Let's Fix the LPGA

[ClairefromClare]

Many of us have voiced ideas about this. Let's put our heads together.

I know I don't know the economics well enough to have actual advice there.

However, as a fairly knowledgeable consumer of golf, I have some marketing thoughts. Basically, the LPGA does a horrible job of marketing its talent. Its "Entertainment and Tour Report" is telling--they need to ramp up the entertainment.

That GMA clip Harry posted http://www.thehackersparadise.com/forum/showpost.php?p=109496&postcount=1 is a start.

Why on earth hasn't Christina Kim done the rounds of late night talk shows? "The Top Ten Things Christina Said While Miked at the McDonalds" is a natural. Some of the players would fit in at The View. There have to be plenty of other opportunities.

Basically, they need to grow an audience from outside the traditional golf viewers. The guys who would rather watch the PGA aren't going to change their minds. The LPGA needs to cultivate people who don't watch golf at all right now. They're doing a few good things but need to do a lot more of them.

I don't want to be the new Commissioner, but I'd take on the marketing job.

 

[dynarider]

The guys who would rather watch the PGA aren't going to change their minds. The LPGA needs to cultivate people who don't watch golf at all right now. They're doing a few good things but need to do a lot more of them.

I have already given my opinion several times, play during the winter months in warm climates when the rest of us can only dream of golf. Also don't have events that compete head to head with the PGA, that's a losing proposition every single time.

 

[JB]

I could be here quite a while. But I will start with a few things. I think that the golf tours in this country with the exception of Tiger Woods is some of the worst marketed out there. The LPGA needs a lot of things though and one of them is a star with charisma. Michelle Wie could be that person down the road. So could Gulbis, and so could many others. However there are a few things that are roadblocks.

First, the LPGA has a few things to overcome. Domination in pro sports usually brings people in as viewers. Yet, in the LPGA the opposite has happened ratings wise. Annika, Pak, Webb, and Ochoa all were ratings disasters over the last 15 years. Annika had 3 good years of ratings and then they died off quickly. In fact the last few years of her "domination" were some of the worst in LPGA history.

So that leads me to think that they need charisma. Love them or hate them, guys like John Daly, Michelle Wie, and others move the needle. WHy? Because people want to see what happens next. Christina Kim is loaded with charisma. However as much as I like her, very few are going to tune in to see a new sport for someone that is not all that relevent in the leaderboard. Novelty yes, but something else needs to hook them. Charisma, like sex appeal is the big hook, but more has to keep them there.

That leads to the real problem and like it or not, the problem are the players and the courses they play. To showcase the talent on the tour, many courses are extremely short and wide open. These girls are far too good for those kind of tracks. They need to be longer and tighter and make people recognize the names on the leaderboard. It does not matter if they are American or not, people want to recognize names they know. The LPGA has a different person winning every single week now and the one "dominant player" Ochoa is for the most part boring. By making the courses harder the cream will rise to the top and people will get similar names they are used to.

The last is they want to fix so many aspects of the game, but so many more need work. Showcase style, showcase pretty swings, and last but not least, enough of the temper tantrums. Tiger gets away with it because he is ummm Tiger. Between Paula, Kerr, Morgan, and a few others, they are whining all the way around the course. If you dominate and are the best in the world at whatever you do, you have earned the right to act like an ass and not have anybody say anything to you. If you have not, act appropriately.

The LPGA has one of the best products on the planet and can continue to pay for itself in some ways because the purses are smaller. However at the same time they could be more than a niche product. And while I am at it, enough of the social media talk. According to ratings, things like Twitter and others have done nothing for the LPGA. Big fans will continue to follow them but not much more. It can help sure, but so much more is needed. Quit focusing on it during broadcasts, because 80% of your viewership just DOES NOT CARE. Ian Poulter, Stewart Cink, and a few others tweet more than anyone, but it just does not get mentioned during a PGA event. Why? Because they dont need to of course, but also because most of the readers dont care.

And one more thing...Enough with the announcers trying to prove that these girls can play. Watching it on NBC was a joy hearing people actually critique the game the same way they critique other professional athletes. Many of the announcers never want to say anything negative and it sounds more like cheerleading than it does a tourny.

The craziest thing about this whole rant is that I am a huge fan of the LPGA and watch every event. But things need to be fixed and this is just a start. Having more events overseas than you have domestically is something that will kill this league long term, although help short term. So you have to pick your poison.

Okay for now, rant is over.

 

[julie_m]

I tried to say something like you did, Claire...market the players as likable girls with personalities. They don't even have to speak English to do that. Look at the way the Olympics, or heck, even a beauty pageant is produced. Vignettes with back stories, little interviews about their hometowns, showing them doing charity work or whatever else they like to do. The Olympics and pageants do more in a few hours than the LPGA does over a whole season.

NASCAR builds drama week to week. The teams become a factor, and the owners...LPGA has teams, just look at the contest we did with Adams golf. Why isn't more of that done? Was it hard? Golfsmith is starting to do it with their "win a driver" contests. The LPGA should be with them, all over that. Make it bigger. (PS: A reason drivers are on Dave Letterman a lot is that he actually owns a team. LPGA could partner with these entertainment conglomerates...think ROI.)

