Reality strikes the golf market and TaylorMade in particular.

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So TM's sales are down 18% in the last quarter and 27% I believe over the year.

Adams Golf facility in Texas is to be closed with everything being absorbed into TM's California HQ.

No new product launches for time being whilst attempts are made to shift existing stock.

It would appear that even the US market is reacting negatively to short lifespan products.

Perhaps the industry as a whole will now come to its senses and realise that we are not all prepared to buy new clubs with the knowledge that they are likely to be superseded in only a few months.

Whatever, as far as TM is concerned it is certainly a different story to the promises of world market domination heard from their senior executives only a few months ago.
 
MetalMickie said:
Perhaps the industry as a whole will now come to its senses and realise that we are not all prepared to buy new clubs with the knowledge that they are likely to be superseded in only a few months.
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I still don't understand this logic. Why does it make any difference at all what is launched after you have bought something?

..... unless you were gullible and hoping to buy 20 yards of arrow straight game with a purchase.
 
BTatHome said:
I still don't understand this logic. Why does it make any difference at all what is launched after you have bought something?

..... unless you were gullible and hoping to buy 20 yards of arrow straight game with a purchase.
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It doesn't make a huge difference to most of us on here but to Joe Average - there's many, many people who have to have the latest gear regardless of whether it helps them or not.

TM's figures are interesting, bearing in mind the introduction of the SLDR - let's face it, it seems to in every other bag.
How bad would their numbers have been if SLDR had flopped..?
 
Imurg said:
It doesn't make a huge difference to most of us on here but to Joe Average - there's many, many people who have to have the latest gear regardless of whether it helps them or not.

TM's figures are interesting, bearing in mind the introduction of the SLDR - let's face it, it seems to in every other bag.
How bad would their numbers have been if SLDR had flopped..?
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Surely the fact they stuck with SLDR for the whole year, means that the original strategy was the one that makes them the most money ?!?
 
Interesting.

Golf clubs are durable and expensive I would guess most people will renew their clubs only every 2-4 years.

At the same time the manufacturers are investing heavily in R&D and marketing to develop and sell products which in truth offer only marginal improvements over recent models.

Whilst the market is large it is also fairly limited and I don't think it can or is likely to grow quickly. Even if it does I would guess most new players will look for s/h or budget starter sets which is not really what the likes of TM need.

Can one product which catches on (e.g. white drivers) deliver enough revenue to sustain the business?

I also wonder how much it matters that the likes of Rory, Tiger, Rickie etc are using clubs (i.e. bladed models) which aren't suitable for the majority of players so although there is a brand factor at work it isn't a case of being able to market these on basis that you can play the same clubs that Rory plays.
 
BTatHome said:
I still don't understand this logic. Why does it make any difference at all what is launched after you have bought something?

..... unless you were gullible and hoping to buy 20 yards of arrow straight game with a purchase.
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its nothing to do with what difference the product makes its how it makes people feel when a new line is released. I personally don't care. it makes for cheap clubs 6 months after launch but I know plenty of golfers that wont buy TM on principle. it can be argued all day about the pro's and cons of constant releases but at the end of the day it seems its rocking the TM boat
 
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I want to make it clear that I did not post this with the intention of specifically criticising TaylorMade.

Rather than that it is an observation that all the manufacturers have tended to over estimate the size (and gullibility) of the market.
 
as often I see things slightly differently - :)

TM almost single handed created the extended driver market ie the 'it's worth upgrading' culture. As such their sales soared.

They expanded (relatively) into irons, and then they purchased Adams which had both interesting patents and some market share as well as a brand.

Other manufacturers have spent fortunes to get an increased market share in this extended driver market - it's still there but it's saturated; pro shops have tended to go to single manufacturer stock, large distributors have squeezed the manufacturing margins and shot themselves in the foot with their demand for new model releases! Those holding stock are struggling.

TMs overall volumes relative to 10 and 5 years ago are still huge, but they are inevitably coming down from what was probably their unsustainable peak!

In their eyes of course, it's all the fault of the restrictive equipment rules :clap:
 
BTatHome said:
I still don't understand this logic. Why does it make any difference at all what is launched after you have bought something?

..... unless you were gullible and hoping to buy 20 yards of arrow straight game with a purchase.
Click to expand...

It's not about people replacing their drivers every 6 months with new ones - if this was the case the industry would be booming! It's because people will wait 6 months to get the new model at a knockdown price, or just buy 6 month old stock when the latest product is released.

Look at Callaways X2Hot driver. Started at £299. Then dropped to £249. Then £249 with a free £149 hybrid. Now £159 brand new from most online retailers. Most people will have waited for at least the first price drop, if not the free hybrid deal. Now you can Callaway's 2nd latest driver (if the Big Bertha range count as 1 driver effectively) for £150!!!!!
 
