Class Blog: Sport Product Life Cycle

The class blog for this past week was to give background information on an Athletic/Sports company and dive a little deeper into what the company is all about. The company I chose for this is Callaway Golf Company. To the average sports fan, Callaway may not be a household name. Keeping themselves restricted to one sport is the main cause of this but by no means do I think they need to expand to other areas.

Callaway is considered the world's largest maker of golf clubs. If any of you have ever watched a PGA event, there is no doubt in my mind that you have seen Callaway products in use. Callaway produces a wide range of golf products including clubs, balls, tees, apparel, shoes, gloves, and golf bags. Callaway is based in Carlsbad, California and was founded in 1982. Callaway began publicly trading their companies shares on the NYSE in 1992 and by 1997 they boasted a market capitalization of 3 billion dollars. Their net profit in 2010 was 967.7 million dollars and they are continuing to grow today.

There is actually a lot of competition in the golf world between companies such as Callaway, TaylorMade, Cleveland Golf, Nike Golf, and many more. With all this competition, Callaway has to gain a competitive advantage any way they can. The way they accomplish this is through sponsorships. Callaway does a great job of sponsoring athletes with their biggest cash cow being Phil Mickelson. Other huge stars Callaway has are Stuart Appleby, Ernie Els, Arnold Palmer, and even Justin Timberlake. They have numerous more sponsorships that are not nearly as recongizable nor as profitable as these individuals and in the marketing world they are labeled as question marks and dogs. Callaway is doing a great job growing their business and getting their name out there. Phil Mickelson just won this past weekends Pro-Am at Pebble Beach to continue carrying the Callaway name with pride.