Not everyone gets to drive a Lamborghini – but you can buy a driver that’s made like one.
The crown of Callaway’s recently launched Diablo Octane driver is made from the same carbon fibre material that appears in Lamborghinis’ latest concept cars. Though the face of the Octane remains titanium, the crown is made of 10 million ‘turbostratic’ carbon fibre strands, forged under six tons of pressure. Turbostratic is a complex fibre alignment known for its strength, but mercifully Callaway simply calls the stuff Forged Composite.
This material is in fact the fruit of an exotic collaboration between the R&D departments at Callaway and Lamborghini, a relationship now four years old but only formally announced at last year’s Paris motor show.
“We were sharing concepts born out of a shared goal for speed and efficiency of movement,” explains Callaway Golf’s president (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Neil Howie. “Carbon fibre is lighter and stronger than other metals and alloys, allowing you to do things you wouldn’t be able to do with straight titanium. Forging the crown out of this material can save so much weight that can be redeployed more effectively.
“Since Lamborghini began using Forged Composite in concept cars, the performance benefits they are seeing are just incredible.”
The Diablo Octane is the most eye-catching of a series of 2010 launches that belie the tough trading conditions of the past two years, and mark an impressive showing of confidence from Callaway, underlined by its high-profile showing at September’s Golf Europe. On the tail of the Diablo Edge iron at the end of 2009, the company’s 2010 launches included the ladies’ Solaire range in February, the FtiZ driver in March and the X-Series Jaws wedges in June, before a new family of three Razr irons and the Diablo Octane driver appeared towards the year’s end.
“The product that has come out is the result of many years of R&D,” explains Howie. “Irrespective of how the market plays out, if the product is there and good enough, we will bring it to market. This stuff was planned three or four years ago, it’s ready to go, and we are very confident.”
Another strong performance on Golf Digest’s prestigious Hot List and two major wins from Phil Mickelson and Graeme McDowell also helped the Callaway cause; but positive reaction to the new equipment has played its part too.
“We are perhaps also bullish based on feedback at pre-book,” adds Howie. “We write a significant percentage of our entire year in the three months leading up to Christmas, and the response we’ve had has been really good.”
Callaway’s confidence is also surprising as it comes at a period when the company has been losing UK market share. Key to improving Callaway’s performance in the UK will be the company’s relationship with its retail partners – an area that, Howie concedes, has needed work.
“In recent years we have done well on the Continent, but it was masking the indifferent performance we were putting in here: we had lost our way in the UK over the past couple of years. When the business is growing, complacency can set in; also it’s easier to focus on areas that are growing as opposed to maintaining areas that aren’t, and I think we were guilty of that. Europe was doing well so we focused on that. We inherited the Middle East and Africa too. We put too many eggs in those baskets. Market share in those countries was great, but in the UK we were losing it.
“If you dig deeper, this could be put down to our relationships with green grass golf pros. A lot of that was down the to the tools we were able to offer our sales force to support the retailer properly. These guys need to be part of a relationship, to be treated properly, as golf professionals and not just as retailers.
“Historically Callaway has had something of a reputation for… over-confidence, shall we say. And you can’t afford that – because in any downturn you are only as good as the people you do business with. We had to go and win some friends again. I want us to trade with humility.”
In a bid to improve relationships and offer better UK retailer support, Callaway has shaken up its terms of business and changed some of the programs on offer. Lowering minimum quantities on pre-books should make it easier to buy into the brand; in-store kit and branding has been doubled too, including a simplified iMix format giving a consumer-friendly introduction to customising. The custom-fit service itself has been improved, with Callaway turning orders around in four to five days as opposed to 10.
Investment in demo days and custom fit training days has been increased.
“We have also come up with an ambassador program,” Howie continues. “It will see in excess of 200 green grass golf professionals endorsing our kit. This is a structured program that will see the pros using our product, recognised as ambassadors on the website and in store. They’ll even get to play in a couple of tournaments at the end of the year, culminating in a north v south Ryder Cup-style match captained by two of our staff professionals.”
Callaway is hoping these measures will improve retailer relations in what promises to be another busy year of launches. Merely on the driver front a Black version of the Octane driver is imminent - a European-only offering for the first time in Callaway‘s history with a different finish, different shaft and grip options. There will also be a Europe-only Legacy driver and a Razr Hawk driver, which will be loaded with technology developed by Callaway and Lamborghini R&D departments.
Time will tell whether Callaway’s confidence is well placed, but early signs are promising. “Pre-book is showing double digit growth year on year, ” Howie sums up. “Okay, that is only sell-in and not sell-though, but you can’t sell it through if it isn’t in store.”
