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What Happened To The Dominance Of TaylorMade Golf?

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JB

JB

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Yeah, they used to be flying high.... Really loved my 580XD.... All the R-equipment seemed to do well.

I think other companies have stepped up their game and of course Taylormade has made some pretty large mistakes.
 
Great read and definitely thought provoking.

I'll have to put some thought into this and come back
 
Good article. 12 Months, hmm will have to think about it. Not sure I would have the ideas to bring them back to the top in that time frame.

Off the top of my head I'd do some of these things.

*Get rid of pump and dump. Put a quality product out there and make sure you keep the hype/excitement about the product around. Things like what they did by going to Bethpage with drivers, do more of that.

*Better inventory control, though I think that one takes more time.

*Make Mark King leave the building(unlikely to happen).

*Come out with a philosophy or message that can stick for at least 3 years. No more lighter is better, no shorter and heavier, you play the wrong loft, you still play the wrong loft, back to lighter is better.
 
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adamw238 said:
Great read and definitely thought provoking.

I'll have to put some thought into this and come back
Click to expand...

Looking forward to your thoughts.
 
1. Hire people who know what they're doing marketing wise. Whoever is on it now isn't doing a very good job.

2. Make a driver that fits the masses, not the tour pro. People losing ball speed in significant drops for missing the center area of the face doesn't promote a winner on/off the shelves.

3. Stick with it. Don't jump ship on an idea if it doesn't become an overnight success. The market is gunshy of you after the Jetspeed debacle.

4. Don't release new until you've sold out your inventory. I hear that worked well for one company 400ft from your office. Maybe you should try that one?
 
a few thoughts:

1. Since Im the new CEO that means Mark King is gone (priority #1).
2. Work out an agreement with the big box retailers to get all of the old TM SHAT off of the shelves. It is an eye sore to go into these places and see woods that are 3 years old brand new there, screams garbage product.
3. On future releases there has to be better inventory management (control), you cannot force mass quantities of goods down the throats of the retailers anymore when the demand isnt there (yet).
4. Stick by your releases, promote the hell out of them and dont abandon ship after a few months, make these releases count!
 
The first thing I do is offer Harry Arnett a boat load of money and then I sit back and allow him to do what he does. I go out and hire the best shaft guys I know and some Natrix from Nike.

You have to spend money if you want to make money.

I would get my gear in the hands of the consumer through a VIP program or Friends of the program plan. Build a following again and let my fans spread the word.

I'd grab Jordan, Rickie and Rory. Dump the current tour staff and really chase the younger crowd.
 
My own reason for not buying TaylorMade clubs recently is that I just felt disrespected by them. I can't put my finger on the precise release (and there have been a lot of them) or moment. I just feel in general, from local reps, to marketing, to community engagement to unbelievable claims, I just felt like they were arrogant, or like they felt consumers were stupid lemmings (and to be fair, they can be). I also feel the whole "Rocketballz" thing made them seem cheap and silly.

To be fair, other premium brands flirt with the same things from time to time, and are bound to slip up.

Get back to your roots. Build premium clubs and reduce gimmicks. Don't flood the market (and bargain bins) with too much inventory.
 
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I think for me the number one thing I'd like to see them do is more consumer focused marketing. I feel like every Taylormade ad/video/etc I see gives me the feeling that Taylormade products are only for the Tour guys and maybe the top level amateurs. I know they aren't trying to come off like that..... but it's just the feeling I get every time I see a piece of their advertising.

For Example....D Johnson's commercial where he just rips the ball with the AeroBurner and HUGE numbers pop up.... While I find it a bit entertaining, I look at it as "Why would I try this club? I'll never have those numbers. How would this benefit me?" Just doesn't relate to me as a 'normal' consumer.
 
what's their market share now? I don't think it's realistic to ever get back to 50% in the current market. But if they're currently sitting at 25%, might not be a bad piece of the pie? The real question is, was their previous dominance due to their success, or other OEM's lack thereof?


Oh, and stop talking about dumbing down the game, making bigger holes, etc... that's the number one reason i don't care for TM.

edit: As CEO, I'd stop disenfranchising existing golfers by trying to change the game, and I'd slow down release cycles and allow my competitors to fall into the same trap we did. Need to remove the cheapness around our product and the thought that every product has a 3-6 month cycle until our next product comes out that is so much better. Clearly define our products by market, and give at least 18 months between each cycle refresh.
 
Dont forget (for those that read the article), you are CEO, what would you change or do?
 
Most of my clubs are 3 yrs or older and they play just as well if not better than the new equipment. TM, and some other companies, had absolutely flooded the market with new releases and claim THIS club is better than the one released a few months ago.