Here's a thought I've had recently. Look at the four PGA Majors:
The Masters
The US Open
The British Open
The PGA Championship

Now the LPGA Majors:
The Kraft Nabisco Championship
The McDonalds LPGA Championship Presented by Coca Cola
RICOH Women's British Open
U.S. Women's Open

The LPGA looks like a tattered billboard after a rainstorm, with parts peeling off and showing a random hodgepodge of brand names...like a group of high school girls in cheap screen printed designer t-shirts. But some of these Majors are plenty old with enough history, although the prestige has been taken by making them tacky...they should be playing that up and not riding the cash pig. Make it travel. Have a big event somewhere exotic. Make a big show of it. If you're going to have fewer events, which you now do, put a lot more energy into those few events and make them a big show and fake it til you make it.

 

[JB]

Teams will never work in the LPGA because the companies won't do it. Players would all have to be head to toe with a company and most companies do not do that. As for Nascar comparison and the Olympics, they have serious marketing money and the LPGA has none. For that matter the PGA does not market too much either. They have always left it to the players and club companies for the most part.

The entertainment companies is a good thought, but I do not think the draw is big enough to partner.

 

[julie_m]

Teams will never work in the LPGA because the companies won't do it. Players would all have to be head to toe with a company and most companies do not do that. As for Nascar comparison and the Olympics, they have serious marketing money and the LPGA has none. For that matter the PGA does not market too much either. They have always left it to the players and club companies for the most part.

With the teams, I was talking in regards of promoting and traveling. Like in NASCAR, while there are teams, ultimately only one guy wins the event. If I were a company, I would say "these are my girls" and promote the hell out of them, and bring them everywhere. Make them very charismatic and available to the people. I don't know what "head to toe with a company" means.

And money, there was a time I remember that NASCAR wasn't nearly the size they were. No one just handed them a bunch of cash. They worked hard, (everyone from corporate to promotions to owners to sponsors to drivers,) and earned it. Everyone was on the same page, understanding that growth and promotion was the priority, and NASCAR has grown from tiny dirt tracks in the backwoods all the way up to where it is now.

 

[JB]

But Nascar has always been built on advertising. Look at the cars in the 70s. Club companies are not going to pay these girls to travel together. Head to toe means, clubs, apparel, ball, etc...Take a look at Adams for example. Why would they promote the heck out of Brittney andymore than they are, when she is at the same time promoting Kate Lord, Etonic, and more?

The companies have never had to, so they are not going to spend more money. There is not enough consistency in the play to do it. I think you will find that some companies do some to an extent. Nike certainly does on the PGA level and signed Suzann and Michelle to hopefully do the same thing. But they have them to complete head to toe contracts. The companies do not produce enough equipment for the women to do that much promotion. With Nascar the teams are paid for by sponsors and the team wins prize money while the drivers are under contract. I dont see golfers giving up their purse to Taylormade for a contract.

While Nascar is not a team sport, it is team owned. The drivers are employees. That is not the same in the LPGA where these girls work for themselves. They do not work for the LPGA. Sure they compete there and want it to succeed, because of limited choices, but they are not employees of LPGA and could technically go elsewhere. The teams do not pay nearly enough in most cases on the LPGA to make those decisions. Nascar drivers do not work for Nascar, but they are employees of their team.

 

[askthejak]

Make them cook dinner at the turn? :devil:

 

[ClairefromClare]

Make them cook dinner at the turn? :devil:

We'll ignore that, because it will drive you nuts. :angel:

JB, you don't need full blown teams to market jointly. Just think of the couple of best golf commercials this year--Nike's sunshine and lollipops and Cleveland's dueling drivers. Nike works with a group on the LPGA. Surely its clever ad writers can do something for them as well.

 

[JB]

Except they do not make any specific female equipment Claire. Those ads cost money that the equipment needs to pay for.

 

[JB]

I will give a brief story about what I mean with my last comment. Two equipment companies (some of the largest out there) make ladies clubs. Sets, drivers, etc... They were both recently offered a story in Golf Magazine to showcase those clubs (for a fee of course) and both companies turned it down.

They just do not sell enough equipment to put a whole lot into it. We think that Nike could change that in some ways with Wie, but they do not really make any specific ladies clubs as of yet.

 

[C-Tech]

One of the things JB said hit home with me as a great idea.

The LPGA has to come to grips with the fact that most of its talented new stars are not as American as apple pie. I have no problem with foreign players, but how many of these players are truly "foreign"? A large percentage of them are American born or spent their college careers here. Even if they didn't, we know virtually nothing about their background. I think this is a failing of the LPGA. These girls are likeable and marketable, I don't care if they look different than me or came from a different background, they have a story that can be compelling if someone will actually tell it so I can relate.

Look at the LPGA site and click on almost any player....you will find just cursory information even on the American talent. Please, give me a reason to like and root for some of these girls. I swear I will listen and become a huge fan if you just give me a chance.

 

[provisional]

This may sound idiotic, but the American players as group, need to just play better golf, and become the dominant group. American sponsors, and fans want American winners, not whiners. It does not have to be just one American golfer consistently winning. Let Creamer, Gulbis, Pressel, and others start winning more often, as group. You get the American fans interested in the LPGA again, the sponsorships will follow. I also believe the equipment manufacturers could do a better job of helping the LPGA out. Then again, I am not up on what they do for the LPGA other than sell endorsements. Maybe some match play tournaments sponsored by the big OEMs. Let Donald Trump set those up.

It may not be as easy as playing better golf, but it would be a start. :comp: