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COVER STORY
GOING for DISTANCE
Golf Ball Brand Owners Promote High-End and High-Tech Appeal
By Ron Romanik
For non-golfers, it may be hard to understand the nearly infinite variety of design feature combinations to be found in the golf ball aisle of a sporting goods store. Even for an avid golfer, the technical aspects described on the back of golf ball cartons often seem part science and part speculation. Add to that the fact that golf balls get expensive quickly, and each ball may only last one shot before ending up in the bottom of a lake, then one can begin to appreciate the complex value propositions and dilemmas that confront a golfer in front of a wall of shiny ball cartons.
Mike Pai, currently v.p. of marketing at Srixon, points out that golf ball consumers often have this cautious feeling of: "This is an investment." Pai also spent four years each at Callaway and MaxFli during some of their packaging innovation periods. He believes the packages' primary goal is to give the shopper a comfort level about their purchasing decision. "It's all about shelf feel and about communicating a brand message," Pai says.
The most common golf ball carton form, and the default standard for many years now, is the rectangular, flat 12-ball carton with four sleeves of three balls each. The common information hierarchy on the front panel is simple and direct, with only brand, variety, and primary feature indicated. The back panel has become the repository for technical data, complex feature/benefit propositions, and scientific-looking diagrams.
The carton format has many limitations, whether self-imposed by category conformity or physically imposed by the few ways balls can be grouped and arranged or by the demands of retail stacking and merchandising. Category conformity was very strong until the turn of the century, when several brands broke out of the mold with brand-identifying shapes that are still successful today. Retail environments, though, still require that cartons can be stacked high and that three-ball sleeves merchandise easily in existing displays.
So golf ball package design must work hard to maintain continuity for loyal brand users while enticing possible converts to examine the benefits of their product. As Paul English, director, brand management for the Top-Flite brand, points out, golf ball package designs succeed if they can get shoppers to spend more time with the package.
Informational challenge
Srixon's Pai does not find it surprising to visit a sporting goods store and find golf ball shoppers carefully perusing the technical information on the back panels of the cartons. "It's amazing the amount of information consumers need to feel comfortable with the product," says Pai.
Pai says that golf balls can be extremely confusing things, and the packaging should make the purchase decision less confusing and more comforting. "What we're going for is very clean, very elegant, and very premium," says Pai, emphasizing that the packaging must also serve to attract converts. "A lot of the time the primary communication about our product is the packaging."
Mike Yagley, v.p. of golf ball product management for Callaway Golf, believes one thing Callaway does very well is explain how a product feature translates into a performance benefit. Recent research by Callaway Golf showed that many golf ball shoppers still go to the package to make their purchase decision. Yagley feels Callaway provides enough information so the customer can make an "informed" decision, or enough so they feel that they are informed.
Mark Alan, product director, golf balls at Nike, points out that many golfers have done a good deal of their own "research" even before coming into the store—either from magazines, websites, or fellow golfers. The technical information on the back panels of these packages, Alan says, tries to answer each golfer's internal question: "Which ball is right for me?"
Callaway recently updated its retail packaging with a sunburst design that seems to glow warmly from the core of the package.
Traditional yet experimental
The Callaway brand was innovative in 2001 when it introduced what it calls "the cube"—though not exactly a cube—which arranged the traditional three-ball sleeves in two stacks of two. The golf ball's technical and benefit information is presented on the box bottom's vertical panels, which the shopper discovers as he or she slides off the lid. An interesting feature of the cube, now firmly associated with the brand, is that when Callaway decided to have a two-ball "gift" promotion, they realized that the two-ball package would have the same exact proportions as the 12-ball cube.
Callaway's Yagley recounts their most recent package redesign campaign as an effort to have shoppers at large sporting goods chains be able to read "Callaway" from across the store and the product name from 10 feet. The Callaway Golf Company owns several other golf brands, including Top-Flite, Ben Hogan, and Odyssey.
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The picture on the cover of this issue shows the Juice 312 carton, meant to attract golfers wanting "prescription strength distance," in a carton accented with text like the front panel segment.
This redesign campaign coincided with improvements to the Callaway Warbird golf balls. The new packaging has a "starburst" effect, which emphasizes brightness, the sun, temperature, power, and the shape of the ball. The packaging shade gradations emanate in a circular manner to achieve this on the Warbird, Big Bertha and HX Hot packages.
Top-Flite's Paul English says the package designs of the new D2 balls are trying to instill some attitude back into the category. "Golfers are always looking for something new, for an edge," says English. "We're trying to build a relationship with what we call 'The Top-Flite Guy.'" The back panel is not technical but fun, with an image of two beer mugs clinking next to text explaining a benefit: "Dare 2 stick it to your buddies for 18 straight so you can kick back and enjoy #19."
