interest levels and sometimes this can be misinterpreted as us saying ‘this is only for girls’ or ‘this is only for boys’, but that’s not our intention at all.

F: Finally, what’s your favorite Lego set?

JG: I love all the product range, but if I had to choose one line I’d choose the ‘Creator’ line, which combines real-life experiences with really fun models, while allowing a degree of personal adaptation.