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TaylorMade Golf - A Struggle At The Top?

SuperStroke
I think another thing that confuses me the most is that TM was one of the driving forces behind the while hack golf thing. If they see people leaving the game in droves, it's strange that they produced so much excess equipment.

Though I guess part of the restructuring might include different divisions and groups working together more.
 
I think you nailed it with poor inventory control, TM is one of the 2 most recognized names in golf(Callaway is the other IMO) and when an uneducated consumer walks into the store and sees 3-4 release cycles worth of gear on the rack at the big box store hurts. As each older release is cheaper than the last release.

I also think they saturated the market with promises that never came to fruition(more yardage) over and over again. They started rolling out gear that didn't play well for the weekend hack & we know word of mouth or trying a buddies club during around sells a lot of clubs. But when that buddies club doesn't perform you don't go and buy one and that's IMO what happened here with TM.

They have to have a hit or at least a good showing with their next release or they will be on thin ice.
 
salisboss said:
It may be moving off the initial shelf but if at least at the golfsmith I was at two days ago 60% of the used rack were sldr and sldr s.
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Thats because the used rack generally is an indicator of whats is selling at the store. With most stores having a return policy of some kind, I think the used rack is an indicator of whats selling en masse.
 
fupresti said:
Thats because the used rack generally is an indicator of whats is selling at the store. With most stores having a return policy of some kind, I think the used rack is an indicator of whats selling en masse.
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But then why are people returning stuff so fast?
 
fupresti said:
Thats because the used rack generally is an indicator of whats is selling at the store. With most stores having a return policy of some kind, I think the used rack is an indicator of whats selling en masse.
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This is a very good point and one I have said for a while now. The second market (used clubs) is just not a good indicator of sales, performance or anything else. Although I would venture to say on a very small scale, it opens your eyes. If the used rack is filled with the drivers that are all sold in masses (lets say 1-3 in sales), if the rack is over 70% one model, yet the model is let's say 35% of sales, then it does add to the equation. I will use the cell phone analogy (and this is made up). Android makes up a huge portion of smart phones being used. I think their marketshare is 85% right now with iOS being at just under 12%. If you walked into a store and saw more iPhones being sold used than Androids (armed with those stats), it might make you ask the question of what is wrong.

However, neither would really be a good enough sample size.
 
Thanks all for the conversation here and on the home page in the comments. Great stuff.
 
Seriously, threads and articles like this are just a ton of fun to keep up with. I always love the conversations and the paths that they take.
 
Jman said:
Seriously, threads and articles like this are just a ton of fun to keep up with. I always love the conversations and the paths that they take.
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I think k if people read the piece and look at the figures and take the knee jerk reactions of too many lines and 400 dollar prices being the issue out of their mind they realize what is happening.

The truth is the 400 dollar driver has not and is not an issue. It's still #1 and the price has been there for close to 2 decades. The bubble burner was 449.

Then add that nearly every company is putting out multiple releases.

My gut tells me before the end of this month major news drops.
 
Struggle at the top....is being on top perhaps. When you have the #1 on your back it makes for a big target.
 
JB said:
I think k if people read the piece and look at the figures and take the knee jerk reactions of too many lines and 400 dollar prices being the issue out of their mind they realize what is happening.

The truth is the 400 dollar driver has not and is not an issue. It's still #1 and the price has been there for close to 2 decades. The bubble burner was 449.

Then add that nearly every company is putting out multiple releases.

My gut tells me before the end of this month major news drops.
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Precisely. People focus on the minute when it comes to TM because that have been THE marketing machine and THE most visible brand out there, hence all of the multiple release and 400.00 driver stuff we hear regurgitated repetitively.

I'm really curious to see what happens, you would have to think there are going to be some MAJOR structural changes take place, but I also know we are inching closer to the eve of hearing about the 2015 line. I want to know how they are going to balance righting the ship while still being TM and carrying with them that persona. Because lets face it, I may not understand their direction recently as far as releasing equipment that IMO alienates/removes a VAST amount of amateurs, but the gear is still good (except the Jetspeed), hell all of the gear out on the market is good when you come down to it.
 
Jman said:
Precisely. People focus on the minute when it comes to TM because that have been THE marketing machine and THE most visible brand out there, hence all of the multiple release and 400.00 driver stuff we hear regurgitated repetitively.

I'm really curious to see what happens, you would have to think there are going to be some MAJOR structural changes take place, but I also know we are inching closer to the eve of hearing about the 2015 line. I want to know how they are going to balance righting the ship while still being TM and carrying with them that persona. Because lets face it, I may not understand their direction recently as far as releasing equipment that IMO alienates/removes a VAST amount of amateurs, but the gear is still good (except the Jetspeed), hell all of the gear out on the market is good when you come down to it.
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That right there is the million dollar question. Come November, where do they go release wise? I would assume (and this is just me), we continue to see the new release line as scheduled but projections will be lower.
 
