Case Analysis - Sher-Wood Hockey Sticks Essay

TaylorMade is viewed as the #1 innovator of metalwoods by consumers and professionals. TaylorMade has had to endure new competitors entering the market, such as Nike, but have continued to dominate the market due to its advanced technology and design that its metalwoods are known for. TaylorMade has gained a 30% market share of metalwoods and a large lead over its competitors in the USA (adidas Group, 2013). The brands prime focus moving into the future is to gain more of a market share outside of the USA and continue to be the most used metalwoods on the PGA Tour. Being the most used metalwood brand on the tour is not a testament to just its popularity, but

We are aiming at understanding how Recreational Equipment INC. (REI) achieved a competitive advantage through their strategies and how they implemented those strategies. REI differs from the other sporting goods stores in their quality product selection, complements, and excellent brand name promotion. These qualities enable REI to sell merchandise at premium price levels (Morse, 2003).

Companies currently operating within the golf industry, specifically Calloway Golf, must change their current marketing approaches and strategies to withstand the recession and threats facing the industry. Although Calloway has a strong R&D department that tends to remain competitive with products and technology, there have been little results in reference to scores. It is imperative that if companies are going to market a product that will help golfers drive further and straighter that the results depict this so that not to damage the brand name of a product. Secondly, due to the decline in equipment sales and the number of golfers, prices are dropping and companies are outsourcing to maintain the volume needed to remain competitive. Companies must be cautious and aware so that counterfeiting may be reduced. This reduction would also allow companies to reduce their pricing and have more sales without the competition of these cheaply priced knock-offs. In the instance of

The brand image of Altius is still positive and professionals are open to trying other brands so Altius should not worry about innovating. The elevate strategy also packages the balls in the same packaging so the brand is not undermined and the perception of the ball by customers is that it is of high quality and better. Furthermore the new Elevate line will only be offered in the off course channels so the professionals using Altius who get their equipment mainly in the on course channel don’t have to worry about the prestige of the brand as the only products offered there are the professional golf ball lines, hence Altius will make a clear distinction between who the balls are targeted for. In the qualitative analysis we see that the margin for elevate is higher than it is for competitors at 64% compared to their estimate of competitors being between 50-60%, even though it is lower than the normal 70% Altius enjoys it is necessary to cut down the margin now in order to penetrate the off course channel and target the new golfer segment.

This new concept became essential after a meticulous work in gathering information about general consumer’s needs. Marketing team has reached out to a younger generation though different channels of social media and social network such as Facebook, be it Twitter, MySpace and then internationally, High Five and Orchid (Video Case 9) to understand what type of technological breakthrough will satisfy potential customers’ need. Prince Sports, Inc Marketing team work directly with R&D team to combine and collaborate marketing knowledge and technological ability. Together these two teams have created an evolutionary O3 technology with a 24 percent faster swing speed than traditional frames. The explanation of why their technology works better than other brands is pretty simple: “The secret is in the holes”. Like all world-changing innovations, O3 technology is based on an ingeniously simple idea. By replacing traditional pin sized string holes with massive O-ports, Prince Sports created a class of racquets that move through the air faster for increase power and greater control. (Tennis Express, Online Store, http://www.tennisexpress.com).

Hockey is a sport thats origins may be from Persia, Egypt or China, while archaeological evidence shows an early ball-and-stick game played in Greece in the 400s BCE. As civilization spread, so did the games. In 1872, a young man from Halifax, Nova Scotia named James Creighton moved to Montreal, bringing the sport of ice hockey with him bringing with him hockey sticks and skates. Which in turn a man named Lord Stanley created the first national hockey organization. In 1912 the very first professional hockey game. I’ll present my information in chronological order with also talking about how and when hockey affected the country presented.

