TaylorMade-Adidas Golf tee off in India

TaylorMade-Adidas Golf will open five stores across India

this year and five more in 2012. This golf retail brand is owned by Adidas. Right now it has three exclusive stores and all are in Delhi. The strategy is to reach out to places where golf is happening in a big way like Pune, Chandigarh, Bangalore, Mumbai and Kolkata. The brand is in talks with mall owners and golf clubs in these cities to decide on locations for opening their stores. The global golf brand will also launch new products in different categories every month. The brand has increased its annual marketing and promotional budget for India by 25 per cent. Moreover, TaylorMade is making efforts to change the perception that golf is only for corporate honchos. It is tying up with different schools to reach out to junior players. The brand has signed up golfers like Manav Jaini, Mukesh Kumar, Mandeo Singh Pathania and Suzan Singh as its brand ambassadors. It also has Jyoti Randhawa and Arjun Atwal as ambassadors at the global level.

TaylorMade-Adidas Golf’s aim is to be the leading performance golf company in the world in terms of sales and profitability. It combines three of golf’s most well-known and respected brands, TaylorMade, Adidas Golf and Ashworth. The segment’s primary strategic pillars are to continuously develop and commercialize innovative, technologically advanced products. TaylorMade is the market leader in the metalwoods category, is among the leaders in irons, and is steadily evolving as a challenger in golf balls. Adidas Golf develops high-performance footwear and apparel. Ashworth is an authentic golf-inspired lifestyle brand. Likewise, Callaway Golf, a competitor to TaylorMade-Adidas Golf, plans to launch its first exclusive store in Delhi by March this year followed by another exclusive store later in 2011. The brand also forayed into the apparel and watches space. The golf market in India is small. The country has less than 300 courses and the market is worth Rs 35-40 crores, and is growing by around 20-25 per cent year-on-year. However, the latent potential of the market is attracting many international golf brands to enter the market.