Golf Business Monitor

Titleist's mother company Acushnet is sold to Fila Korea

The Acushnet (owner of Titleist and FootJoy) Company saga started a year ago when they sold Cobra Golf to PUMA AG. In those days I thought Acushnet Company  is just restructuring and want to focus on golf balls and golf shoes. Now it seems to me that it was not enough to the owners of Acushnet Company, Fortune Brands. Unfortuantely this is in line with the declining number of US and European golf players.

The new owner Fila Korea is quite a new player in the golf industry. After the acquisition, Acushnet will remain as a standalone company through separate operation from Fila Korea. The good news is the fact that Asia Pacific represents over 30% of the world's total golf equipment spending, and that South Korean golfers are among the most passionate and organized in the game. The negibouring China is also a growing golf market. Therefore it is good that South Korea is so close to the Chinese golf market.

Although at present, golf is still recognized as a luxurious sport by most Chinese. According to the survey of National Golf Foundation, Shanghai, Beijing and Guangdong, the cities with the highest level of per capita consumption, have 40% of total 18-hole equivalents in China.

I hope that this Korean company will keep on investing in Titleist and Footjoy for our favour.

What happened to Titleist's parent company?

In May 2010 I wrote that Titleist's parent company Acushnet is selling Cobra Golf to Puma AG. The Acushnet saga is still not over. In those days I said OK, fine Cobra Golf is underperforming and they cannot finance the losses that Cobra Golf generates.

Today they came out with the following announcement that I received by e-mail as a loyal Team Titleist member:

"Fortune Brands (the parent company of Acushnet Company) announced that its board of directors has approved in principle a plan to separate the company's three businesses in order to maximize long-term value for shareholders.

As part of this plan, the Acushnet Company (which includes both the Titleist and FootJoy brands) could be sold or spun off into an independent, publicly-traded company."

What went wrong in the golf industry and at this prestigeous golf equipment company? Oversupply? Overestimating the potential growth? Whatever it is  we can expect the fall of Acushnet. The possible new companies will have dire problems to save their market position and bargaining power against retailers and golf courses.

Redesigning golf club scrubs

When I am visiting new golf courses I am always looking for something unique (beside the design of the golf course). I am sure that some small tools like golf club scrub always look almost the same.

So I say let`s start to decorate our golf club scrub. James Keyser`s solution is really lovely a friendly.

TaylorMade is reinventing POS communication

TaylorMade recently came up with a witty solution to engage sauntering potential customers by placing touch screen TVs in golf pro shops. It is a great help to those who do not know how to buy and what are the differences between golf clubs. As far as I know in 40 US stores were installed these touch screen TVs.

The idea came from a small digital agency called Hello Design. From there website we cannot know whether they utilized the touch screen TV to collect personal data for future communication or bluetooth technology to reach those who are passing by these stores...It is a good start...

Anyway, all my respect to Taylor Made and Hello Design!!

TaylorMade Touch Screen from Hello Design on Vimeo.

Who are the Hickory Golfers?

I have just ordered via Amazon.com, Bernard Darwin's book: Bernard Darwin on Golf. To this point it would not be interesting, if it does not turn out that the  author of the book was member of the Society of Hickory Golfers. But what should we know about Hickory Golf? The name refers to the playing of golf with hickory shafted golf clubs. There are two main divisions of play, pre-1935 and pre-1900. The pre-1900 group (open & reserve divisions) play with the old Gutta-Percha golf ball, or its equivalent, and golf clubs are limited to those produced before that 1900 or authorized reproductions.

If you want to read more about this:

• http://www.hickorygolfers.com
• www.hickorygolf.com
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hickory_Golf

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/golf/5093361/Chinese-businessman-buys-7000-golf-clubs.html

Golf shaft opitimization by Titleist and Mizuno

Just like online content, golf shafts are also becoming more personalized and optimized to our needs. Within a year two well-known golf equipment manufacturers Titleist and Mizuno came up with golf shaft optimizers. Chris McGinley, vice president of marketing worldwide for Titleist golf clubs says "The key to maximizing a player's ability to get fit properly......It allows us to improve a player's strengths while we identify and address weaknesses." (from Global Golf Post, June 14, 2010) I will not buy this marketing bla-bla!! It is the minimum that the golf clubs and golf shafts are optimized to my golf play. It is also a mutual interest that our golf shafts are optimized. If you have success in your golf play you will play more, but if you have too many double bogeys or even worse you will start to look for a new hobby. :( Not to mention if you want to increase your share of wallet at your customers golf shaft optimization could be a good start and solution. To increase your share of wallet, the first thing you should do is to find out what factors influence purchasing behaviors among your customer base. I am not sure that most of us is ready to pay for golf shaft optimization 4,100 USD (2 day session at Titleist).

Unfortunately, we still have to wait a little, when golf shaft optimization will be a free service like air-conditioner is free feature in you car. At this moment only Titleist provides such services in Europe (UK/England, Ireland, Scotland).

