Reasons for Altius Golf’s Loss of Market Shares
Altius golf has been seeing a decline in their market share due greatly to the economic recession and shifts in consumer trends around the sport of golf. The 2008 global recession deterred consumers from purchasing discretionary products, in this case golf equipment. In fact, the overall industry sales of golf equipment had declined by 18% from 2007 to 2010 with sales finally relapsing as the economy started to rebound. Along with this, according to the USGA, 23% of women and 36% of children had quit golfing over the past five years. Core golfers that played golf seriously with around 8 or more rounds per year had fallen as a segment of golfers as well. Also, investment in golf real estate saw
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After competitors saw opportunity in the fact that consumers were not interested in golf due to its difficulty and price, they started to adapt, position, and create new innovations accordingly to make the sport easier and more accessible. Manufactures such as Primiera and Meridian not only created golf balls designed for new, less-skilled, recreational golfers but also offered attractive pricing in comparison to Altius’s premium pricing. The campaign that competitor Primiera ran featured ball-fitting sessions, launch monitors, and a message that emphasized that using the same golf ball as professionals was illogical which essentially bashed on Altius’s positioning. The campaigns allowed Primiera to penetrate new accounts and gain favorable placements in the store through retailer’s optimism in the product. The retail channel dynamics has shifted with more market share concentrated amongst off-course retailers like the “big box” players where Altius’s market share was decreasing because of the lower-end retail margin of 15% that it was offering compared to other manufacturers. Altius has lost market share to their competitors due to several reasons such as the overall declining trend in the sport of golf after the recession hit, the perceived value of Altius golf balls compared to competitors, customer’s price sensitivity, new innovations and appealing campaigns from competitors like Primera and Meridian, and the change of trend in