The Performance Indicator Dilemma

COMPANY BACKGROUND: EasyFind manufactures and sells golf balls. The company is conducting a price test to find a better price point. Presently their golf balls sell for $19 per dozen. Their current volume is 5,470 dozen per month. They are considering reducing their sales price by 20% per dozen.

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

• 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.

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

Secondly, composite sticks have been the dominant stick used among NHL players over the past decade (Zhang & Beamish, 2011, p.18), and as such have grown rapidly in popularity amongst children and amateur players (Zhang & Beamish, 2011, p.19). Despite the fact that Sher-Wood anticipates the composite stick business to grow in volume and profitability, there is a sufficient imbalance between market demand and Sher-Wood’s product output, since wooden sticks still account for approximately half of their hockey stick models. (Zhang & Beamish, 2011, p. 24)

Old models take a large percentage of companys inventory what creates unnecessary costs. CGC should move these models to new markets that recently adopted Golf as a sport.

(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.

The partners must do additional analysis prior to determining if they should invest in a new miniature golf venture in Golden City. Before establishing marketing objectives, advertising and promotional programs, plans for addressing demand fluctuations and considering alternate locations, they must determine if they can generate sufficient sales to fund operations. They have done market research which provides a good baseline for establishing the demand, course capacity and anticipated costs. Once they have analysed this data and established that the business is financially viable, they can address advertising, demand and location questions by developing a marketing strategy.

According to the porter's typology of corporate strategy (Richard, 2009). Suggests that corporate strategies can be categorized on two dimensions, based on whether the firm is seeking to be the low-cost producer of standards products or whether it is attempting to differentiate itself by having unique products or services. And the multi product case is not a competitive environmental one cause it shows that people who want the product will generally be willing to pay what it takes to get it and it will have a fixed volume and fixed price and nobody else will be able to manufacture a similar club, due to the patent protection. So the

There are several key factors that explain this apparent inconsistency, including: customer preferences and buying behavior; manufacturers’ agendas, concerns and willingness-to-pay; and the reliability of financial forecasts proposed by PI.

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).

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 Specialty Toys Company faces a challenge of deciding how many units of a new toy should be purchased to meet anticipated sales demand. If too few are purchased, sales will be lost; if too many are purchased, profits will be reduced because of low prices realized in clearance sales. Here, I will help to analyze an appropriate order quantity for the company.