1. Discuss the trends in the golf equipment industry and how it may impact a com
ID: 436459 • Letter: 1
Question
1. Discuss the trends in the golf equipment industry and how it may impact a company’s strategy.
2. Discuss the importance of innovation, brand, performance, and price in the golf equipment industry.
3. Identify the strengths and weakness of Callaway, TaylorMade, Titleist, Ping, and Nike. Determine which company has a competitive advantage in the marketplace and state why this to be true.
4. Based on the company selected in the previous discussion, recommend how the company can ensure that its competitive advantage is sustained.
Explanation / Answer
1.
In the mid-1980s, the original "Baby Boom" helped create a demand for golf in the United States that was perhaps unparalleled in the games history.
Research continues to show that golfers not only play more as they get older, but that their overall spending on golf also increases. For example, although they represent only about 25% of the total U.S. golfer population, senior golfers (age 50 and above) account for dose to 50% of all rounds played and 53% of all spending on golf.
The first wave of those 78 million Americans who today constitute original boomers are just now reaching their 50s. If these golfers behave toward golf like their predecessors, we believe the U.S. will see another surge in rounds played and spending.
Just how long this surge will last is anyone's guess. What we do know, however, is that one of the pacing items is the "echo boomers," i.e., me sons and daughters of the original boomers. Most of the 72 million young adults who comprise this group will be well into their 20s and 30s by the year 2015, and this is the time of life that the vast majority of people take up golf. Consequently, there's reason to believe that the projected surge could last for at least 15 years.
The aging of these two important "boomer" groups is charted in the table on page 39. As shown, the age group experiencing the greatest percentage increases in total number between now and the year 2010 will be the 50+ age groups.
While there's much about the baby boomers that bodes well for golf, demographers are forecasting some things about this group that could neutralize its expected impact on golf participation in the years ahead.
For example, most demographers believe that baby boomers will postpone retirement and continue to work, at least part-time, beyond the traditional retirement age of 65. They point out that, by the time most of today's baby boomers reach 65, upwards of 50% of them will continue to work rather man retire. This percentage is more than triple what it was 10 years ago.
They're also predicting that, by the rime todays boomers enter their 50s, many of them may not have as much time as they would like for golf or any other leisure time activity because of increased child rearing responsibilities brought on by delays in the decision to have children. And for those who do have the rime, there will be the question of how to spend that time given what sociologists foresee as an ever-growing number of choices for those seeking recreation and entertainment.
2Ans
2.Recent trends in the golf equipment industry and how it may impact a company’s strategy.
According to new the United States Golf Association (USGA), Golf equipment manufacturers are forced to launch the equipment within the limitation. Therefore, the product differentiation is not quite high while recreational golfers do not enjoy playing due to lack of innovational equipment.
Also according to the USGA, there are various factors that result in the declining of golfers such as:
* Game difficulty: Golf equipment manufacturers are forced to follow the new USGA rules, thus, recreational golfers are suffered from the limitation of golf equipments. They cannot enjoy playing golf as much as before while new golfers face the difficulty of playing.
* Time consuming for practice: According to the limited innovation of golf equipment, golfers need lots of time to practice while they also have take responsibility to their job and spend time with their families.
* High golf fee: Some golfers realize that golf fee is high, as a result, they
cannot practice frequently.
3Ans
Overall the best golf company in my opinion is definetly Titleist. Also below I listed the best product for each category of golf equipment.
Driver: Taylor Made super quad
irons: Titleist AP2 (leading irons on tour)
Woods: 906F4's
hybrid: adams hybrids (leading hybrid on tour)
wedges: Titleist Vokey spin milled or 200 series (leading wedge on tour)
putter: any Titleist Scotty Cameron that fits you (leading putter on tour)
balls: Titleist Pro V1 or Pro V1x (leading ball on tour and my personal favorites)
Bag: Ping (they have outstanding long lasting quality bags!)
Glove: Titleist
yardage device: Bushnell
shoes: Footjoy (particularly Dry Joys)
grips: Lampkins or Golf Pride ( especially the dual density lamkin grips)
4.Ans
The technology industry is one of the leading industries with respect to strong research and innovation. And when it comes to setting the pace using innovation as leverage; Apple and Sony are the two companies that have held their leadership position using innovation as a competitive advantage.
Being recognized all over the world as a respected brand is a sustained competitive advantage that companies such as Virgin, Apple and Coca cola have used as leverage to hold the market sway for years. Virgin is a company that has used its brand name as leverage to break into new markets in completely new territories.
Corporate reputation is a form of sustained competitive advantage that companies such as Price Waterhouse and Berkshire Hathaway have leveraged to become world class entities.
Holding strategic assets such as patents is a strong source of sustained competitive advantage and General Electric has stood the test of time because of the several patents held. Mind you that possession of these strategic assets has made General Electric one of the most powerful companiesin the world.
Dangote Group of companies became one of the leading conglomerates in Africa because of its ability to produce goods on high volume and ensure a uniform price throughout Nigeria.
Generally, public liability companies (quoted companies) have a sustained competitive advantageover private companies because of their infinite capacity to raise capital from the public. Take a look at how Oracle acquired 57 companies in a space of five years and Reliance Industries investing a billion dollars in a single swoop to open a chain of retail stores.
Barriers to entry due to government restrictions and regulations have been the source of sustained competitive advantage for companies such as Telmex and Chevron.
IKEA has become a market leader in the furniture industry because of its ability to provide superior product at an affordable rate; backed by a strong customer support system.
The Coscharis Group has become one of the leading automobile retailers in Nigeria and West Africa at large because of its possession of exclusive distributorship of BMW brand throughout West Africa.
Ownership of capital equipment can be a source of sustained competitive advantage and Julius Berger has proved it by becoming a leading company in the construction industry.
The ability to change swiftly is a strength and source of sustained competitive advantage that Microsoft leveraged upon to become the largest software company in the world.
Speed and time was once an overlooked source of sustained competitive advantage until FedEx and Domino Pizza used it as leverage to become industrial pacesetters.
Wal-Mart as at the time of this writing is the most capitalized company in the world. Thanks to itslow pricing strategy that became its strong source of competitive advantage.
GTBank, AT&T, Google, Facebook have become market leaders in their various niches because of the superior database management and data processing capabilities they possess.
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