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Comment by sunahsuh | Hacker News Reader

>"why do girls feel a stigma about playing with Legos?"

What about marketing and the outsize influence it has on culture? Companies don't just passively follow markets, the biggest ones use advertising to actively create them.

Girls feel a stigma about playing with Legos because Lego has clearly signaled it's a "boys' toy" with their marketing.

edit: typos

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What possible reason would the Lego corporation have for discouraging 50% of their potential market from buying their products?

By discouraging one 50%, they are encouraging the other 50%. If the increase by encouraging the latter 50% offset the decrease by discouraging the former 50%, they get a net increase in profits. It is a lot easier to market to either boys or girls than to market to boys and girls, so marketing to one half or the other tends to be more profitable than marketing to both.

A possible reason is that they believe they'd be less successful if they actively tried to broaden their consumer base.

Whether that's correct, I couldn't say, but it's certainly not an impossible scenario.

My daughter feels no stigma about playing with the "boys" LEGOs, in fact she does not particularly like the girl oriented Bellville series.

She likes other girl oriented things, so I wonder where LEGO failed with their girls series.

Also, you can still buy regular general LEGO pieces as in the old days, you do not have to buy the latest Star Wars or Harry Potter set.

Problem, with the general LEGO pieces is that about $100 or so can be plenty enough for a kid, while with themed series you can continue selling.

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