JB said:
That right there is the million dollar question. Come November, where do they go release wise? I would assume (and this is just me), we continue to see the new release line as scheduled but projections will be lower.
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Yep, you would definitely think so, especially since the R&D on this coming line has been done.

I also want to know though, with this outlook and projections on the future, can they rationalize sticking 100% with the low/forward CG and essentially leaving out a large chunk of golfers as far as playability? Because as we know and have seen the numbers, its just not a good fit for the majority. What do you think JB?
 
If TMag sticks with only having low and forward driver heads they have their heads in the sand. Seriously, just paint 'Taylormade' on the XTD and watch it fly off the shelves.
 
Jman said:
Yep, you would definitely think so, especially since the R&D on this coming line has been done.

I also want to know though, with this outlook and projections on the future, can they rationalize sticking 100% with the low/forward CG and essentially leaving out a large chunk of golfers as far as playability? Because as we know and have seen the numbers, its just not a good fit for the majority. What do you think JB?
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Not saying a thing about the SLDR other than it has Ben good for business.
 
You guys are much smarter than I am on this subject, but I appreciate the open discussion. Business model change seems evident, but how? Is it a personnel thing? I think Jman is spot on in a basic recalibration of the target consumer....but can they get there in 15? Work is already done.
 
Jman said:
Yep, you would definitely think so, especially since the R&D on this coming line has been done.

I also want to know though, with this outlook and projections on the future, can they rationalize sticking 100% with the low/forward CG and essentially leaving out a large chunk of golfers as far as playability? Because as we know and have seen the numbers, its just not a good fit for the majority. What do you think JB?
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The company believes in low and forward CG. So having a driver that is completely different than that, makes marketing quite hard. Cobra has done that with Bio Cell, Bio Cell+ and Bio Cell Pro, but marketing on the low and forward driver is not really there right now for them.

I wont comment on future releases, but if it were me, and its not, I would make sure that low and forward drivers can also be low and back drivers.
 
T2GRN18 said:
You guys are much smarter than I am on this subject, but I appreciate the open discussion. Business model change seems evident, but how? Is it a personnel thing? I think Jman is spot on in a basic recalibration of the target consumer....but can they get there in 15? Work is already done.
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I would think they are going to have to shrink and refine focus, but JB is WAY more savvy on that subject than I, I am not a business dude.

The 2015 line is def done, if there is a shift, it has to come after IMO. But then it comes to will they eat crow and make a shift, will they add an offering to the segment of golfers who need it, or will they change nothing. It'll be interesting to see.
 
blugold said:
Not saying a thing about the SLDR other than it has Ben good for business.
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Well that really depends. The driver has done moderately well (although some say not to projections). It has not been good enough that it brought people in to complete the metal woods set (FW and hybrids).
 
JB said:
The company believes in low and forward CG. So having a driver that is completely different than that, makes marketing quite hard. Cobra has done that with Bio Cell, Bio Cell+ and Bio Cell Pro, but marketing on the low and forward driver is not really there right now for them.

I wont comment on future releases, but if it were me, and its not, I would make sure that low and forward drivers can also be low and back drivers.
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I couldn't agree more with all of that. Thanks dude.
 
T2GRN18 said:
You guys are much smarter than I am on this subject, but I appreciate the open discussion. Business model change seems evident, but how? Is it a personnel thing? I think Jman is spot on in a basic recalibration of the target consumer....but can they get there in 15? Work is already done.
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Callaway had a major restructure to save millions a few years back. They got lean and mean and sadly had to lose people in the process. I believe the changes at TaylorMade will be even larger.
 
Jman said:
Huh???
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It is the best selling 2014 driver, at least I thought I read that.

JB said:
Well that really depends. The driver has done moderately well (although some say not to projections). It has not been good enough that it brought people in to complete the metal woods set (FW and hybrids).
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I am going 100% off of memory and perception. But the high end line (R7,9,11) as never really been their big FW and hybrid lines, at least it seems that way. It's always been the Burner, Superfast, RBZ stuff that I have seen used most.
 
JB said:
Callaway had a major restructure to save millions a few years back. They got lean and mean and sadly had to lose people in the process. I believe the changes at TaylorMade will be even larger.
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There certainly is a fine line, and it seems success comes at a price in due time.
 
blugold said:
It is the best selling 2014 driver, at least I thought I read that.



I am going 100% off of memory and perception. But the high end line (R7,9,11) as never really been their big FW and hybrid lines, at least it seems that way. It's always been the Burner, Superfast, RBZ stuff that I have seen used most.
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Outside of RBZ, that is not really accurate. RBZ changed that a bit because it was built around a FW wood. R1 did not have other metal woods. SLDR did.
 
blugold said:
It is the best selling 2014 driver, at least I thought I read that.
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It has. And since its release. BUt compared to the 50% metal woods marketshare in the past, it is not having the same impact.
 
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