TaylorMade on Its Edge Over Nike & Advice for Puma Golf

A month ago today, Puma Golf announced that it was purchasing the Cobra Golf brand from Acushnet and Fortune Brands.  It was Puma's move to make a foray into the equipment manufacturing arena.  After making quite a splash with its unique fashions, Puma will likely seek to do the same thing with its new equipment arm. 

Puma will have to make the transition from being an apparel company to being a full service golf company.  No company knows how to be a golf conglomerate better than TaylorMade-adidas golf.  They run their two namesake brands, as well as the Ashworth brand.  (They formerly owned Maxfli, but have sold most of their stake to Dick's Sporting Goods.) Hovering at the top of the market in many areas, their success has been built upon a decade of experience.

What that experience says, according to Harry Arnett, Vice President of Brand and Product Marketing at TMAG, is that it is best for the apparel side and the equipment side to be run completely separate of one another.

"There are not a lot of consumer synergies by marketing equipment and apparel together," Arnett said in an interview with Waggle Room.  "We operate them with very little overlap on the consumer side.  Product launches, promotions - they're all separate."

Arnett says that TMAG does push their multitude of brands as a package to Tour players, and even to their bigger retailers for improved service.  That is where it ends, though.

"Most consumers don't know that all of our companies are one in the same."

What prompted this differentiation in marketing started from nearly the beginning.  "We thought about [marketing them together] at first, but we never really tried.  We felt like the brands were different, and what works in selling each is different."

When asked what advice he would give to Puma now that they will transition from an apparel company is the approach his company has taken successfully.

"Equipment is very much an enthusiast type of branding.  In our apparel lines, though, we push sportiness and athleticism."

Arnett offered a cautionary tale about how Nike has handled its marketing and branding, saying that they have struggled to gain market share because of how they promote their full golf suite of products.

"Nike learned that apparel and footwear are not the same as equipment.  Their share in the equipment market is almost nonexistent.  There's a power of being fairly separate.  Nike has struggled to make their brand work, but marketing separately is not their model.  But they're spending a lot."

Arnett believes that the best way to sell golf equipment is to allow the equipment to speak for itself.  "We subscribe to the idea that we make equipment better than everyone else, and that has been validated by Tour players.  We are dedicated to the best players in the world.  We don't market out way to growth."

For Puma Golf specifically, Arnett said that the major challenge of the transition for them is that their wheelhouse is fashion and performance.  They will have to find a way to transition fashion and performance to the equipment world.

"Doing that requires a deep understanding of the golfer.  All of us at TMAG are deep in the sport.  Our CEO is a plus handicapper."

TMAG has been very strong for well over a decade now, and Arnett has been with the company for much of that run.  That longevity has given him a perspective about how to measure Puma's success.

"Any shiny new key gets attention, but longevity is continuing to do it every year.  Sustainability is relevance.  But Puma's purchase is exciting for the golf category.  It shows that Puma believes - like we do - that golf is worthy of investment."