Here is Mizuno's shaft optimizer software in action:

MacGregor Golf is Back

I was really happy to read today on The Golf Wire that the iconic golf equipment brand MacGregor Golf is returning with a new, revamped lineup of premium golf equipment. For those who are not familiar with the history of this iconic golf equipment brand, here is a brief history of MacGregor Golf:

It is a 113 years old golf equipment brand. MacGregor Golf, which was based in Albany, Ga., claims that more majors (59) were won with MacGregor Golf clubs than with clubs made by any other company. Many of those majors were accounted for by Jack Nicklaus. Unfortunately Jack Nicklaus sold the company in the 1980s. More recently, MacGregor Golf was associated with Greg Norman, making The Greg Norman Collection apparel line. Greg Norman acquired partial ownership of MacGregor Golf several years ago, but when Greg Norman switched to playing TaylorMade golf clubs recently many saw the writing on the wall for MacGregor Golf.

To have a positive end of the story last year, Golfsmith acquired MacGregor Golf and turned it to a so called "house brand". Just to understand the popularity of MacGregor Golf in the 1980s and 90s that we could see it in the movie of Caddyshack:

Now here are my doubts about the future of MacGregor Golf. When we are thinking about the future, for how many of us will be relevant the history of this golf equipment brand? Do we really care what was in the past? How many of us will afford a  premium golf equipment (especially in light of the declining number of rounds on golf course)? Is Golfsmith able to give a significant communication support for this golf equipment brand?

Over communication of golf equipment brands

Many people are giving different interpretation of over communication, in my case it is about exaggerated frequency of communication. In marketing communication text books you will find chapters about the desired number of frequency of communication messages. They say if people meet 4-5 times with your brand/product/service message, it is enough to be able to remember.

How this is connecting to the golf industry and within it to golf equipment brands' communication? As loyal reader of Golf Digest and Golf Magazine, I am getting sick and tired of meeting with well known brands (Callaway, TaylorMade, Titleist, Nike Golf, Cobra, Cleveland Golf) double and single page ads in every single copy. I can tell you in advance of a year what kind of print ads will be in Golf Digest and Golf Magazine, so you do not have to by Kantar Media's service media monitor. LOL.

What I want so say is advertisers will not gain the desired reaction (higher awareness, brand preference etc.) rather the opposite. At the very same time I do not see the utility for such companies as SkyGolf to advertise in print media. But this is different issue. In case of golf fitting systems like Mizuno's the same ideas apply. Since these products and services are more technology focused than a golf club or a golf ball. To transmit product features and to enable the prospect to compare with others it is easier online than in print media. Just think about video ads...

Acushnet prefers to focus on golf balls

Recently I came across with the news that Acushnet (the golf business of Fortune Brands, Inc. (NYSE: FO)) the owner of Titleist, Footjoy golf mega-brands is likely to sell its golf club brand Cobra Golf to the German PUMA AG. Puma AG, is relatively new in the golf equipment industry. Puma entered the golf market in 2006, offering golfers technical performance gear that helped players look better, feel better and play better on and off the course. Today, Puma Golf athletes include newcomer Rickie Fowler, Geoff Ogilvy, Johan Edfors, Jeff Overton and Anna Nordqvist.

Two things are clear from this Puma AG wants to enter to the golf equipment market without investing in developing a brand new golf club brand and technology. So he makes a classic management step acquires an existing brand, technology and with the acquisition also a market share. This is how Adidas Golf was created in 1998 by the acquisition of TaylorMade. Last year Adidas Golf made further acquistions in the apparel segment. The other reason behind the sale of Cobra Golf is the not so rosy sales results. Thus at Acushnet decided to focus on their core competences golf balls and golf shoes.

Both sides are still waiting for regulatory approval. Puma Golf will also gain quite strong social media presence as well. Although it might not part of the balance sheet, but personally I consider it as part of the brand equity (IAS 38 is the relevant to this issue). Since what people find about your brand will influence the attitudes and associations toward the brand.

Currently Cobra Golf, has: a blog http://cobratourblog.com/(that is more likely a brand site and not a blog); 2 Twitter accounts with significant number of followers ((cobratour (2,028); cobragolf (3323)) and a less successful Facebook brand page.

Golf Crocks is introducing...

While Crocks Company is struggling to survive, there is company (Dawgs Golf) that tries to copy Crocks.  Dawgs Golf position himself as a premium brand due to the high end EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate, or closed cell resin)technology. They must been very involved in the copy process of Crocks, that they forget the importance of cleat (e.g. Softspikes' Black Widow cleat). I do not say that Dawgs Golf shoes do not have cleats, but not as good as Softspikes' Black Widow...

As a natural step they set up a Facebook brand page. I think Dawgs Golf is just another golf equipment company that does not want to be embarrassed therefore created a brand page without strategy how to attract fans and keep them active on the brand page. This page will not be beneficial for neither parties. Unfortunately...