Performance Indicator

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

Looking at the market we can see that Golf Companies have suffered after the 2008 recession. However, in 2012 golf ball market was $483 million in retail sales from 17.6 million units which was 4.1% growth from 2011, showing that there has been improvement in the market performance from companies that had lower prices for golf equipment as people were willing to spend on their product. However Altius could not regain

• Consumers did not believe condition of the ball to have any consequence on their game. Also, they considered themselves visually strong enough to understand the condition of the ball. This consumer attitude posed a significant problem for PI as it challenges the basis of the concept itself.

Imagine the sun bursting through the trees for the first time of the new day, the smell of freshly cut grass still potent to your nose as you tee the ball up for a round of golf in the cool mist of a spring morning. "That is what brings you back every time, the smell of the air, the coolness of the whether and the beautiful surroundings that make every shot enjoyable." (Suess, PI) This is the game of golf in its finest and most exquisite time to many people and many people it has touched in its long history. Golf is a lifestyle and not just games to people that are avid in playing. The game of golf has a history that is rich in technological advances and personal accomplishments, which through time has shown to shape

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).

Socially, what is working for Prince Sports is that the interest in the sport is increasing. As more and more people look to physical activities to improve their health, tennis is an affordable option. The social downside Prince Sports is facing is some of the preconceived notions regarding tennis. Some view tennis as being a challenge to learn and that is only a fad, where interest will fade and be replaced with the next newer fad. Two economic pluses for Prince Sports is the affordability when compared to other individual sports such as golf and the availability of public and club tennis courts. The economic downside is competition entering the market and recessionary spending may limit the ability to purchase more expensive tennis equipment. Technologically speaking, Prince Sports is very innovative when it comes to their equipment, the downside is that the average tennis enthusiast may not appreciate or understand the innovation and fail to make related purchases. Prince Sports, while an industry leader, faces competition from other equipment providers as well as other individual recreation sports, such as golf. The last environmental force facing Prince Sports is the regulatory impact. While Prince Sports works to protect their

(1) From the description in Osinski and Winskowicz’s (Robb and Bob) sales pitch and the supporting calculations presented in the case (especially Exhibit 5), PI seems like an obvious source of profits for golf-ball manufacturers.

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

There is a clear inconsistency in the claim that Performance Indicator (PI) offers significant profit uplift potential for golf ball manufacturers and the fact that no single manufacturer is yet to adopt the technology. This memo discusses the key arguments on why this is the case.

The company’s CEO and founder Ely Callaway was a golf champion himself during his twenties and was a powerful motivator defining the company’s culture

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).

Callaway Golf Company is considered a leader of the golf equipment industry through its development of technologically advanced golf clubs that compensated for the most amateur players with poor swings and helping them achieve a better golf game with the introduction of Big Bertha in 1990 and launched Callaway Golf Company forward at great speed into notoriety of the golfing community (Gamble, 2000). This analysis will thoroughly dive into the many parts of the case of the Callaway Golf Company.

With the professional endorsement by these golfers, the target market was able to see the product in action and also learn how to properly use them. With practice, these average

The aim of Performance Indicator is to increase golf ball manufacturers’ value by increasing revenue from new ball sales as a result of eliminating older, used balls through its color change coating technology.  Although there appears to be a possible financial benefit based on the future perceived demand for new golf balls, PI’s new technology does not appear to have any transparent benefit or value creation for the end consumer (golfer). Consequently, no manufacturer has yet to adopt this technology.

As anyone who has played a round of golf will attest to, the sport is based around many fundamental principals of physics. These basic laws are involved with every aspect of the game from how a player swings the club to how the ball moves through the air on its way toward the pin. It is the challenge that physics presents to the golfer that has allowed the game, and equipment used, to develop so drastically over the past one hundred years. The first golf balls used were called featheries. They were made with a horsehide cover packed with wet goose feathers. When the balls dried they became extremely hard. The major flaw with the featheries was that they could not be used when the conditions were wet because they