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Titleist Losing Ground?

Look up and down the leaderboard of any PGA Tour event and you'll see at least a hundred Titleist logos next to the names.

I still see a ton of their equipment when I am playing or practicing. Not to mention, shoes, gloves, rain gear, etc. They don't pump out equipment like other companies and take a different marketing approach than some other companies. I'm not sure that equates to success, but it passes my eyeball test and I'm assuming they are doing well.
 
I think the club choices are very subjective to a degree. I, for one, tried the AP2 irons. By my signature, you know what I ended up with but that may be because the AP2's were a little out of my league right now. I do know that I played the 910 driver exclusively along with one other driver for a month. And you can see what I ended up with. Both had great distance, the F11 just had a lot less dispersion. If it worked for me, I would have bought it.
Another thing I notice is that as many courses as there are in my town, and there are quite a few within 50 miles, I don't see many Titleist irons. Say what you want, but I believe they sell more to brand loyalists than anything simply because of the name. As far as balls go, the Pro V1 is the most popular but I believe that others are just as good. Bridgestone, Nike, Callaway are all making really good balls right now.
 
I don't think Titleist is losing ground anywhere but in drivers. They didn't come out with the Gimmickey (even tho I so want one) "White" drivers/fairway woods. They weren't the 1st to launch adjustability for drivers. They didn't invent the Hammer (POW!!!!!!!!).

But they continue to put out VERY solid equipment, in my opinion, geared toward the serious golfer. I drool over their blades each time they come out with a new set. Vokey still makes arguably the best wedges on the market. Scotty Cameron's are pure and still looked upon as the best putter out there. I'd say they're doing JUST fine. But I'm thinking they would love to have the next "R11" in their back-pocket, that's for sure
 
I think the 910 line of drivers, FW's and hybrids are very good clubs. I was looking over the racks at GG on Sunday and guess which one was lacking the most in clubs? The 910 D2 drivers. There was a whole one left. There could be numerous reasons for this but every other driver was in stock with plenty to choose from so I had to wonder.
 
OEM Kevin said:
I think the 910 line of drivers, FW's and hybrids are very good clubs. I was looking over the racks at GG on Sunday and guess which one was lacking the most in clubs? The 910 D2 drivers. There was a whole one left. There could be numerous reasons for this but every other driver was in stock with plenty to choose from so I had to wonder.
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At the same time I see more TM drivers at Sports Authority and Edwin Watts (sadly my 2 best choices for golf equipment in town now) and we know those are selling the most. Sometimes stores just don't restock stuff that doesn't sell as much. I have no doubt the Titleist sells good. The numbers show it. But I don't think they're appealing to the GI segment which is honestly a huge chunk of the demographic. Most weekend golfers want a magic club that uses pulleys and weights to keep them on plane and makes solid contact regardless of swing flaws. The whole "draw bias" in drivers is built on that premise.

The AP1's just aren't as forgiving an iron for a high handicapper as some other offerings I've hit. I'm starting to shoot in the 80's regularly after two years of playing and I wouldn't touch those now. I just have too many off center and fat shots that wouldn't go anywhere with those. But based on what I can see Titleist is most trying to appeal to the better golfers out there so I'm sure that doesn't bother them.
 
From my experience, Titleist is still the ball and wedge of choice for most people, but TM and Adams seem to be gaining with irons and woods. Limited experience (mostly just fellow members at my little course outside Ottawa), but I have noticed that.

My assumption for years has been if one company was far and away better than another, the pros would go with it much more often. It appears to me that there is a pretty wide range of equipment in use, though high advertising/sponsoring Titleist and TM have the most balls and drivers in use respectively. As such, my thought is that I always try as much as possible irrespective of name and go with what works best.

I recently got some Penta Balls on sale, and love them. I had one ball last almost 2 rounds scuff free (lost it just off the fairway on 18; full disclosure I don't hit a ton of full wedges). Don't notice much difference off driver, but my pitching and putting has improved. Had been using 20XIxs and prov1xs.
 