For many companies, sales figures are usually a measure success, tennis is no exception. In North America, tennis can be measured by the annual racket and tennis ball sales (Heitner, 2015). Prince Sports, a sports racquet company, has several different product lines. Their Prince brand serves tennis, squash, and badminton players. Racquet ball players may recognize the Ektelon brand and the Viking product line equips platform or table tennis players. Prince Sport’s tennis line consists of over 150 different racquet models, more than 50 different tennis string variants, footwear, apparel, and countless types of bags. Prince Sports has prided themselves on their history of developing innovative items such as the first oversize long

Lacrosse is defined as a ball game invented by American Indians, now played by two teams who try to propel a ball into each other's goal by means of long-handled hooked sticks that are loosely strung with a kind of netted pouch (Farlex, Inc.). Behind every shot taken in a lacrosse game, elements of biomechanics are implemented. Biomechanics is the “sport science” field that applies the laws of mechanics (movements, body angles, joint positions, etc.), biomedical engineering, and physics (gravity, forces, velocities, etc.) to athletic performance (What is 3D Biomechanics).

Let's start with the gloves. Of course when you catch a puck you would like to close the glove to keep the puck inside right? Well then don’t buy a Bauer glove. Yeah, they don’t even close all the way. Don’t believe me? Just look. His glove will not close, that is about as far as it goes. So buy the CCM glove, it looks better anyways, feels better on your hand, actually closes, can’t get any better then that.

Fight managers for enormous coin and also open brand-new equipment, capacities, as well as abilities!

As the hockey skate market matures and becomes more concentrated with a few large competitors (Exhibit 6),

3M’s Sports and Leisure Products business unit took an existing technology, 3M’s “micro-replication” and applied it to a golf glove. 3M has enjoyed great success from combining the “micro-replication” with high quality Cabretta sheep leather to create a high quality golfing glove that is second to none being offered on the market. Since the introduction of the 3M Greptile Grip golf glove there has been a large influx of competitors who offer a similar technology in the golf market. Although the global market for golf gloves is estimated at $300 million with 60 percent or $180 million in the United States. The problem is

Golf ball manufacturers would be looking to achieve several key strategic goals, such as increased sales, increased market share and / or increased profitability, to adopt and implement PI’s technology. Accordingly, manufacturers are mainly concerned with the cost and implications on manufacturing, competitor reactions (and customer perception), the forecast growth in the new balls market, the share they could capture and the financial details of agreement.

The U.S. Golf Association (USGA) specified the characteristics of legal balls within tight parameters. These restrictions on size, weight, materials, texture, etc., seemingly left little room for product innovation. In fact, the USGA regulations specified not just what went into a ball, but how it could perform, stipulating to within 10-20 yards how far the ball could travel when hit by a certain type of club traveling at a certain speed, all verified under controlled conditions with robotic testing equipment. Nonetheless, new product introductions were rampant in the industry, with slight changes in surface coatings and dimple patterns, for example, being touted for their ability to add a handful of yards to a golfer’s shots, to give more accuracy, or to create greater control through faster spin on the ball. In addition, ball manufacturers spent millions of dollars on advertising campaigns for their balls. There were three basic types of balls, all conforming to the same general specifications. The oldest technology still in use was the three-piece ball, which consisted of a core, windings, and a cover; this ball was good for spin and overall control. The second, and most popular, type of ball was the twopiece ball, which eliminated the windings of the three-piece ball; this ball produced more distance. The newest technology was the “solid core, multi-layered ball,” which had taken the

1. Cultivating Technology to meet player’s needs. Prince Sports, Inc implemented a new technology progress in order to solve the main problem that most of tennis racquets had: contradiction between racquet speed and sweet spot. This new concept became essential after a meticulous work in gathering information about general consumer’s needs. Marketing team has reached out to a younger generation though different channels of social media and social network such as Facebook, be it Twitter, MySpace and then internationally, High Five and Orchid (Video Case 9) to understand what type of technological breakthrough will satisfy potential customers’ need. Prince Sports, Inc Marketing team work directly with R&D team to combine and collaborate marketing knowledge and technological ability. Together these two teams have created an evolutionary O3 technology with a 24 percent faster swing speed than traditional frames. The explanation of why their technology works better than other brands is pretty simple: “The secret is in the holes”. Like all world-changing innovations, O3 technology is based on an ingeniously simple idea. By replacing traditional pin sized string holes with massive O-ports, Prince Sports created a class of racquets that move through the air faster for increase power and greater control. (Tennis Express, Online Store, http://www.tennisexpress.com).