I thought it would be great to examine custom branding in
this forum with probably its most articulate spokesman and one of the true gentlemen
in the golf apparel business – Mark Killeen. Mark is the CEO of Full Turn Direct and he has
formed a Pro Staff Advisory Board who will participate in this discussion. The
board consists of the following:
Greg Lecker – Sawgrass Country Club
Shim LaGoy – Orinda Country Club
Nick Papadakes – Old Elm Club
Matthew Hall – Turtle Bay Resort
Dow Finsterwald, Jr. – Colonial Country Club
Nick Wolfe – Waynesborough Country Club
Mark, before we talk about product,
margin and marketing tell us if you will about the history of deciding to
pursue this niche of the business.
First Craig, it is a pleasure
speaking to you as always and thanks for the opportunity to do so. The genesis
of our business is really quite simple. Golf shops sell apparel that is adorned
with their embroidered logo. If you ask most shops, they will tell you that if
they removed their logo, the product would not sell. Their members, guests and
customers are telling golf retailers every day that the compelling reason the
purchase decision is made in their shops is because of the clubs own brand.
Product differentiation is a core
competency of every good retailer today. Across the entire retail spectrum,
retailers are sourcing product that reduces competition. Custom branded product
is how most retailers execute this strategy. We saw very early on that there
was a huge void in the specialty and golf market for a company to offer product
that offers the retailer differentiation.
Let’s get the elephant out of
the room. I know the Full Turn Direct product line well enough and long enough
to know that only the highest quality products are being sourced.
I understand the elephant and
unfortunately the perception has been a reality in the golf market in the past.
We approach the concept with a product first strategy, not a price first
strategy. We take the responsibility of customizing every garment with our
customers branding very seriously. Our products must be commensurate with the
brand value of our customer. The bar is set high in golf, particularly with our
customers.
As an example, we use only SUPIMA
registered cotton in our luxury shirts. This raw material is less than one half
of one percent of all cotton grown in the world. Our performance shirts are
equally impressive as we have chosen to use a unique process of infusing the
micro poly yarns with charcoal from bamboo which we call Eco Tec. The charcoal
keeps the shirts odor free and the bamboo moves moisture very quickly. As you
know, most companies use a chemical coating on their polyester shirts and those
coatings can wash out very quickly. That is why you hear the complaint of
performance shirts holding odor. That never happens with our EcoTec.
We also take a collection
approach to our merchandising, which is not easy to accomplish when we are
customizing every garment. The old concept of “private label” was to offer a
series of solids and basic stripes. We believe our customer’s own brand value
demands so much more and we give it to them! The line consists of some of the
finest cashmere sweaters and accessories available, ultra-fine micron Merino
sweaters and knits, classic Supima golf sweaters, quilted micro poly windwear
and a country club short program. To further the knit classification, we also
offer special fabrics every season. For Fall 2013 we developed a very unique
luxury garment that also performs naturally. Our LuxSpun golf shirt is a blend
of the new micro-TENCEL for easy care and Supima cotton for the luxury hand
feel. We then plated the fabric in pure white Mulberry silk which is naturally
anti-microbial. This is one hell of a golf shirt!
Dow Finsterwald noted, the overall
quality of the golf shop sends a message to the customer. Our great brands at
Colonial help our Custom brand and our Custom Brand helps our brands. What I
like best is the fact that my shop is the only place our members or guests can
find our custom collection. Now, our own brand is being asked for regularly by
our customers.
Greg Lecker – As for quality, the
Full Turn EcoTec is the only shirt my staff can wear and I don’t have to open
the windows for staff meetings! It is a great shirt that really works. It is
amazing.
Obviously the margin and the
flexibility to promote that extra margin provide the most important aspect of
developing custom branded product in the shop.
The margin conversation is a very
interesting topic. In the early months of our company, we spoke of margin and
the value of margin at length. Many customers found that emphasis objectionable
as they felt the priority was margin, not the quality of the garment. That was
certainly never the case. I guess in a way we were taking the quality issue for
granted. Today, we let our customers discover the margin opportunities. There
are certainly times when we review the comprehension of the margin equation and
highlight the value we offer with complete shipments, no substitutions and of course
how we can help reduce the shops competition. After all, it is not the initial
margin that counts, it is the maintained margin at the end of the season.