JB said:
Their not? Man if I had a dollar for every Pro V1 commercial I saw, I would be a freaking gazillionaire...hehe.
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Besides the Pro V1 commercials though, in comparison to some of the other companies, they are far from as market oriented.
 
Titleist has been losing ground for a long time.
 
gbigoose1 said:
No, They haven't. http://www.titleist.com/players/equipment_counts.asp
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I don't see how Tour use doesn't mean losing ground.

One, they are better then ALL of us here. Different strokes for different strokes. There are very few people here who would use the same shaft/head combo a tour player would use.
Two, tour players are often slow to adapt because what got them their doesn't need changing without a LOT of convincing. Look at hybrids as a prime example.
 
If they are, I don't see it. I still love the Titleist brand.
 
There was a big tournament up this way recently, the Northeast Amateur Invitational Golf Tournament. It was won by Peter Uihlein and featured all the big names in amateur golf. As far as equipment goes it was a showcase for Titleist Golf. I don't know if this means anything, but I thought I'd just throw it out there.
 
I think Titleist was losing ground in drivers for a while. I am a complete Titleist guy and I even switched to a different company's driver. They just didn't seem to keep up with the technology. Now, with the 910, I'd say that they are back on track and one of the leaders in every category.
 
Sean said:
There was a big tournament up this way recently, the Northeast Amateur Invitational Golf Tournament. It was won by Peter Uihlein and featured all the big names in amateur golf. As far as equipment goes it was a showcase for Titleist Golf. I don't know if this means anything, but I thought I'd just throw it out there.
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You do realize his Dad Wally Uihlein is/was CEO of Acushnet/ Titleist... that wasn't by accident! :D
 
I actually think Titleist has been one of the most savvy marketeers there is in the golf business and has been for a long time now. It would not take much of an effort for me to find the actual data but I suspect that their current marketing budget is huge. It is certainly very focused and well planned. It might not be at its historical peak given the economy and the expected bang for marketing buck and particularly if they happen to be in play but I still expect it is very large.

However it is different. I do not think they intend occupying the same space as TM for example and their marketing effort reflects that. They do now have offerings for just about everybody but their marketing seems to me intended to different themselves in the sense that they want the audience perspective from the quality perspective to remain exactly as it has been in the past.

While you could make the case that their marketing has always been a bit arrogant in reality i think they are just trying to make a point. I believe the position they want and the perspective that they want us to have is that nobody makes higher quality equipment than Titleist. If you want to buy into somebody else's glitz go ahead but if you want to be drop dead sure of the quality at a level of technology that might not be right on the leading edge but is damn close while being nowhere near the bleeding edge then we are for you. I do think they do a very effective job at sending that message and creating that perspective.

While I agree that there is a bit of a chink in the golf ball armor, their share was so ridiculously high at one point that it had nowhere to go but down. At some level it becomes just about impossible to achieve more points of share and I have no doubt that Titleist had achieved that level in golf balls. At the same time if competitors make any headway at all, there is only one place for them to take meaningful share.

Clearly Bridgestone has made some headway in golf balls and I did not think I would see the day when somebody like Nike would market golf balls as they are marketing the new 20XI balls. To some extent Bridgestone has carried Nike's water for it though as Bridgestone has done the best job so far of proving that there are alternatives to Titleist depending on the swing characteristics of the particular player and that has opened up the field and allowed others to be taken seriously as well. You can say the same to a lesser degree for Srixon as they have proved that the Bridgestone experience was not a one off. Now if you have a name in the golf industry and a golf ball pitch that makes reasonable sense you will be taken seriously. There was a time when you could not even get that far vying with Titleist for golf ball business.
 
