I think all golf entrepreneurs should study advertising. Entrepreneurs are full of ideas, and advertising is an industry built entirely on ideas...
Ideas on how to build a brand.
How to build credibility and authenticity for existing brands.
How to turn common category complaints into opportunities.
How to engage an audience. How to generate leads and convert leads into sales.
It's those big ideas — paired with exceptional execution in all forms of marketing communications — that builds iconic brands over time.
The same can be said for start-ups in golf, or any other industry. Entrepreneurs who start with a big idea, and then stick to it, are the ones who end up building iconic brands.
Barney Adams had an idea for a hybrid golf club that would be easier to hit than a typical fairway wood or a long iron.
Calloway had an idea for a big headed driver, and named it Big Bertha. But they didn't own the "biggest" category for long.
Maytag owns the idea of worry-free appliances. For more than 30 years their advertising has brilliantly communicated the idea of dependability with the lonely Maytag repairman who never has anything to do.
Maytag's core brand idea helps segment the market and differentiate them from the competition. Nobody else in that category will try to claim the idea of "reliability." Won't work because everyone knows that Maytag = dependability.
It's a clearly articulated, widely accepted fact of the appliance marketplace.
Campbell's owns the idea of "comfort food." That brand is not about flavor, it's about the rainy day when your kids are home for lunch and you sit down for a bowl of soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. Campbell's warms, comforts, nourishes, takes you back in time and puts a smile on your face.
It's a core brand concept that's easily demonstrable in advertising.
And that's particularly important when you're doing business in a category of parity, like in golf clubs.
If you peel back the veneer and look at the facts, all modern clubs within a category are pretty much identical. The differences, as one industry CEO put it, "are miniscule."
A competent clubfitter can make any brand work well for almost any customer who comes along.
So companies that make clubs need to come up with an idea that's bigger than just product features. They need an idea that's not just the usual overblown promise of more distance. That's how you build a golf brand.
Without a core brand idea it's going to be very difficult to carve out any market share at all. You'll be just another company making "quality clubs for every type of player."
That's not a brandable idea.
I believe there's plenty of room in many golf categories if you're willing to lead with an idea that's genuinely unique. Sometimes that's hard to see when you're working inside the bottle, so to speak.
You need an outsider's perspective to see the idea — the angle of opportunity.
That's what we do at Birdie Ops. We help you spot those birdie ops that you might miss. Those bid ideas hidden in your product, your operation, or your category.
So if you're doing business of any kind in golf, let's talk!
Comments