Sponsorship

[muttleee]

Have you ever bought any item of golf related equipment at least partly because a particular pro uses it? Golf manufacturers pay millions every year to sponsor the top players and secure endorsements for their clubs/clothes/balls/etc...but how many of us actually buy anything because of it?

I don't think I've ever consciously bought something because it's endorsed by a pro. Effectiveness, cost and even aesthetics are far more important considerations!

 

[TonyN]

Not me for one, and i am everythin callaway, but only because i am a virgo (everythin has to be the same) and i love the brand. The fact that they advertise with big names though is more to do with the fact bigger names get more T.V coverage and the name gets seen more. The fact that top pro's use certain gear kinda suggests to us it must be good if they are using it.

 

[GB72]

Also never bought anything just because a pro uses it. In fact in the case of Taylormade it has almost had the opposite effect. They seem to be willing to stick their name on anyone.

 

[clubchamp07]

I would never buy something because Joe Bloggs says it's fantastic. After all we know he/she is getting bloody well paid for saying those words. Anyone that goes out and buy's something because of some over paid pro on TV said it was out of this world, really needs to be in the next ward to Mr Gazza.

 

[Leftie]

Just because TW is being paid $18M a year for 5 years to show the Nike logo doesn't, to my mind, mean that everything with that logo on is the best of it's type in the world and the best club/ball/glove/shirt/hat/etc for me and my game. You could use some reverse logic and say that he might be paid so much more by them as their stuff is cr*p and he would only have got (say) half that amount by showing some other manufacturer's logo. Who knows.

What I'm saying is that I am another who wouldn't necessarily be swayed into buying something just because a famous name was associated with the product. There must however be a hell of a lot of gullible people out there.

Marketing - don't you just love it.

 

[Sam]

Nah - we've all been got at!
I think it's well proven that we don't even have conscious access to our true attitude to products.
Tony - I am also a virgo and I have a right mixed bag!

 

[Parmo]

Someone once told me you cant always get what you want but if you try sometimes, you get what you need.

 

[teetime72]

I was told a similar thing Parmo. What counts

Is not the greatness of your wants ,it`s the smallness

of your needs.

 

[TonyN]

Nah - we've all been got at!
I think it's well proven that we don't even have conscious access to our true attitude to products.
Tony - I am also a virgo and I have a right mixed bag!

I must have ocd then haha.

 

[muttleee]

Hehe...it seems the marketing departments of the golf manufacturers are wasting their money because in this (rather unscientific, I grant you) survey, 0% of us buy stuff because of pro endorsements.

Or maybe we're influenced without even realising it? How many of us play Titleist balls, subconsciously thinking that they must be the best because so many pros play them? I doubt if many of us would actually be able to distinguish the subtle differences between one brand and another in a "blind" test. That would be an interesting experiment, come to think of it...

 

[TonyN]

I disagree with the above post because you kinda just proved your self wrong (on the subconcious bit) I am wanting to try prov's because of all the advertising in the golf mags... Mag... i meant mag as in 1. Golf monthly obv.

But if they didnt advertise saying they had won the most titles or what ever i probably wouldnt really bother looking at them.

 

[blindpete]

Someone once told me you cant always get what you want but if you try sometimes, you get what you need.

Wow, you know Mick Jagger!!

I have to fight the urge every time I see the F.A.S.T Iron commercial...

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I have never gone out to deliberately buy something to emulate a top player. I bought my irons because they were the best for me after custom fitting (Let that one go anti C/F brigade - only a comment not a recommendation).

Like some of my other forumers I like to have matching gear so I have a Callaway bag and umbrella to carry my clubs in. That said the Eurostand bag I bought last year has not been the greatest and I'm in the midst of looking for something else. The Mizuno twister 3 and some of the T/M bags have caught my eye.

Interesting about the balls and being able to pick them out "blind". Maybe something for GM towers to contemplate

 

[medwayjon]

I am not one to be led by who endorses what.

There is no way I would buy anything just because a certain sportsperson or celeb endorses it.

Some people will put their names to anything if the money is right and to be honest I dont blame them for it.

 

[AliB]

That ball test would be very interesting - everyone I know is picky about what they hit - even I have my likes and dislikes, which are probably based on no more than superstition!

AliB

 

[Boabski]

it must be pleasing on the eye, feels and sounds good, these are the three primary objectives of my decision to buy a golf product, not because someone else wears it

 

[viscount17]

Never have, never will. I will buy the best quality I can afford at the time (although if it ever comes down to the K1 or FAST irons I may have to reconsider.)

By the same token I won't buy because of a label; in fact I'm more likely not to buy. If they want me to advertise their brand let them pay me - why should I pay them loads of extra dosh to have their name splashed on my gear. And a 'designer' label is no guarantee of either design or quality.

 

[madandra]

Nothing in my bag is there due to 3rd party influence.


I worked it out that Callaway have to sell 60,000 set of irons just to pay Mickelsons wages so I aint gonna go there. I have a bag of all sorts that work well for me.

I had a discussion with golfcitydweller today and we were wondering if haveing a full bag of one manufacturers clubs is actually going to hinder you because they may have the correct irons but the putter is yad ect ect....

 

[Marko77]

I had a discussion with golfcitydweller today and we were wondering if haveing a full bag of one manufacturers clubs is actually going to hinder you because they may have the correct irons but the putter is yad ect ect....

That might actually be the case with Garcia, TM supply him with great drivers and irons but just can't give him a putter he is happy with?

 

[madandra]

Medwayjon is gonna swing for me here but Cobra putters are rank rotten. I have tried a couple but they feel dead.