Reebok 2014 Annual Report Download - page 67

adidas Group
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2014 Annual Report
Group Management Report – Our Group
63
2014
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02.4
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Other Businesses Strategy
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TaylorMade-adidas Golf Strategy
Effective retail strategy leverages key accounts and assets
TaylorMade-adidas Golf makes it a point to create compelling point-of-sale communications and
displays designed to clearly educate the consumer on product benefits and advantages. Furthermore,
there is a focus with key retail partners (key accounts) to ensure a consistent and excellent retail
experience for the consumer. Core channels include green grass retailers, off-course golf specialty
retailers and sporting goods retail formats with golf-specific departments. TaylorMade-adidas Golf
also maintains a close relationship with more than 3,000 golf professionals across the USA, who
act as brand ambassadors in their green grass golf shops, selling the products of all four brands
and turning golfers into brand loyalists. Additionally, in emerging markets around the world, the
company employs established adidas Group infrastructures to distribute products and drive growth.
This broad global presence offers significant growth and leverage opportunities in the future,
particularly for Adams Golf and Ashworth, where penetration is still low outside of the United States.
Strategic priority
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Excellence in retail
TaylorMade-adidas Golf actively tackles the challenges in the golf market
Management is convinced that TaylorMade-adidas Golf’s strategic approach as outlined above will
support the company in extending its industry-leading position. The golf industry was weathering
an extremely difficult year in 2014 and, as the biggest golf company in the world, TaylorMade-adidas
Golf was severely impacted. We have therefore taken strategic steps to stabilise the underper-
forming areas of our golf business. These include:
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Strong focus on inventory management in 2014. Management decided to take a leading and
responsible role for the industry clean-up of high retail inventory levels.
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Realignment of key shipment and product launch cycles to more appropriately mirror market
demand patterns. In light of Management’s efforts to shift to longer product launch cycles,
TaylorMade-adidas Golf strategically reduced the number of new product introductions compared
to previous years.
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Implementation of a restructuring programme to align the organisation’s overheads to match
future expectations in golf. This includes reducing our golf segment global workforce by 15% and
integrating Adams Golf into TaylorMade’s offices in Carlsbad, California, to optimise efficiency
and ensure product alignment.
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Increased focus on direct-to-consumer business going forward.
see Other Businesses Performance, p. 143
see Glossary, p. 258