Package Deal: Golf Ball Manufacturers Seek an Edge by Attacting the Consumer's Eye to Attention-getting Packaging

PGA Magazine
April 2006; By Scott Kramer

The golf ball market is very healthy. According to Golf Datatech, roughly $536 million worth of balls were sold last year at on- and off-course golf shops combined. Add to that all of the balls that were purchased at mass merchant and sporting goods stores, as well as online, and you get the sense that ball sales are strong at every level.

At on- and off-course shops, golf balls sell at an average of $26.29 per dozen. They’re likely even lower everywhere else. Which means competition is fierce among ball manufacturers. So any edge companies can get over one another always helps.

Manufacturers are focusing on their golf ball packaging, for one. It’s nothing new – remember the plastic tube sleeves of TaylorMade’s Inergel ball several years ago – but companies are renewing efforts to make their golf balls visually pop out in the golf shop. Callaway’s golf balls have been sold in a compact-looking box that’s visually very different from traditional flat/ rectangular cartons. It is essentially two sleeves stacked atop one another, side by side, within the carton. This year, Nike Golf has done something similar, repackaging its One Black and One Platinum balls into vertical-oriented cubes.

Nike also has repackaged its former Super line of balls into a new Power Distance Series, creating a more uniform look and feel, as well as message clarity. Likewise, Srixon refined its ball packaging so that the products strike a similar appearance to one another on the shelves.

“The new AD333 was designed to be consistent look-wise, with the Z-UR and Z-URS,” says Mike Pai, vice president of marketing and sales at Srixon. “The Soft Feel ball will also be re-launched in a new package in the fall, to be consistent with the whole family. We’ve had great positive response to the new aesthetics. We like to use foil board with bold colors, so that the brand stands out on the shelf.”

Maxfli has repackaged its Noodle ball line, so that the colors and graphics are consistent from one model to the next. Everything’s nearly identical on the carton, with the exception of a thick bottom color band that differentiates models. From across a store, you know they’re Noodles.

Color is also a huge spotlight in 2006. Some of the latest clear-covered, pastel-toned balls sport see-through areas on the carton, so that consumers can see these unique-looking products, without having to first open the box.

Product differentiation can go well beyond aesthetics. RadarGolf has created its own niche. The Bay Area company makes golf balls with a radio transmitter tag embedded in the core. It transmits aural and visual signals to a handheld device, signaling where the ball is, and minimizing lost balls. At $249.95 per system with a dozen balls, many golfers might think twice before buying it. Additional ball dozens sell for a more reasonable $39.95.

“Our target market is anyone caring about lowering their scores,” says Chris Savarese, RadarGolf’s founder and president. “Even good golfers can associate with that moment when you get out to where you thought you hit the ball, then you can’t find it. And playing our ball is potentially a stroke-, frustration- and time-saver.”

Savarese admits he thought this was a fresh idea, until he researched it 13 years ago. “I went to the patent library and found I wasn’t the first to think about this. Patents on this topic dated back to 1925. And there was a pretty steady flow of patents granted – anything from radioactive balls that could be found with a Geiger counter to a ball you had to rub a scent on, and then you could sniff out with a long tube.”

RadarGolf’s system won’t transmit from water, although it can somewhat send signals from shallow puddles. Savarese says his two-piece, low-compression ball has an ionomer cover, but his technology can be built into any ball. “We hope to soon license our technology to the big guys,” he says. “We think we’ll have our first licensing deal by the end of the year. As far as we’re concerned, we have the only product on the market that can quantifiably save you strokes. And golfers are willing to pay to save strokes.” Particularly if those products are uniquely packaged.