I know MANY service men and women who have switched to PING because of PING'S history and relationship with the military and wounded.
 
I would slow the release of new products and focus a lot more on the weekend hackers.

I would get heavily involved in start up programs for the youth and amateurs, and women.

I may get out of the golf ball business completely.

I would get more involved in helping our military men and women.

I would develop a strong overseas presence in the Asian and Japanese markets.
 
I'm not sure what could be accomplished in 12 months since product releases take 2-3 years to accomplish...so it would have to be personnel changes that would have the most impact in that time. I'd have to say they probably need some new R&D staff and new marketing staff. Something just isn't working, and I think it's a combo of under-performing for the masses equipment and marketing that isn't working as well as they need it to.
 
When I first got back into golf, the RBZ was the first driver I purchased. I loved it. Then I wanted the R1, I loved that driver. I still game my ATV wedges. I was fortunate enough to get into the Ultimate Testing event with TaylorMade. Playing with Tyler from TaylorMade was a lot of fun. He seemed like a really good dude. From that point on, it seemed like there was a big shift away from TM for whatever reason. Slowly other companies made their way into my bag. Was it that other companies just upped their game or did TM fall? I honestly don't know. Ever since the infamous SLDR, I've been hesitant to even try out TM equipment. I hope they find their way again because I feel like it's good for the game.
 
If I am CEO, I do one thing first.

Apologize. Own up to the mistakes we have made. Tell the golfers that we have been listening and as a result we are making changes. While we thought we had a great product, it clearly wasnt designed for the amateur and we are going back to the drawing board.

Second, simplify the lines to start. All golfers want is a max distance driver. Look at the Pros bags. It is no shock that all of Pings players play G series woods. Do once driver line and woods with clean shapes and styles with name recognizable shafts. No more OEM branded shenanigans. Offer a true TP version like the G30 LS TEC.

Irons, build a players cavity as a boutique item, a set of cavity back GI irons and leave the Super GI to Adams.

Wedges are fantastic, start marketing them and leave them alone.

Leave the putters alone. It's not working.

Give the ball line another year until you get your irons and woods working again.

And for Christs sake, go back to putting your model names on your staff bags.
 
dhartmann34 said:
I think for me the number one thing I'd like to see them do is more consumer focused marketing. I feel like every Taylormade ad/video/etc I see gives me the feeling that Taylormade products are only for the Tour guys and maybe the top level amateurs. I know they aren't trying to come off like that..... but it's just the feeling I get every time I see a piece of their advertising.

For Example....D Johnson's commercial where he just rips the ball with the AeroBurner and HUGE numbers pop up.... While I find it a bit entertaining, I look at it as "Why would I try this club? I'll never have those numbers. How would this benefit me?" Just doesn't relate to me as a 'normal' consumer.
Click to expand...

Lots of good ideas in here, so I won't repeat them. I quoted Derek's response because I have the same take, but in a bit of a different way.

I feel like one of Taylormade's major problems is that they seem to market every metal wood to every player. Or said differently, they never market anything to a specific market segment. Everything is just released and generically marketed as the new longest driver ever. How many SLDRs did they sell to people who have no business with a driver that may be quite long with a center or near-center strike but is quite unforgiving? They just seemed to say 17* launch and 1700 spin is for everyone so buy our driver and make it happen. And did they really do much in the way of consumer education on who should be playing SLDR, who should be playing Jetspeed and who should be playing the RBZ series? Or more recently - who is the R15 for? Who is the Aeroburner for? While educated golf consumers like Derek may be thinking, "I know I can never see DJ-like numbers, so why would I try the Aeroburner," you have a whole different segment probably saying, "the Aeroburner is the low end bonded club, so I'm not going to try it." And neither segment is buying it.

Just to be clear, I don't have any problems with having multiple lines of woods out there at the same time. I think options are a good thing. But I don't think you can just dump multiple lines into the market, say everything is the longest, offer little (or no) differentiation beyond "this is adjustable and this isn't" and hope to succeed.
 
A few thoughts

- look across the marketing landscape (not just golf) & hire some bright minds to help right the ship and get us back to a plus "Q" rating bc our name is mud right now in the eyes of many. Market what you do well until the rest catches up.

- sit down with R&D and figure out what we do well, trash/scrap any gimmicky plans we have and get back to basics. Offering solid gear players want to play. Be innovative within the rules & make a splash.

- get rid of all the crappy golf ball offerings. The Penta TP3 was great and somewhere along the lineup I have 6-7 offerings that's just confusing. Develop 2-3 lines that cover various skill levels and be done. You're not in the golf ball business, you are in the golf club business.