XL has been a Top-Flite product name for decades, and has evolved to stay with the times. With the extra dimension of 15-ball cartons (11" x 6-3/4") and the extra-large letters, XL and D2 clearly win the brand/product type size competition on shelf. "We definitely want our product name to be the hero on the package, and I'm definitely not worried about the Top-Flite name getting lost," English says.
An athletic approach
Nike's Alan likes to think that the "athletic equipment" part of Nike's brand and reputation has translated well with golf ball packaging. From "value" to "premium," Nike golf ball lines are: Power Distance, Juice 312, Ignite, and One. Nike relies on the iconic Swoosh to convey that its products are one brand throughout.
The Power Distance line debuted its vibrant new packaging a year ago. The target golfer for Power Distance is a recreational and value conscious consumer. The recreational golfer, explains Alan, is likely to participate in other sport activities and view the golf ball as a piece of sports equipment that they want to feel a connection with.
Holographic effects make the ball on the Power Distance carton radiate with light rings as the reflection angles change.
The previous Power Distance packages made the ball a superhero on the package, according to Alan, with the ball illustration actually bigger than the top of the carton and comic-book-inspired type treatments. The new metallic printing on a holographic substrate "animates" the ball, and Alan believes the color, brand logo, and information presentation on the new packaging offers an enticing sophistication for this value product. "Our intent was to try to bring this back to the core golfer," says Alan.
The new Nike Juice 312 line of balls (see the cover of this issue) was introduced this past November as a high performance but inexpensive breakthrough brand, one that would replace their Mojo line for price and performance. The "312" refers to the number of dimples on the ball. This is a branding idea which has some history in golf balls, but it is significant here because 312 is the lowest dimple count on the market.
Nike took the Juice 312 opportunity to create a fun, fresh brand and package. According to Alan, package design exploration keyed on asking the question: "How much story could be told?" The idea of "prescription strength distance" got legs because it could tell multiple stories, it could be a little tongue-in-cheek, and it could be executed in a clever way that was against category expectations.
Recommended dosage, for instance, states: "Start with one Juice ball in the morning. Take with black coffee. Will take effect immediately after stretching and wagering are complete." Nike has also experimented with a two-ball promotion package that imitated the materials and functionality of pills in blister packs, where the golfer dispenses the ball by pushing through the foil seal.
This year, Nike updated its Ignite carton to emulate the One packaging because of the products' close proximity in performance and price.
Distinguishing between premiums
Two years ago, the premium Nike One line of golf balls introduced the "tall cube" configuration (four sleeves standing up inside a square-bottom carton) to distinguish the brand but still take up the same shelf space as a customary 12-ball carton. On the cube, the word "one" dominates the package, but it wraps around the corner of two panels.
On retail shelves, consequently, two packages next to each other are required to make a logo with a flat facing. David Creech, senior graphic designer for Nike golf ball packaging, explains that Nike was pleased when retailers felt compelled to put the puzzle together in order to make sure the word "one" was spelled out.
Different retail chain environments are encouraging experimentation with different packaging shapes and shelf impact designs, but most golf ball manufacturers commit to one primary package SKU per ball variety. Customary 12-ball cartons can still perform well as long as golfers feel the information hierarchy is communicating to them and is helping them find the right ball for them.
Ignite is Nike's second-tier line of golf balls, just under One in premium performance, that was introduced in March of 2006 with a traditional four-sleeve flat carton. Nike worried, though, that golfers were not viewing the brand as "just under One." In February, Nike introduced new packaging for Ignite that emulates many package ideas from the One packaging, such as the tower shape, the two-panel logo, and a similar presentation of technical information. "I think consumers needed that extra connection," Alan explains.
Creech says that the charts on the back of One and Ignite packages simplify the decision-making process nicely, even though many golfers are getting savvier every day. Nike is wary, however, of on-carton comparisons between their own lines of golf balls because it may have an unintended affect. "Then you wonder whether you are elevating the one brand or bring down the other brand," says Creech.
As in many categories, golf ball brand owners are realizing that the package is essentially the brand in consumers' eyes. Srixon's website always has a 12-ball carton out front on the golf ball web pages, as well as in other advertising outlets. Nike's Alan says that it is a conscious strategy to show the Nike One and Ignite golf ball packaging at the end of their television spots. The consumer then connects Tiger to the One package and the package to the product, and then brings that memory to the store and has instant recognition, connection, and comfort with their purchase.
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