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056 Group Management Report – Our Group Structure and Strategy — TaylorMade-adidas Golf Strategy
TaylorMade- adidas Golf Strategy
TaylorMade- adidas Golf’s aim is to be the lead-
ing performance golf company in the world in
terms of sales and profi tability. It combines
three of golf’s most well-known brands:
TaylorMade, adidas Golf and Ashworth. All
three brands are dedicated to continuously
developing and commercialising innovative,
technologically advanced products.
TaylorMade- adidas Golf has established six
strategic priorities: extending its leadership
in metalwoods, continuing to increase market
share in irons, maintaining a strong presence in
golf balls, maximising growth in footwear and
apparel, further strengthening its distribution
mix and exe cuting aggressive retail initiatives
to drive increased sales.
Capitalising on the strong market positions of
three well-established brands
TaylorMade- adidas Golf implements a multi-brand strat-
egy comprised of three well-defi ned golf brands with strong
market positions under one roof. TaylorMade is the mar-
ket leader in the metalwoods category, is among the lead-
ers in irons, and is steadily evolving into a leader in golf ball
manufacturing. adidas Golf footwear and apparel sales have
doubled in size during the past fi ve years, thanks in part to the
brand’s focus on technologically infused performance apparel.
The acquisition of Ashworth adds an authentic golf-inspired
lifestyle brand complementing adidas Golf’s position and
increases the segment’s presence in the golf apparel market.
TaylorMade- adidas Golf is committed to further growing its
business in all categories in a profi table way, by harnessing the
segment’s R&D resources, by leveraging its brand equity and
by expanding the distribution of all three brands.
Innovation and design focus
TaylorMade- adidas Golf’s core objective is to create the best
performance golf products in the marketplace, and that starts
with a clear commitment to innovation, technology and leader-
ship on the world’s professional golf tours. The segment strives
to extend its leadership position with a continued focus on inno-
vation and cutting-edge design while introducing at least one
major product innovation or evolution every 12 to 18 months. In
2008, for example, TaylorMade successfully launched two new
innovatively designed high-MOI putters called Monza Spider
and Itsy Bitsy Spider that proved immediately and immensely
popular among Tour professionals, and which helped double
TaylorMade’s putter sales. In 2009, the segment will continue
to leverage the terrifi c success of the Burner® golf club line
with the launch of new Burner® irons see TaylorMade-adidas
Golf Products and Campaigns, p. 146, with the long, middle and
short irons each designed sep arately to achieve specifi c types
of performance. adidas Golf continues to leverage adidas’
R&D capabilities, incorporating innovative adidas concepts
and technologies into golf footwear and apparel products to
improve performance, comfort and durability.
Extending leadership in metalwoods
Today, TaylorMade is the clear market leader in metalwoods
(drivers, fairway woods and hybrids). The brand is particu-
larly strong in the USA, where it has forged a 30% share of the
market and a large lead over its strongest competitor.
This success was driven by TaylorMade’s ability to introduce
and commercialise a steady stream of new and innovative
products. The brand’s primary focus going forward is to
remain the innovation leader and expand its metalwood busi-
ness outside the USA. This strategy enabled TaylorMade to
gain signifi cant market share in Europe in 2008. In 2009, the
launch of the new R9™ driver and fairway woods will serve as a
platform to continue the brand’s strong momentum globally. In
addition to TaylorMade’s award-winning Movable Weight Tech-
nology™ (MWT®), the R9™ incorporates the brand’s new Flight
Control Technology (FCT) see TaylorMade-adidas Golf Products
and Campaigns, p. 146. The combination of these two technolo-
gies adds a new dimension of product customisation, giving
golfers the power to change the club head’s face angle, loft and
lie angle in addition to changing the location of its centre of
gravity.
By 2010, TaylorMade plans to establish a global metalwood
market position that is as strong as what it enjoys in the USA,
in part by strengthening its promotion partnerships in other
regions (e.g. new partnerships with Andres Romero of South
America and Ye Yang of Asia).
Growing golf ball business by further gaining Tour credibility
Success in this category depends on the ability to create
high-performance golf balls, bring them to market and build
credibility among Tour professionals. During the last four
years, TaylorMade- adidas Golf has restructured its golf ball
business to lay the groundwork for a prosperous future. This
includes the careful construction of an in-house ball division
fully dedicated to developing high-quality, technologically
advanced performance products.
TaylorMade successfully extended its premium TP Red™ and
TP Black™ golf balls in 2008, upgrading them with a new
technology called Low-Drag Performance (LDP) that improves
driver distance on off-centre hits. TaylorMade- adidas Golf
Tour Staff professional Sergio Garcia used the TP Red™ LDP
throughout 2008 when he won the PGA Tour’s prestigious
Players Championship and rose to No. 2 in the World Golf
Rankings. TaylorMade is now the second most-played golf ball
brand on the European Tour. More than 270 Tour profession-
als around the world are playing the TP Red™ and TP Black™.
This high level of Tour validation has furthered TaylorMade’s
credibility as a golf ball brand among professionals and seri-
ous golfers. Commercially, this success has fuelled a signifi -
cant rise in market share, making TaylorMade the industry’s
fastest-growing golf ball brand.
TaylorMade intends to enhance marketplace acceptance and
sales in the golf ball category by extending TaylorMade
branded offerings, increasing the number of Tour professionals
using TaylorMade balls and further leveraging the successful
NOODLE franchise, which focuses on soft- feeling, long-
distance golf balls at a value price.