Up above, I mentioned that we can do almost anything with or without the Callaway logo. Why is this important?

One of the biggest trends I see and read about is in this area. It has long been a thing at high end facilities where they only sell merchandise with their logo on it. These facilities have wanted their logo to be the star of the show for as long as I can remember. It seems as though this waned as greens fees/ dues got lower and lower. Not any more.

We all build our brand. That’s what we do. One way we can help that is by doing custom and logo products throughout the golf shop. If a manufacturer will do it without their own logo – bonus!! We do. But only on the Callaway side, ironically. On the Ogio side – our brand neutral side – we still keep the Ogio logo on there.

As you contemplate your brand, and the direction of your shop for 2025, as yourself what can I do to build my brand, grow my golf shop revenues, and make some more money? What have your members and players been asking you for? What are they looking for that you don’t have? What do you want to try that you haven’t yet? Can you go in and go small as a trial? If the slate were blank, what could you do?

I often think as I walk into or out of a golf shop, what would I do in there if it was mine? Some of the things that I suggest at our national meetings are too difficult to pull off, but could be simple on your shop level. For Example:

• How about a hat of the month? Pre sell this. Say you get 24 guys who want to do a “one off” hat that you don’t sell each month. Perhaps it’s 8 months (March – October). You do a rain bucket hat in March, and a winter hat in October. Fill the remaining 6 months with something creative that you design. Different logos. Colors that you don’t normally sell. Co Branded hats. That’s 192 hats in addition to the other hats you sell. Who wouldn’t love to sell an extra 200 hats in a season.
• How about a golf ball pre-sale special? We do a buy 3, get one. Why can’t you do something similar on your own? If you did an increased discount scale, might you sell more balls. Can you run a report that shows several things – how many rounds do you do at your facility vs. how many dozen balls do you sell per season? Can you break that down to number of balls purchased per round played? Of course you can. From there, you can get a number of rounds played per player. Perhaps you could sort that by handicap and create an escalating scale on balls needed. You should be able to fiddle around and figure out how many balls each player uses throughout the course of a season. Imagine if… you could pre-sell each player all the balls they might need for the season – in MARCH. Hypothetically… Say you do 30,000 rounds and your facility sells 2,000 dozen balls per season. 2,000/ 30,000 = .07 dozen balls per round. 2,000 dozen * 12 balls per dozen = 24,000 balls sold for the season. That means you sell .8 balls per round on average. Doesn’t sound like a lot until you say OK, the average guy who plays 100 rounds uses 80 balls for the season. That means he buys 6+ dozen from you. Can you come up with a loyalty program to ensure that he buys those 6 dozen from you? How about the rest of your members? Imagine if… you could sell 6 dozen to 100 members in March. That 600 dozen is almost 30% of your ball sales for the season, and you’re getting that business before you open. Bill is paid and you put $6,000 in your pocket before you open. Instead of having to manage 2,000 dozen balls in inventory, you can spread out 1,400 – much easier to manage. What if you did a snow bird special and did the fall and did the same thing for players going South for the winter?
• Perhaps the same thing for players with gloves?

Be a retailer. Be creative. Make your shop different and better!! Make the shopping experience special. Give them a reason to shop with you.

I hope this helps!!