Product release tempo and golf stores

[furu]

Everyone in golf is complaining about the release tempo. New clubs every 4-5 months. Or even 3-4 months. Are we alone? Is golf the only business where this happens?

 

Take a look at smartphones.

 

Sony revealed and launched Experia Z1 in September 2013. In April 2014 you could buy the Z2. A few weeks ago we could buy the Z3 and today I read about the Z4 which will be released in 2015. We're talking maybe 18 months and 4 phones in the same series.

 

Samsung S-series? Not that bad. S2 was release 2011, they gave us the S5 early this summer. If the followed the Titleist-model they would launch S4 in 2015, and that's the kind of release tempo we golfers want everyone to have.

 

Or what about EA Sports games? They seem to only last one year.

 

Cameras like Canon G-series and running shoes like Asics Kayano has shown us that the maximum life span of a product must be one year. Is releasing two models in the SLDR driver in one year that bad?

 

Some will say that TM released JetSpeed, SLDR and SLDR S. But that's like saying that Asics released Kayano, Nimbus and Kinsei. They're different models. Do we give Asics a hard time because of this? No.

 

This is the way product life and consumers work in a modern world. And golf stores seem to be by far the worst branch to deal with it. Why? In 99 out of 100 golf stores where I've been a customer they're complete cr** at customer service and actually selling. 

 

"Are you a good golfer? Scratch handicap? Really? Well, we need a guy like you in the store." 

 

No, no, no just no. Do not hire that guy. Get someone who can sell stuff. Someone who can adjust his or her behaviour according to who comes in the door next. I know a thing or fifteen about sales. I don't mean to be cocky but I know I'm right. Golf stores are whining and complaining but they're doing a terrible job.

 

A golf stores main focus seems to often be the people who work there. Not the customer. If people who run a golf store read this they're going to say I'm wrong. In stronger words, of course. Is your golf store making a profit? No? Then you're doing it wrong. Economy is down? General interest in golf is down? You can still make money if you do it right.

 

The golf store identifies a customers needs by asking for handicap and maybe watching a few swings on simulator or launch monitor. But what about the person? His/her style, personality, family situation, future plans +++. Sounds stupid? Well, a customer has a lot of thoughts spinning around in their head while making a decision to buy a new club. 

 

You're not alone in the world of frequent product releases. You're just doing a bad job compared to almost everyone else. 

[GolfSpy Tim]

One of the problems in the golf industry is that the products can last 5 or 10 years in a lot of cases - sure, a smart phone can last a long time, but eventually the battery doesn't work as well as it once did, or the new apps bog it down, or you need more storage space. Much easier in other verticals to create a need for the new product that are extremely tangible.

Agreed on the golf store aspect - when I first walked into a golf store I got useless help, I was soooo new with NO CLUE they almost didn't know how to help me. thankfully I wasn't fully scared away by the scatch golfer working in the demo bay playing pebble with little time to help the noob and the manager randomly helped me and was super nice and able to dumb things down to what I "needed"
 

[markb]

Furu has raised two separate, but equally interesting points:

 

1) Golf store employees are usually young golfers who know little about salesmanship and would just rather be out on the course.  

 

I can't argue with this perception in my area.  They are all in their early twenties and knuckleheads.   Their primary concern is when can they play their next round. They don't seem to know their own inventory, cannot fit, cannot repair clubs, and definitely can't think outside the box.   Since golf is an elitist, ego-driven sport and these young men are usually college golfers or wannabe's, often their first use of the "What's your handicap?" question is to establish a level of condescension they can employ when talking to you.   Why don't they ever ask, "What facet of your game are you working on today?"

 

2)  Assuming golf is like the fashion or the cell phone industry (which both have rapid release cycles) why isn't it working for us anymore?

 

The reason lies in "perceived gains".   In fashion, there is no perceived gain to worry about.   The fall Michael Kors collection doesn't "perform" any better than the spring collection, nor is it expected to.   It's not about improvement, it's about image.   The disconnect comes into play if the clientele somehow thinks that performance of the product is applicable.   If the golf manufacturers could make their job entirely about image and remove all talk of performance, then they might make the fashion model work for them.   But they can't.   (BTW, in many respects the fashion model is entirely appropriate for golf.   Tell me that a 1984 Anser 2 putter performs any worse than a 2014 Scotty Newport -- go ahead, I dare you!)   Sadly, performance is too much a part of the conversation in golf.

 

In the cell phone industry, they can pull off their rapid cycles because they still have many performance bells and whistles they can throw at us (screen size, memory, transmission speed, included features, Siri, S-Pens, better cameras, better batteries),   These features delude us into thinking that new horizons are being crossed, while rendering our old product obsolete.   We trade in for the perceived gains found in the new phones.   This worked in golf for awhile.   While the R7 wasn't any longer or better than the 983K, it looked like it was a whole new technology.   Golf rode that doo-dad adjustability bronco for about 10 years and we still don't want to admit that it's bucked out, but I think it's time to send it to the glue factory.

 

The allure of perceived gains won't work at the present because the golf industry has put a governor on the throttle of their equipment and golfers know it.   Those who haven't accepted it yet and are still trying new drivers in the hopes of making some quantum leap will quickly find it out as they leave the fitting bay.   After you've been properly fit to forgiving .830 driver and found a good shaft combo, your future gains will be miniscule to non-existent.   Sure, they've made a few small gains in fairway woods and irons by slapping 6's on the bottoms of 5 irons, but for the most part no one has really gained anything over the past 15 years.  Not in the way that cell phones have gained in nearly all quantifiable performance aspects over the same amount of time.

 

All industries go through rapid growth and improvement stages, followed by long periods of stasis.   Consider commercial aviation.   The Boeing 707 came out in the mid 1950s and carried 190 passengers over 3000 miles at a speed of 600 mph.   Twenty years before, the Boeing 247 carried only 14 passengers just 745 miles at 200 miles an hour.   Big gains, right?   But 60 years after the Boeing 707, the 777 is actually SLOWER although it can carry more passengers over longer distances for less fuel.   Obama's jet experience is still essentially the same one Eisenhower knew.

 

Golf is more like commercial aviation than the cell phone industry.   Taylormade could make a hotter driver, but the rules say no,  Boeing could make an SST but it chooses not to.   So now we don't break sound barriers, we fly in indistinguishable aluminum cattle cars that all go the same speed as we munch on stale peanuts tossed at us by dour, leather-faced matrons.  Likewise we all play COR regulated titanium drivers in seasonally varying paint schemes that all put our balls in the same general areas they were last year.  

 

Maybe we just need to change our perceptions.  Either that or we need to accept bifurcation, turn the manufacturers loose, let them really make hot clubs & balls and jump start sales again.   When the sport sinks into low enough of a slump, I think that's just what they'll do.