They're basically exhausting their target market. It's a common problem facing a lot of manufacturers at the moment, there is no middle market, people are only interested in cheap or luxury items. TaylorMade are very much in the luxury end, making aspirational and desirable products, they are the iPhones of the golf world. The problem they face is that, unlike phones, the number of golfers isn't expanding. They're running out of buyers because they've saturated their market with high quality products that don't need replacing often. The only way they can expand now is to convert people that were previously loyal to other luxury brands and that's a harder thing to do.
 
MashieNiblick said:
Interesting.

Golf clubs are durable and expensive I would guess most people will renew their clubs only every 2-4 years.
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You are having a laugh surely. Apart from the cost why on earth would you bother changing your clubs that regularly - you won't have had a chance to actually understand them and work out how best to use them. Got my current set in 2007 and the thought of changing them hasn't entered my head.
 
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As much as I am not in favour of TM marketing, I don't think these figures are much to do with TM specifically.
According to Bloomburg
400,000 players left the game last year (I assume they mean in America)
160 US courses closed down in America in 2013
2013 saw the least number if rounds played since 1995
and more specifically for this thread
Sales at Golf Galaxy in the US were 10% down in the first quarter
Dicks Sporting Goods golf sales missed their target by $34 Million ( makes you wonder how much golf gear they sell. It must be a huge amount). I understand they have since made all their golf pro's redundant.
Clearly the American golf market is in decline ( dare I say it may be the Tiger effect :o ) and the US is TM's and everyone else's biggest market. It is probably a safe assumption that the golf market throughout the rest of the world is in decline too, though the figures are probably not as stark.
With the market in such decline it is hardly surprising TM's figures are down and I would guess practically all other manufacturers, particularly the big players, are seeing the same results.
 
Sweep said:
Clearly the American golf market is in decline ( dare I say it may be the Tiger effect :o )
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Perhaps a decline due to Tiger effect may not be to do with his decline but possibly that many younger folk who took up the game when he was in his pomp are now giving up as life (family etc) gets in the way or they find it too difficult. After all didn't Tiger make it all look so simple.
 
Sweep said:
As much as I am not in favour of TM marketing, I don't think these figures are much to do with TM specifically.
According to Bloomburg
400,000 players left the game last year (I assume they mean in America)
160 US courses closed down in America in 2013
2013 saw the least number if rounds played since 1995
and more specifically for this thread
Sales at Golf Galaxy in the US were 10% down in the first quarter
Dicks Sporting Goods golf sales missed their target by $34 Million ( makes you wonder how much golf gear they sell. It must be a huge amount). I understand they have since made all their golf pro's redundant.
Clearly the American golf market is in decline ( dare I say it may be the Tiger effect :o ) and the US is TM's and everyone else's biggest market. It is probably a safe assumption that the golf market throughout the rest of the world is in decline too, though the figures are probably not as stark.
With the market in such decline it is hardly surprising TM's figures are down and I would guess practically all other manufacturers, particularly the big players, are seeing the same results.
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I was going to post something similar Sweep. Golf is suffering badly especially in the US. Callaway have been struggling to make profits and have re-structured several times. Nike Golf is propped up by sales of basketball shoes
 
I also think that the manufacturers overestimate the regularity that golfers want to update their equipment.
Every new club takes months to bed into your game - If you changed your whole set every year you would not benefit from knowing exactly what every club is capable of in your bag.
 
I am not the biggest TM fan but there is no doubt they have brought some great kit to the market. The original Pittsburgh Persimmons, the Bubble, 510TP amongst others. But they have had a large role in this speeding up of the product cycle and in doing so I think have done the industry a disservice. Unfortunately it is probably too late to put the genie back in the bottle.

With some brands, Titleist and Mizuno, for example, there is a clear 2 year product cycle. And the new products offer incremental change. People can buy stuff knowing they are not missing out on some great technical innovation. With TM you never really know when the next line is due except it it is very soon. One club is barely in retail when pics of Tour prototypes of the next version appear.

I reckon TM should have 2 basic lines, standard and TP. The TP is for single figure players and fast improvers and is basically a slightly more players version of standard - less offset, thinner top line , better shaft. But with some subtle but clear aesthetic differences, the RP badge or a slight different colour scheme.

I heard a marketing expert once say the genius of BMW was that when someone went into a BMW garage they already knew which model was right for them. They see a 3 series or a 5 series customer. TM should aspire to the same. If I went I to a golf shop and had to buy TM, I don't know wat I would get.
 
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Even if you knew whether you wanted Jetspeed or SLDR it's still not easy. Say you narrow it down to SLDR, there's 5 different versions of the driver, plus 2 mini drivers, 2 fairway wood varieties, and 2 hybrids. That's 11 different clubs between driver and hybrid in 1 kind, that's without looking at the Jetspeed range, or last years gear. It's ridiculous.
 
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