Altius Golf Case

Zach Wagner

3/10/14

Altius Golf Case

        Altius is the far ahead leader in golf ball market share and has maintained this position for a long time. But the Altius brand has lost market share over recent years reporting a decline from 48.1%-45.2% from the year 2008 up until 2012. This trend while concerning does not budge Altius from the number one brand in the industry, but there was an increase in market share of their closest competitor Primiera from 14.2%-18.4% from 2008-2012. This can be credited to the increased price sensitivity of the golf ball market since its peak in 2003. Primiera offers a lower priced golf ball called the Arc and this happens to be the companies most successful product. Another trend that is affecting Altius is declining interest in the sport. Since 2003 the number of golfers has fallen from 31 million to 26 million, a decline of more than 16%.

        After completing our analysis of The Elevate Strategy and Altius' current position in the golf ball market we recommend that Altius does not implement the Elevate brand and keeps their current pricing system. There has been a decline in the interest in golfing since 2003 but much of that can be credited to the recession in 2008. Golf is known as an expensive sport to play frequently, so in the years leading up to and while in a recession there will obviously be a sharp decline in the number of golfers nationally and frequency of play. This will also explain the increase in market share by Primiera and the decrease in Altius' market share. The recession causes an increase price sensitivity so the cheaper substitute of Primiera's Arc product would make sense to increase in popularity. Evelyn Gracie believes that introducing Elevate to Altius' brand would be a wise choice for Altius' long term strategy, but we disagree because Elevate would dilute the Altius' brand of a premium product. Altius' positioning is based on a high price, high performance, and high brand loyalty. Primiera is capturing a niche market of consumers in the enthusiast/agnostic range. These consumers are a minority in the golfer market, and although the agnostic group has grown 5% since 2006 the Loyalist's still make up of 68% of the golfing population. Altius should do everything it can to discourage the trend of a lower priced golf ball and introducing Elevate would be doing the opposite. Even with the negative industry trends Altius still is the far ahead leader in market share in the golf ball industry. As a result a need for change is not urgent, especially when you take into account the possibility of a bounce back in the U.S economy.