GET UP! – Taylormade Is Kicking Your Ass!

KNOCKOUT!!!!

4,5,6….GET UP!!!….7,8,9…..IT’S OVER…..KNOCKOUT!!!!!

(In comes the corner man to administer the smelling salts)

Come on kid…you can do better than that.  You looked liked Michael Spinks fighting Mike Tyson (VIDEO) out there.

Golf and Boxing are rarely used in analogies to draw comparisons between the two sports.  Although…I think when it comes to the major equipment manufacturers there is no better way to describe how Taylormade Golf is literally destroying its competition.  And the sad thing is…no one is really even challenging them to take their belt away.  At this point the distance they have put between themselves and the #1 contender is so large that I don’t see anyone catching up to them for years to come.

There haven’t been many people in the industry more critical of Taylormade Golf than myself (If you know of one by all means let me know)…but even I am willing to admit what has become painfully obvious….Taylormade is “King Of The Hill” and every one else is playing for scraps.  Market strategies for the major companies all look similar on paper…increase market share for metawoods, maximize exposure of irons, have a strong presence in the golf ball category, etc, etc, etc.  The only difference is that Taylormade has achieved every market strategy they have forecasted…and the rest well…like I said they’re playing for scraps.

HOW ARE THEY KICKING THE COMPETITION’S ASSES?

Well in many ways…but one of them is simple…MARKETING & CREATIVITY!  Now you might be saying well Taylormade has more money to allocate to marketing compared to the other golf companies.  And you would be partially correct…but even that is not 100% true.  But even if it were 100% true that does not mean that the other companies should just be packing it in and hanging their heads in defeat.  You don’t have to look too far to find other companies in other industries that have risen to the top without possessing the largest advertising budgets.  Times have changed and their are countless ways to get more bang for your buck with the ad dollars your spend.  Its all about creativity…something the golf industry is desperately lacking.

At this point when it comes to golf equipment and how well it performs there isn’t that much that separates the top from the bottom.  And even less when your talking 1st and lets say 5th place.  With the difference between almost every equipment category being so close…you have to do something to stand out in a crowded space.  And standing out in a crowded space is just what Taylormade is doing.

For example if you watched this past weeks’ tournament you might have noticed some red hearts on players hats, headcovers, balls and drivers.  It is part of a campaign Taylormade is calling “#DriverLove”.  Sounds pretty simple right…and it is…but simple is often the most effective when it comes to marketing.

WHY DOES IT WORK?

Why does it work?  Because you’re not used to seeing it on golfers hats when they play in tournaments.  Everybody on tour is sponsored by someone…and they all have something in common with their sponsorships…they all wear the companies logos on their gear.  Thats great if your a newcomer and your logo gets seen on TV…but if your competing against all the other manufactures to be noticed it doesn’t really get it done.  It’s almost like when you see a company online promoting “FREE SHIPPING ON ORDERS OVER $100”.  We have almost become blind to this type of promo…because everyone is already doing that.  The heart on the hats this week made people stop and look and ask themselves, “What is that?”  That’s what Taylormade wanted you to do…and that’s exactly what viewers did.  And the cost of this type of promotion could be done on a much smaller budget than your typical ad campaign.

Similar to their white drivers.  Nothing groundbreaking when your talking about technology…it’s just paint right?  But when your talking marketing it’s nothing less than genius.  At the time almost every driver was black…so when your watching the tournament on TV and you now see a white driver you automatically know it’s a Taylormade driver.  Once again simple…but effective…very effective…just ask Taylormade or your local proshop.

And this year…it’s all about RocketBallz.  I don’t know how many people emailed or commented on our site about how stupid the name was…but you couldn’t be more wrong.  That name got two things to happen.

• One:  It got people talking about their new line-up more than any other line-up coming out in 2012.
• Two: It got you looking at a club that almost no one talks about anymore…the Fairway Wood.

