Taylor Made Golf
Challenge: Rapid Erosion of Market Share
Taylor Made Golf, once the #1 metalwood on the PGA, LPGA, SPGA, EPGA and JPGA professional golf Tours around the world lost its leadership position to Callaway Golf on all Tours but the PGA when the Callaway introduced a new product, the Big Bertha. Significant correlation exist between #1 on Tour and #1 in market share and Taylor Made golf was losing significant metalwood market share and retail shelf presence daily.
Market Insights
Core market, retail and consumer patterns are clear indicators to lead development of next generation product.
Product cycle alternating between golf head and golf shafts as drivers of performance adoption on professional tours and consumer market over time with performance theme also alternating between Power (P) and Forgiveness (F). The pattern being: Persimmon wood to Dynamic Gold shafts (P) to metal woods (Taylor Made – (F)) to Tour Gold graphite shafts (Taylor Made – (P)) to oversize woods (Callaway – (F) to "opportunity" a new shaft story...
Visible Technology tied to Benefits emerged as a critical product adoption element after Callaway introduced a clever theme: Bigger is Better, you can’t argue with physics.
Retail Floor Dominance was vital to product turns at retail
Solution
Drove development and launch of the Burner Bubble Metalwoods (Taylor Made – (P + F))
Positioned with a leading shaft story (bubble shaft) with strong visual accentuation of product benefits (P) and further extended by telling a complete integrated shaft + head story.
Selected highly visible and differentiated product color (copper), highly visible on TV when in the hands of professional players.
Upped the ante on cash incentives on Tour to drive product adoption
Introduce a full range of merchandising display at retail
Created a unique “sales presentation” to lead retailers to significantly increase their initial pre-bookings to levels comparable to Callaway Golf – product presented in a special “gun case” to leverage the importance of the product introduction.
Create a "theme" that will resonate with golfers.
Impact
Company grew from $180m to $350m on the franchise
Taylor Made Golf regained #1 position on Tour
Taylor Made Golf regained #1 position in the market place,
Jose Maria Olazabal won the Master’s using a Burner Bubble metalwood, the first metalwood ever to win a major tournament
Sales strategy requiring retailers to commit to X in pre-bookings (where X was equal to 50% of Callaway's prebooks) allowed for pre-booking three time as large as the previous year and almost on par with Callaway
The new MAP (Merchandising Assistance Program) – your MAP to success - turned Pro-Shops worldwide into Taylor Made showcases
Significant advertising around a call to action (Feel) and a critical benefit (Power) applied to a carefully crafted media support mix help break through the clutter
Positioned with a leading shaft story (bubble shaft) with strong visual accentuation of product benefits (P) and further extended by telling a complete integrated shaft + head story.
Selected highly visible and differentiated product color (copper), highly visible on TV when in the hands of professional players.
Upped the ante on cash incentives on Tour to drive product adoption
Introduce a full range of merchandising display at retail
Created a unique “sales presentation” to lead retailers to significantly increase their initial pre-bookings to levels comparable to Callaway Golf – product presented in a special “gun case” to leverage the importance of the product introduction.
Create a "theme" that will resonate with golfers.
Impact
Company grew from $180m to $350m on the franchise
Taylor Made Golf regained #1 position on Tour
Taylor Made Golf regained #1 position in the market place,
Jose Maria Olazabal won the Master’s using a Burner Bubble metalwood, the first metalwood ever to win a major tournament
Sales strategy requiring retailers to commit to X in pre-bookings (where X was equal to 50% of Callaway's prebooks) allowed for pre-booking three time as large as the previous year and almost on par with Callaway
The new MAP (Merchandising Assistance Program) – your MAP to success - turned Pro-Shops worldwide into Taylor Made showcases
Significant advertising around a call to action (Feel) and a critical benefit (Power) applied to a carefully crafted media support mix help break through the clutter