SepTeMber 14, 2012 The european Trade Magazine TOPPING THE TECHNOLOGY LEADERBOARD www.miasportstechnology.com SHOWCASE: The LaTeST driVerS • eXCLuSiVe inTerVieWS WiTh ping & poWaKADDY GOLF(SGB)sept.indd 1 13/09/2012 09:55 PING IFC:Layout 1 13/08/2012 11:58 Page 1 NIPPON ad:Layout 1 28/02/2011 10:29 Page 1 The Hottest Issue No. 112 On the cover: MIA Sports Technology, leading distributor of technology products, has New grown rapidly since being founded in 2007, and the company now arguably tops the leaderboard in terms of the brands in its portfolio and the innovation it applies in bring- ing these to the market as integrated solutions. Sales growth has been matched by the expansion of a global customer base, spanning Europe, the Middle East and Australasia. Steel Shaft Contents on TOUR FIRST WORDS REGULARS 2012 has produced a summer of British 4 News PGA TOUR players sport that will never be matched. Srixon ball upgrades – new understand the forgings from Mizuno – GoKart Winning the football World Cup would premier quality and not come close. rolls into the trade unrivaled A British winner in the Tour de France 6 Front of shop performance for the rst time in Bradley Wiggins, the glory and Ian James illustrates the gold rush and national pride of the Olympics and e ectiveness of relative pricing in of Nippon Shaft. Paralympics, and now even a British champion of the pro shop a tennis Grand Slam in Andy Murray – our rst for 76 years. 8 View from the industry. Using the company’s from SDI’s Ian Wright steel shafts, our It’s been epic, to the extent that Rory McIlroy’s supreme performance in the 2012 PGA 12 Custom- t players hit more Championship at Kiawah Island raised just the Golfsmith’s Neil Cooke looks greens in regulation occasional eyebrow outside gol ng circles. This past the marketing hype when and earned more summer has been fantastic for British sport as a custom- tting drivers whole, but not for golf in particular. Summer bicycle money on TOUR this FEATURES and swimming goggle sales soared, and now autumn season versus years tennis racquet sales will follow. 16 Showcase: without Nippon Shaft. But fear not, for the Ryder Cup awaits. Jose’s Hombres Drivers against the Love Machine. World number one Rory A snapshot against world number two Tiger. Woods versus of the Mickelson (always a good side show). In the last club’s Based on prototypes weekend of September in the UK, the Ryder Cup will driving developed with input only have to compete against a bit of Premier League the autumn football and the odd rugby xture. It is the perfect golf trade from the world’s top opportunity for golf to get back onto the front pages, 22 Field report p.16 players, the N.S. Pro and to draw people back in to the pro shops, and just Duncan Lennard MODUS3 Tour 120 when folks begin scrawling those letters for Father speaks to Ping’s John is designed to provide Christmas too. Clark today’s golfer with: 24 Head to head …with new PowaKaddy co-owner ROBIN BARWICK, EDITOR John de Gra -Johnson s!CCURATE$ISTANCE s$ESIRED4RAJECTORY SGBGOLF is published by Datateam Business Media Ltd. s4IGHT$ISPERSION Datateam Business Media, London Road, The views expressed within this magazine Maidstone, Kent ME16 8LY T: 01622 757 646 do not necessarily represent those of the Editor: Robin Barwick | [email protected] editor or publisher, and while every care Publisher: Paul Ryder | [email protected] has been taken in producing this issue, no T: 01622 699 105 responsibility is accepted for such views or For further information Advertising: Matt Davis | [email protected] for any inaccuracies contained herein. please contact Nippon Shaft: T: 07788 812 444 Datateam Business Media Ltd 2012. All rights reserved. No part of this publication Contributors: Adam Hathaway, Duncan Lennard, Paul Trow [email protected] may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval www.nipponeurope.com Design: Darren Kirk | www.scratchdesignphoto.co.uk system, or transmitted by any means, Production: Design & Media Solutions electronic, mechanical, photocopying, fax, Circulation: Capsule Publishing Services email, recording or otherwise, without prior [email protected] permission of Datateam Business Media Ltd. SGBGOLF 3 03.indd 1 13/09/2012 09:54 Manbats March:Layout 1 02/03/2010 09:14 Page 1 news Srixon upgrades two-piece trio rixon claims it has improved three of its advances as the So Feel. While the So Stwo-piece golf balls for Autumn 2012. Feel is available in Pure White and High The So Feel, So Feel Lady and Distance Visibility Yellow, the Lady ball comes win balls have all received makeovers, while Pure White and Passion Pink, and both have the brand’s market-leading AD333 remains an RRP of £26.99 per dozen. unchanged. The Distance ball features the hardest The low-compression