经济学人商业||乐高和芭比娃娃的中国之战

Lego v Barbie in China

乐高和芭比娃娃的中国之战

Brick by brick

砌砖

Why the toy brickmaker has soared but America’s favourite doll has stumbled

积木玩具欣欣向荣，而全美最受欢迎的娃娃却遭滑铁卢

Budding engineers cluster around a table-sized model of the China Art Museum, a landmark of Shanghai, adding helipads, carrot patches and other improvements with colourful bricks. Prising a child from Lego’s vast shop near People’s Square can be like unsticking two stubborn bits of Lego. Li Yang, visiting for a few days from Shenzhen, has been waiting for her daughter for two hours. Zhu Yunfei, watching his son, marvels at the variety: “Coming here to play with him is making up for my childhood,” he says. They drop by every week.

一群小工程师围坐在桌子大小的中华艺术宫（上海的地标建筑）模型旁，用五颜六色的积木搭直升机停机坪、胡萝卜地和其他设施。把孩子从人民广场旁的大型乐高商店拉走，就如把两块紧密拼接一起的乐高积木分开一样困难。深圳来沪游玩的李阳已经在这里等了女儿两个小时。朱云飞看着儿子搭建出的各种作品，赞口不绝：“来这里和儿子一起玩弥补了我童年的遗憾。”他们每周都会来这里。

Lego’s rise in China has been vertiginous. In 2017 it overtook Alpha Group, a local giant, to become the country’s leading toy company (not including video games). In the past two years it has opened 89 stores. It wants 50 more by December, which will bring it to 30 cities. Its first Chinese factory started moulding bricks in 2016. The toy industry is growing by 9% annually in the country, but the Danish firm’s Chinese arm notches up “very strong double digits”, says Paul Huang, its boss.

乐高在中国的兴起令人眼花缭乱。2017年，乐高超越中国本土巨贾奥飞集团，成为中国玩具行业首屈一指的公司（不包括电子游戏）。过去两年，乐高新开89家门店。计划到今年年底还要增开50家店，覆盖全国30个城市。乐高首家中国工厂于2016年投产。中国玩具行业的年均增长率为9%，但乐高集团中国区总经理黄国强（Paul Huang）表示，这家丹麦公司的中国分部实现了“强劲的两位数增长”。

注释：

Notch up : If you notch up something such as a score or total, you achieve it. 赢得; 达到

栗子：He had notched up more than 25 victories worldwide. 他已在世界范围内赢得了超过25次的胜利。（选自《柯林斯英汉双解大词典》）

It has done so even as the brickmaker’s global business has looked shakier. In 2017 Lego cut 1,400 jobs and recorded its first drop in revenues and profits in over a decade. But last year both ticked up again, by 4% each. Lego has thus retained its status as the world’s biggest toymaker, snatched from Mattel in 2014—even as its American rival last year earned its highest revenues in five years from its Barbie dolls.

虽然乐高的全球业务举步维艰，但其在中国的成绩依然傲人。2017年乐高削减了1400个岗位，其营收和利润也出现近十多年的首次下滑。但去年这两个数字双双反弹4%。虽然，老对手美泰公司去年依靠芭比娃娃取得了五年来最高的公司营收。但是，乐高还是保住了其于2014年从美泰(Mattel)手中夺取的全球最大玩具制造商的宝座。

Newly affluent parents in China have helped Lego recover. “We have not maxed out there, by far,” says Niels Christiansen, whom Lego brought in as chief executive two years ago. As in the West, the educational merits of bricks appeal to Chinese parents. Last year 98% of those surveyed by Lego said that play was essential for their child’s well-being, even more than Americans and Danes.

