Titleist, the #1 Ball in Golf, is continuing its support of dedicated golfers across the UK and Ireland with its extremely popular range of golf ball displays.
When it comes to the golf ball sector, Titleist is leading the way in the industry after an extremely successful 2023 which saw the brand have a worldwide ball count of over 70% and at retail in the UK on-course channels saw an increase in their market share to well over 50%.
To start 2024 the brand was delighted to introduce their next generation AVX, Tour Soft and TruFeel models to supplement their Pro V1 range to ensure all golfers have a golf ball option within the Titleist lineup to best suit their needs.
Playing a crucial part in the promotion of Titleist’s 2024 golf ball lineup in store, is effective golf ball merchandising.
Titleist Golf Ball Coordinator, Joshua Mackey discusses the importance of merchandising
in order to create more cash flow for retailers as well as sharing what Titleist is doing to support all its partners:
What are some of the benefits to retailers of golf ball merchandising?
At Titleist we recognise the importance of this area for all of our accounts and know that retailers are likely to pick up more incremental business when they offer great merchandising. To offer a better experience for golfers, many often do not have the time to spend hours browsing looking for the golf ball they want, so making this as easy as possible to find the model that they’re looking for is an easy win. Ultimately all our displays are designed to draw the golfer’s attention to them. The better retailers can merchandise their store, the more opportunities they will have to get golfers attention. From there you can also use merchandising to up-sell – from a single ball to a sleeve, a sleeve to then a dozen.
Excellent merchandising also helps accounts manage their stock levels more effectively. It is much easier to see which products are selling well and how long it’s taking to go through the stock you have when you merchandise correctly, allowing accounts to forecast their future purchases much more successfully.
How is Titleist supporting retailers with merchandising and could you list a few examples of the investment the brand has put into this key area?
Titleist University has been a continuous investment across all the Titleist categories to ensure all our partners have the best training possible, both on merchandising and our full range of products. Ultimately the more the brand can help accounts understand Titleist products, the better experience they can give to their members and customers. We also invest heavily into displays each year and this comes in a wide variety of forms from specific launch to family displays. Interactive layouts are becoming a great way to make this more accessible and to really elevate the golfer’s experience in store. This is an area Titleist is excited to see become more widely available over the next couple of years. We realise that each retailer is different, so the brand makes sure to work with each account and tries to tailor displays depending on to what they need as well as the amount of space they have to work with. Ultimately the Titleist brand wants to make sure that a range of different displays are being offered to our retailers to make the purchasing journey is made as easy as possible for their consumers when they walk into their pro shop or golf store.
What would a good golf ball merchandising display look like and what should retailers avoid?
Good golf ball merchandising will often look quite simple as it is about having displays in a clear location where you’re going to have lots of footfall, displayed in a way that will drive attention and help golfers make easy decisions. Having displays that have clear header graphics and clear pricing all in a correctly ordered and organised layout helps the consumer feel more relaxed meaning they will more likely make a purchase. This is evident in the imagery provided by various retailers who have utilised Titleist golf ball displays effectively by doing all of the simple things which have been mentioned correctly.
What positive steps have Titleist taken to ensure it meets the requirements from accounts?
Both our Sales team and our dedicated Golf Ball Specialists work extremely hard with our partners to ensure every account is merchandising our products in the right way. To help keep track of this we use a merchandising scorecard which will help assess partners based on our position in store, stock levels and the overall way we are presented as a brand. The most effective way however is for both our Sales and Marketing teams to get out and visit accounts for ourselves, speaking to our wide range of professionals and staff ambassadors to understand what challenges they face when it comes to selling golf balls and how we can help either resolve or reduce these issues, ensuring we are giving all our accounts the best tools possible.
Without going into too much detail, how do Titleist plan to continue to support retailers in 2025 and beyond?
We are constantly working extremely hard to gain a better understanding of what golfers are looking for both in terms of product performance and in how they want to purchase their golf balls. This is an area where the brand is conducting a lot of research behind the scenes alongside the various global Titleist teams in order to gain more in-depth knowledge to allow us to further support retailers going into 2025 and beyond. GR