Matt Hall – COGS on hard goods
keep going up and that is putting more pressure on me to improve my soft goods
margin. Custom Branding is how I have been able to accomplish a meaningful
improvement in profitability.
Nick Papadakes - I am
a margins junkie, primarily because of the way I was trained as a young
pro. When I first started here we had miserable margins; sales were
decent but the profit was very low. By restructuring the buying plan to
offer products like those from Full Turn, that could maintain and hopefully
increase sales, we were able to better our margins by over 15%.
Another way to look at
margins is that we have more dollars for promotions while maintaining
profitability. With the off course big box stores and discounters full of
branded product at low prices promotions are here to stay.
Shim LaGoy – I can
offer more value when promoting my custom apparel, because I don’t have to
compete with the $19.99 shirt at the sporting goods stores.
I have used hang-tags in some
interesting ways depending on the facility and what is most relevant to be
marketing to the consumer.
We take the same strategy with
our branding trim as we do with the product itself. Hangtags are customized
including full color photography and we use the finest damask woven labels. On
performance products, we are now using a heat seal label application that has
become very popular.
Nick Wolfe – We have changed our
hangtag every couple of years to keep our presentation fresh. Our members now
look to our custom collection as ‘their” collection. We have developed a real
following of our members.
Shim LaGoy – The great thing
about our custom collection is it immediately generated conversation between
our staff and members. Now, there is a real sense of pride in carrying our own
custom shirts and sweaters.
Nick Papadakes – We are using our
custom collection exclusively to celebrate our centennial. It is very exciting
to know that such a special event logo will appear only on our own shirts.
Custom branded product is by
definition a differentiator but I think it’s important to talk about how it has
evolved in other retail channels.
Well custom branding certainly
has evolved in every market segment and in almost every product category. As
the products offered have improved, so have the sales results. Today, custom
branded products are driving not only profitability, but sales volume in
retailers at the top end of the market like Nordstrom and Saks as well as the
mass marketers like Costco. The real lesson here is that when done correctly,
the consumer responds very favorably to custom branded products, which in turn
means the retailer becomes more successful.
I have been asked many times why
we started this business and I often refer to a business failure of mine. Years
ago I was part of a team that built a multimillion dollar branded business with
Nordstrom. We were fortunate as well to build similar businesses with Macy’s
and Robinsons in the same market. Despite successful sales, my business with
Nordstrom started to decline. They would politely mention that it was difficult
for them to grow the business with me while I was growing the business with
their competitors who were more promotional. Eventually, Nordstrom stopped
buying completely. I will never forget the merchandise manager saying to me,
“We just don’t think it is a good business strategy to allow our competition to
determine our profitability.” He was right and golf shops today need to be very
aware of the competitive pressure on them as well.
Golf shops have a very unique
opportunity as each one already has a valuable brand. In almost every case, I
can assure the Club Professional or Club Merchandiser that their brand value is
greater than they think. Are some club brands greater than others, for sure,
but that does not mean they all can’t benefit from a great focus on their own brand…they
can and more and more clubs are doing it every day. We are very grateful for
the opportunity to assist along the way.
If your staff enjoys and is properly trained to engage customers in conversation about your inventory as opposed to the "hang it and hope" modus operandi then you can do well with custom branding from Full Turn Direct. The Supima cotton and EcoTec stories are great fabrication stories to be able to tell and Mark continues to upgrade the line, always looking for the newest and best and developing his own.
The hang-tag on apparel is a valuable marketing space and I have worked with Mark, his wife Rollie and their staff to design them to market what was most relevant to the facility's business from tournaments, outings and corporate sales to real estate. The ability to use the suggested retail - give something of value away as promotion - and still make full retail margin is a true competitive edge in today's marketplace.
I have spoken at the Full Turn Direct sales meeting and spent time with the reps. They are accommodating and want your efforts in custom branding to be successful. The banner to the right will take you to the web-site and I'm sure Mark or any member of the staff would be good conversation if you are considering this avenue as a way to improve business.