中国新晋富裕的父母们帮助乐高走出了困境，重获新生。2017获乐高任命的首席执行官倪志伟（Niels Christiansen）表示：“到目前为止，我们在中国还没有火力全开。”和西方国家类似，积木的教育价值对中国家长颇具吸引力。去年乐高进行的调查中98%的受访家长表示游戏对于他们孩子的健康（成长）至关重要，这一比例甚至高于美国和丹麦。

Lego has also astutely catered to local tastes. This year the firm launched three sets specifically for China, the first time it has done so for any country. Fans were delighted at the attention to cultural detail. One was a Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner kit, with tiny red envelopes and chunlian, lucky couplets on banners pasted around doorways. A dragon boat race set included a sticky-rice dumpling, a popular festival snack. The high-quality kits are pricey, costing up to 700 yuan ($100) apiece.

乐高敏锐地迎合了中国市场的喜好。今年乐高专门为中国推出了3套玩具，此举（为迎合某一国的消费者而量身定制）在乐高尚属首次。，其对中国文化细节的关注令粉丝们欣喜不已。其中之一的中国风年夜饭新年套件（80101），配有小巧的红包和春联（一种贴在门口寓意幸运的对联），赛龙舟套件（80103）则配有糯米粽子（一种受欢迎的节日小吃）。这些高质量的玩具套装价格不菲，每套售价高达700元（100美元）。

With Barbie, Mattel tried to localise in the wrong way. A former Chinese manager at the American company calls its promotion of a line of cheaper, flimsier dolls “arrogant”. Because no effort was put into making her locally relevant, Barbie held none of her usual aspirational appeal, even for spendthrift Chinese. In 2009 Mattel opened the world’s largest Barbie shop on a luxury shopping street in central Shanghai, stuffed with 800 dolls. The six-floor pink colossus confused Chinese parents by offering mothers a spa, designer fashion and “Barbietini” cocktails, and their daughters more age-appropriate attractions. It was a flop and shut two years later.

拥有芭比娃娃的美泰公司（Mattel）却尝试了一条错误的本土化道路。美泰中国区的一位前任经理称，在中国推广廉价劣质的娃娃，实属傲慢自负之举。美泰公司没有为芭比娃娃的本土化做出任何努力，即便面对不差钱的中国消费者，芭比也没能秉承其一贯的吸引力。2009年，美泰公司在上海市中心一条奢侈品的商业街上开设了全球最大的芭比娃娃门店，店里一共布置了800只芭比娃娃。这座巨大的六层粉色商场给母亲们提供spa、设计师时尚品牌、芭比娃娃鸡尾酒以及适合他们女儿的娱乐设施，然而这让中国家长感到困惑（或者：然而家长们还是get不到这款美国娃娃的魅力所在）。这家门店的开设是个失败之举，短短两年即关门大吉。

It is hard to convince prudish parents of the creative merits of frivolous dolls, and grown-up Chinese collectors prefer short and chubby Molly, a popular local poppet. The Chinese market for construction toys is six times bigger than for dolls. In Mr Zhu’s words, “there is no art to a Barbie”. Tellingly, Mattel’s most successful brand in China is a maker of educational baby toys, Fisher-Price, with a market share of 1.1%, according to Euromonitor, a data provider. Barbie, with 0.3%, comes a lowly 31st. By contrast, Lego’s 4.5% share puts it firmly in first place: a fortification that will serve it well, as China’s market for toys and video games, worth $45bn, overtakes America’s in the next few years.

拘谨的中国家长很难相信这些无聊的娃娃蕴含着创意，而中国的成年收藏家则更喜欢矮胖的Molly娃娃，一款诞生于中国本土并倍受欢迎的公仔。在中国市场，建造类玩具市场份额是玩偶的七倍，用朱先生的话说，“芭比娃娃并没有什么艺术价值”。美泰公司在中国最成功的品牌是教育型婴幼儿玩具费雪(Fisher-Price)。欧睿咨询(Euromonitor)的数据显示，费雪的市场份额为1.1%；芭比娃娃仅占0.3%，排名第31位。相比之下，乐高市场份额为4.5%，稳居第一，这一龙头地位将对其今后发展大有裨益。毕竟，中国的玩具与电子游戏产业市值450亿美元，在接下来几年中有望赶超美国市场。