Powerbilt Green Grass
Powerbilt Golf has an interesting angle on golf club marketing. In this case they are taking a venerable brand name, Citation, and making it exclusively available in golf pro shops. Also starting is a program so each club will be individually fitted by a professional to each purchaser using the Club Pro fitting system which has 51 interchangeable shafts and 28 club heads. Club Pro Inc. will then build clubs to order.
This is an innovative idea for a company the size of Powerbilt who do not have a custom-build operation of their own. The Citation line includes CP forged face insert irons for $599 in Apollo steel shafts or $699 with Black Magic graphite shafts. Citation drivers have a forged beta titanium cup face and also are available with the Black Magic shaft at $199.
Adams says YES
YES putters were among the first to use a grooved face for better roll of the ball and for a number of years were a player in the putter market segment reaching a sales of over $10 million in 2007. Since then a combination of events including the recession saw sales fall by 75 percent to the point where the company could not sustain itself and this past November filed for bankruptcy.
In a U.S. Bankruptcy Court auction on Tuesday, Adams Golf purchased all the assets, patents and intellectual property of YES for $1.65 million. YES should be a good purchase for Adams who has a solid place as one of the top hybrid club makers.
Duval gets to Scratch
David Duval is now a part-owner of Scratch Golf the high-end iron maker located in Chattanooga, Tenn. Duval had been on the Nike tour staff for over ten years but was dropped in 2010 and the 2001 British Open champion was looking for a new deal.
Scratch is tiny though. Its 2010 sales were $1.5 million so they have done a good job just surviving where many other club makers have failed. They are mostly known for their line of wedges and can be found in some custom shops plus big box retailers PGA Tour Superstore, Golf Town and some Edwin Watts Golf stores.
This is the second Tour star to be an owner of Scratch Golf. Ryan Moore had a similar deal and backed out last year.
Tiger not only endorser in trouble
The much chronicled troubles off the course, on the course and in his business have put Tiger Woods into a spotlight he would like to get out of and have cost him probably hundreds of millions of dollars in the divorce settlement and lost endorsement income.
Now Ad Age magazine reports a study naming Tiger as the least effective celebrity endorser but also bringing the whole idea of there being a value to celebrity endorsement into question. The study found creative content was more important in television advertisements and any help a celebrity might bring to a product was often severely compromised by viewers’ perception of the celebrity.
Celebrities generally were ineffective and did not give the benefits previously thought.
The other celebrity endorsers at the bottom with Woods were Lance Armstrong, Kenny Mayne, Dale Earnhardt and Donald Trump.
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