Golflogix Case

Group Assignment 1: Golflogix

Summary

Golfers some forty years ago could have never foreseen a product that measures their exact distance to the green, tracks the progress of their round and helps them with their club selection. Well, today that product is here. The traditional golfer may not view this product with favor, however Golflogix believes that golf courses and golfers see the benefits that xCaddie brings to a round of golf. Three years after introducing the xCaddie the company began considering the release of the product directly to the consumer. However, before they could make such a move a number of issues need to be considered. These include but are not limited to; is the direct to consumer market channel viable and when could they expect to see a profit? Today we will look at the company, what are some of their key issues, review a SWOT analysis that will guide us to our decision and why we believe this is the best path. (GolfLogix) (Gourville and Conover)

Assumptions

While preparing this paper, we have made the following assumptions:

• The information in this case is true, even though the product has changed since it was first released.

• One has a general knowledge of how the game of golf is played.

• People understand that the Professional Golf Association for professional tournament play does not sanction this product.

• Even though there is not much data at this point to support this, we assume that golf courses have a genuine interest in the Golflogix product.

The Company

Innovative ideas take place in both interesting conversations and places every day the concept for Golflogix was brought to life just this way. The concept originated at the 19th hole during a post-round conversation between Todd Kuta and Scott Lambrecht about the round of golf they just played. Lambrecht had recently taken up the game and during the round of golf he continued to ask Kuta to estimate the distance to the green and what club should he use. At the beginning of the round Kuta welcomed the inquiries, but he soon became frustrated during the round. The conversation brought to light two common challenges that golfers have; first is judging the distance to the center of the green and second is determining which club to use. This lead to the idea of creating a product that can provide both club selection recommendation as well as provide the exact yardage to the green. The idea quickly morphed into including the capability of recording golfer statistics that could be printed out after the round.

GolfLogix developed a relationship with Garmin International to develop a