The fairway wood hype was once again genius.  Now I don’t know if this is how the discussions actually happened within Taylormade…but this is how I see it.  No driver is talked about more than every new release by Taylormade…but what do you do when the chatter starts to calm down and you don’t really have any new ground-breaking technology to hype this year and you want to milk the white thing as long as possible?  Well…simple…you move to a club that no one is competing for…thats right…the Fairway Wood.  The fairway wood has almost been forgotten about in the consumers minds…the hybrid has almost completely taken its place.

So to keep peoples eyes on your brand why not push technology in a club that hasn’t really been pushed.  Like I said the club has almost been forgotten about so it wouldn’t take that much in regards to a yardage increase claim to get people not only talking about it but more importantly talking about your brand.  And that is exactly what is happening…there is no club being talked about more than the 2012 Taylormade RocketBallz fairway wood right now.  And whether or not people buy it is almost insignificant at this point…because even if consumers don’t (which they will) they will still look at other Taylormade offerings at the same time…with the assumption they will be just as good.

And this is just the start of the brilliant marketing ideas Taylormade has incorporated to get golfers talking about their gear…of yeah and before I forget…anyone remember the R11 Foul Pole at the Sand Diego Padres home field?

Like I said none of these ideas are what you would call “Rocket Science”.  Companies outside the golf industry deploy similar concepts all the time.  But up until this point Taylormade is the only one in the golf industry willing to get out in front and try different things.  Crazy thing is you would think that by now other companies would get it…but trust me they don’t.  I talk to people all the time from inside the other golf companies who convey what they are working on…some are good…most are just too old-fashioned and out of touch…and the rest just have me shaking my head.

So Who Could Challenge Taylormade?

Like I stated previously…no matter if the following companies started yesterday with a campaign to actually try and challenge TM for “King Of The Hill”, I think it would still be at least 2-3 years before anyone actually starts to take any reasonable amount of the market share away from them.  But I also stated earlier that this doesn’t mean that just because it will take time, money and hard work that they should throw in the towel…which is the way it looks now.

Callaway Golf

In my opinion they still have the best chance at taking Taylormade head on…but they are going to have to seriously change the image of the brand at this point.  They have some great product but majorly lack aggressiveness when it comes to marketing their line-up.  They need to get younger in their message…which they are attempting with the whole Justin Timberlake thing.  But up to this point I still think they are missing the mark.  I still think to some degree they are relying on the past to determine their future…and in todays time nothing will put you in the grave faster than watching grass grown under your feet and being complacent.

Adams Golf

An up and comer with a real shot at leap-frogging over many brands to reach the top the quickest.  Year in and year out Adams Golf puts out products that perform just as good and often better than anyone else in the business.  They continue to push the envelope of technology and have really become a pioneer in producing ground-breaking technologies that other companies love to employ in their own lines. Problem is not many people know this…many consumers still look at them as a hyrbid company geared towards the senior.  But this couldn’t be further from the truth.  In my opinion I would rate them #1 in actual product performance if you’re looking at a brands products from top to bottom.

We have discussed it quite a few times amongst myself and others at MGS…but at this point if Adams Golf wants to play with the big boys it wouldn’t be that hard to do.  But it would take some balls…first thing I would do is change your slogan to, “Adams Golf – Better Than Taylormade!” One sentence wouldn’t get you to the top but it would get everyone looking at you in a different light and taking you seriously.  And to be truthfully honest…the slogan claim might just be right.

Cleveland Golf

Now this is one company that has got some money behind them if they really wanted to take a shot at the title.  But money will never buy you good product…especially across an entire line-up.  You have to actually come up with something golfers are compelled to try, then buy and then tell others about.  In my opinion there are not many golf companies that have missed the mark more often than Cleveland Golf in the past few years.  To me it seems like they are a brand lost in the dark.  When you used to think of Cleveland you used to at least think wedges.  Although now…it seems as though they are just throwing random spaghetti noodles at the wall to see what sticks.  But one thing that is great about having lots of money…it affords you the chance to take risks and lots of them.  So you never know…maybe we will see some changes next year at Cleveland…maybe they will get the ship turned in the right direction and they will begin to be known for something other than a wedge line from years past.