- inventory control. Get the existing crap out of the stores and just move it, he'll melt it down, and get it out if sight. Get back to making clubs people are proud of using and provide significant game enjoyment when used.
Start with reasonable numbers given the current economic market & disposable income. You set a standard to give people have choices, but give them a solid choice that won't be replaced in two or three months.

- start engaging your core base. No doubt TM has a ton of fans and loyal buyers worldwide, start engaging them. Just look at the social media giant Callaway has created. A little hard work and effort and you could have the same cult following. Retrain customer service to have the consumer in mind.

- take a look at your current tour roster. Globally the game is growing (esp China & Latin America), target young up and comers as well as proven tour vets. Pick off a couple of tour Pros and build a younger image.

- it goes without saying, but as a CEO I'm cleaning house & trimming the fat. Anyone not on board with moving forward is gone. The old way of doing business hasn't worked so it's time to evolve and listen.
 
JB said:
Dont forget (for those that read the article), you are CEO, what would you change or do?
Click to expand...
1. If at all viable, do a buy-back program of stock from retailers

2. Change up the product cycle from R&D all the way down to marketing. Two product lines--the "pro/tour/player" stuff and the "GI/average golfer" stuff. Each line is on a 24 month release cycle, staggered. So 2016 is player, 2017 is GI, 2018 is player, 2019 is GI, etc.

3. Push all SGI products to Adams. If necessary, stagger Adams releases also, alternating SGI products and senior player products.

4. Get in a consumer outreach person who knows social media. With good products in the pipeline, it wouldn't be hard to out-Callaway Callaway. Set up a TV studio to shoot YouTube videos, get active on social media, partner deeply with a major golf website, etc.
 
My biggest change will be to change the release cycle that they use. I can't stand how often they release new product so often. Something that was purchased 6 months ago now becomes old technology according to them. They are flooding the market with too much "new stuff" and Im willing to bet its not cost effective. Once they release something new, they mark down the old stuff. This is great for the consumer who is looking for a steal but I can't imagine there bottom line is happy.
 
It sounds terrible, but in the metal-woods world, I think TM needs to get rid of low-forward CG in anything they want to consider a player-friendly line. I think by now it's become more and more plain that when you put a TM driver from the past 24 months against a comparable driver from another company in a similar market category, you're going to get more from imperfect strikes from the non-TaylorMade driver. Their #DistanceForAll campaign fell really flat, because too many people simply did not benefit from the CG placement of drivers like the SLDR. When this was combined with their inventory management, you just have a tough series of circumstances to overcome.

All that being said, I'm not sure that this is entirely TaylorMade's fault. The past two years have seen some great advances in marketing and product quality from other companies. As JB's article mentions, Ping, Callaway, and Titleist have all released some of the most advanced metal-woods to date. Titleist has enjoyed tremendous success on tour, and have some great visibility of their products, largely courtesy of a guy whose name rhymes with schmordan schmieth.

That being said, I think what I'd like to see from TM is a return to really delivering distance even for imperfect strikes with driver. The irony is their iron marketing slogan is "Mishits happen" while selling one of the least-forgiving driver technologies out there with low-forward CG. I think also they need to get back to a product-oriented company, rather than the sport. They're a maker of golf clubs, not the savior of the sport. Get rid of the HackGolf garbage. Putting out a good product is the best way to help the sport.

Clean up the inventory headaches TaylorMade has saddled too many companies with, especially smaller stores and pro-shops. Offer them a cut-rate on the next line of equipment. Repair relationships that will help get their equipment in the marquee of store windows.

Ultimately it comes down to emphasizing products that PERFORM the best, not the ones that show off the latest technology. Aeroburner has enjoyed more success on tour, and it's a product that more players, even average ones, will benefit from. Their lack of emphasis on it in the marketing is a shame.

Those are just my takes. Not seeing the company from the inside, I can only offer some platitudes. Make better products for the average golfer, and sell more of them for less.
 
Appreciate all of the feedback from those that read the article. Its a fun topic for those that follow the industry and in this scenario, you have the keys to the castle.
 
Great read - posted my thoughts. Thanks for crafting - definitely got the gears turning!
 
I personally think its a case off too much exposure. Too much of a WOW factor crammed down peoples throats. People just honestly got tired of it. That along with others stepping up their games is what did it.

Now to fix the issue

Honestly I would slow down releases, put name brand shafts in and not TM wrapped ones, not release so many models too. I mean who needs all the drivers on this page:
http://taylormadegolf.com/taylormade-drivers/
 
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