However there are far less 'serious golfers' then there are 'average golfers' which immediately makes their clubs (especially their irons) not playable for a large percentage of the golfing community. Don't forget to that this is the same co. who denounced ball fittings however when their marketshare started to dwindle away, lo and behold, they began to offer ball fittings. And not just to 'serious' golfers too.

Their wedges are nowhere near as popular as Cleveland's wedges (I believe Cleveland is #1 in wedges) and I'm not sure if a Scotty that is 'pure' means that it's any good let alone as supposedly being 'looked upon as the best putter out there.' By whom?

It's ok for a co. to lose market share sometimes, especially if they've had a large % for some time because change is inevitable. It's not ok to ignore the loss of marketshare for a long period of time though. It'll be interesting to see if they do anything to combat the explosion in golf ball fittings and awareness.

BeanieAZ said:
I don't think Titleist is losing ground anywhere but in drivers. They didn't come out with the Gimmickey (even tho I so want one) "White" drivers/fairway woods. They weren't the 1st to launch adjustability for drivers. They didn't invent the Hammer (POW!!!!!!!!).

But they continue to put out VERY solid equipment, in my opinion, geared toward the serious golfer. I drool over their blades each time they come out with a new set. Vokey still makes arguably the best wedges on the market. Scotty Cameron's are pure and still looked upon as the best putter out there. I'd say they're doing JUST fine. But I'm thinking they would love to have the next "R11" in their back-pocket, that's for sure
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Hanks said:
Their wedges are nowhere near as popular as Cleveland's wedges (I believe Cleveland is #1 in wedges)
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Vokey wedges are #1 in marketshare right now.
 
Hanks said:
I stand corrected....sorry I thought CG was.
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Gaining ground after "year of the wedge campaign", but not there yet.
 
I think that Titleist will need to change its marketing strategies as the average golfer gets more informed and starts getting information from web sites like THP. Their name is not getting out there in the internet golf circles I travel in and one of the only reasons I checked out the 910 driver is because of members on here who had talked about them. I don't trust the average Joe playing Titleist, but I do trust members of THP. If they would have more of a presence on here and send more stuff to THP sponsored demo days, maybe I would actually have more stuff in mind when I go to get fitted. I used to hate Titleist until I had to get over that because there is just some of their stuff that works best for me.

Is Titleist losing ground? Perhaps, but I am sure that is true of any industry with many players as it goes year to year.
 
I think Titleist will have to be convinced that it's positioning really does not work for them any longer in order to make the major shift that participation in the demo day free for all represents. I can see them doing in house sponsored, Titleist only events. I see them as liking to maintain more control than they can get out of the multi-participant demo day and I just don't think they are willing to give it up.

As for the golf ball thing, it is real tough for a company that has had share numbers like theirs to convince themselves that it is time for a significant change. If I were them I would likely be looking at this point to expend that effort for something but not the next version of a ProV1 or ProV1X. I just don't think there is more that they can do with that sufficient to make a big marketing push worthwhile.

So it probably starts with that for them. Have they been working on something that is as significantly different relative to the ProV as lets say the Nike 20Xi is from the Nike One Tour? I would hope so for their sake as I think they have gotten about as many miles out of the ProV thing as they are going to get. That said in real terms presuming they have been aiming at 2012 for the release of something that is truly a next generation design as opposed to the next iteration of an existing design concept, then I think they will have not been worse than a year late all things considered. I have wondered how much that flak they took over the new ProV being not as good as the previous year version had an impact on their plan for golf ball marketing at the top of their line. I think that did catch them a bit off guard.

Their stab at the whole ball fitting thing does not seem to fit their profile and it has always looked like a half hearted effort to me. it almost seems like their effort there has been something of a "left handed compliment" to Bridgestone more than it is something they truly believe in.

So I think whatever they do will look more like what Nike is doing with the 20Xi than what Bridgestone has been doing. Sure they will have at least two versions of something but instead of calling it ball fitting they will just identify what the two versions are and allow the audience to come to its own conclusions based on numbers.
 
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