Nike Golf

Talk about money…I have said it before but there aren’t many companies that can launch themselves at least into the competition as quickly as one with the name Nike behind it.  And I will give it to them…they have improved year in and year out with their entire line-up.  But for whatever reason no matter how good their line-up is there is a group of consumers that just don’t seem to take them seriously.  I see it all the time…we will have a positive review of a Nike product or I will be talking to someone about Nike’s golf products and they will tell me, “I don’t care how good it is…it’s Nike…I won’t play it.”

There are a a couple reasons for this reaction towards the brand in my opinion.  One of the biggest ones I think goes back to the money.  As an example let’s take two friends you might have had growing up:  one that always had to scrape by, worked for everything he got in life, eventually became wealthy and for this reason was looked at by his peers as someone that deserved everything good he got in life.  Then the other kid had a trust fund with millions of dollars in it…he was a nice guy, but you always saw him get whatever he wanted in life, spent money like it was a bottomless pit, and you felt would never really have to work hard the rest of his life.

There is always some level of resentment from most people about individuals or companies like this in their lives. Not always fair…but it does happen.  And in this case I don’t think it is 100% fair towards Nike either.  But the problem is this is a perception about Nike that might always be there about the brand.  The feeling that they bought their way in and never really had to work hard to get where they have gotten.  Unfortunate but true.  In the end it should just be about who makes the best equipment for your game…end of story.

Titleist

Well Titleist in my mind has no desire to take Taylormade on or any other leader.  They seem to be happy with where they are…and in my opinion they should be for the most part.  But like I said being complacent will bury you quick nowadays.  So just because you are happy where you are does not mean that you don’t need to push the categories that make you who you are.

Titleist I think will always be about the ball more than their clubs…simple math equation will tell you that.  Their ball is worth umpteen times more than the club division.  But I still feel they have a perception issue with their club division and maybe with their ball now as well.  In the ball department they have always been one to push the technology whereas with the clubs they usually let other people be the pioneers, then wait to see what was going to stick around and then and only then try and improve on everybody else’s technology.  Both models worked in the past.  But a couple things have changed since then.

When it came to Titleist clubs in the past they had always been perceived as being of higher quality and the better golfer almost never strayed from the brand.  That isn’t so true today.  Lots of lower handicap golfers are moving away from the brand in my opinion and the quality of clubs thing…well…there are lots of companies making good product nowadays.

And the ball division once owned the market…and they still do.  But even that piece of the pie is shrinking…companies like Taylormade and Bridgestone and even Callaway are beginning to make really good golf balls that are considered just as good as the “King Of All Kings” the Pro V1.  Now I’m not saying Titleist doesn’t make as good or better balls than they ever have…because they do…but a lot of this is about perception…and many people would say that the perception of Titleist golf balls is not the same as it once was.

Who Will Be The Next “King Of The Hill”?

Well…to be honest I don’t see them being dethroned anytime soon.  But no quicker way to starting your way back to the top than coming out with something revolutionary.  So who has the next “titanium” for the golf industry?  Many people say there aren’t any great new technologies left to discover.  100% Total BS.  There are tons of new technologies the golf industry could employ…they just aren’t looking in the right places.  Also most aren’t willing to take a risk…they prefer to evolutionize and not revolutionize technology.  Which is great for the TM business model…they can keep plugging along like a computer company…continuously coming out with a slightly faster computer chip year after year and people will keep buying it.  Problem for the other companies is if they don’t do something fairly ground-breaking pretty soon they might be forgotten about like so many of the other companies have been in recent years.

In the past couple years alone I have had more than a few think-tank type conversations and seen technology in person that could be on the horizon and could completely change the golf industry.  Some of this stuff would blow your mind & golf companies minds as well.  Shame is…like I said this industry lacks creativity and the ability to think outside the box.  So until they can get past only being able to look at bottom lines & playing games of follow the leader…they will continue to get knocked out by their competition…if anyone wonders who that is…it will be the guy standing at the top of the hill with his foot on your throats and a heart on his hat.

The Challenge Is There…Now Who Has The Balls To Step in The Ring?