So Feel ball is compression of this Srixon trio, and it is designed speci cally for golfers with swing designed to provide maximum distance for speeds below 70mph, golfers with swing speeds over The low- and Srixon says it has compression 80mph, particularly golfers with improved its Energetic Soft Feel ball higher handicaps. The Distance Growth core, combined is designed has a new Energetic Growth Core, with an advanced specifically for which should improve trajectory, aerodynamic 324-dimple golfers with a durable ionomer cover, and swing speeds pattern, promising below 70mph a new 432-dimple pattern is optimum trajectory with designed to boost control. low spin, which should result in longer, The Srixon Distance balls come with straighter and more consistent shots. an RRP of £17.99 per dozen, and all three The So Feel Lady features the lowest improved models are set for retailing this compression in the Srixon range, and is month. bene tting from the same technological www.srixon.co.uk GolfBuddy for TGI olfBuddy has been “GolfBuddy is the world’s Gappointed a partner largest golf GPS brand, with supplier to the TGI Golf operations in over 37 countries Partnership, which counts 400 worldwide. Giving TGI partners partner retailers. access to our award-winning “We are delighted to be range of products will benefi t working with the TGI Golf their businesses and, of course, Partnership,” says John Ennis, enable us to increase our UK GolfBuddy Europe general sales base which has already ever talking GPS, the GolfBuddy manager. “It is an extremely reported phenomenal growth Voice (pictured), which was professional group with a this year.” launched earlier this year and is network of proactive and Complementing GolfBuddy’s small enough to clip to the peak experienced golf professional handheld Platinum GPS of a cap. partners. rangefi nder is the world’s fi rst www.gpsgolû uddy.eu 4 SGBGOLF 04-sgb-golf.indd 1 12/09/2012 10:12 OUT OF THE ORDINARY Introducing the brand new Motocaddy S3 PRO. The world’s most feature-packed trolley just got better – Different is good. www.motocaddy.com SMS ad:Layout 1 20/02/2012 14:20 Page 1 Frontofshop Making sure the price is right Ian James, chief executive of RetailTribe, explains how pro shop sales can soar if the pricing is right arly this year I wrote about pricing, and how the consumer responds to pricing - or a lack of it - in pro Putting theory Eshops. I recommended very clear price marking on into practice golf balls with full price on sleeves, special dozen’s pricing So that’s the theory. At and even a discounted multi-buy price. Moortown and Isle of Wedmore, consumers Martin Heggie of Moortown Golf Club and Nick Pope at Isle understood their of Wedmore are two professionals who have implemented this professional’s prices strategy with the assistance of Peter Durham and his team at to be competitive, and Foremost Golf. Despite the awful British summer, with rounds as a result, sales of played well down, they have increased sales and margins in balls per round were the golf ball category. well up. This proves what the major retailers in other sectors already Some golfers took know: consumers are not good at absolute price judgment, advantage of the and respond to ‘relative’ pricing, and that they are particularly dozen and two-dozen infl uenced by price anchors. discounts, which The point-of-sale sign below contains pricing for a sleeve, dozen lowered the average gross sales margin. and two-dozen balls, and clearly highlights the savings on off er. However, more golfers The consumer now perceives the shop as highly competitive in took the sleeves at its pricing. Consider how inexpensive the sleeve price of £11.99 the full price without appears compared to the dozen and two-dozen pricing. trying to negotiate a discount, which more than compensated for the margin loss on the dozens. Stock turn was over doubled, pushing the return on investment through the roof. Strong pro t and cash ow was generated while delivering to consumers a ‘price-competitive’ proposition. As you prepare for 2013 I strongly recommend a similar There is no logic to this feeling, “At Moortown and pricing strategy in as the dozens are discounted golf balls and gloves; Isle of Wedmore, invest in strong, highly whereas the sleeve is not, but the consumers visible price displays consumer’s mind is not working understood their in-store, and then logically in absolute terms. The promote the pricing consumer’s mind is infl uenced by professional’s on professional a process of ‘relative perception’, prices to be signage around the whereby the much larger two- competitive, and club, on the shop dozen price becomes an anchor, as a result, sales window, and in your making the sleeve price look of balls per round online marketing.