Lifestyle Branding, Multiple Sales Are Critical To Apparel Success

The invitation was accepted to meet with Ralph Dunning at the newly-opened retail store devoted to the Dunning apparel line in a trendy uptown area on Toronto’s Yonge Street.

Standing among shirts and pants not normally associated with golf, Dunning continued with the invitations, inviting golf professionals and buyers to drop by.

Admittedly, he says, golf professionals aren’t traditionally overly anxious to visit retail outlets, but such a field trip could be educational, he says, with the consumer doing the teaching in many cases.

“What we’re seeing down here is that we’re getting a lot of the (consumer) golf guys who stop in, know the brand, but outside of golf, our brand is still relatively unknown,” said Dunning.

“What we’re seeing is a lot of young guys who are brand conscious, who want to wear our logo, so where does that relate back to the pro? Eventually, you can start to carry branded product in your store because there are other ways you can wear it,” he said.

Dunning says golf shops can open new avenues of revenue by transitioning their members or customers to apparel being worn off the fairways in offices and restaurants through the extension of their golf brands.

“The branding side of what we’re doing is just as important as the product side,” said Dunning of his latest venture on Yonge St.

“In the U.S., you see some of the pro shops, they’re carrying brands that you would see in a Nordstrom or a Bloomingdale’s because they recognize that if I’m not getting that sale in my shop, well, who is getting that sale?” he said.

“They look at apparel as a revenue stream and not just as a necessary evil like I think some courses have done,” said Dunning.

“They’ve gone out, hired outside merchandisers that focus on here’s how to buy colour groupings, product categories, so when a member comes in, they’ll take the time to show them new products – this dress pant goes with this shirt, you can wear this to play in, you can wear this to work, you can wear this to dinner.”

Dunning says golf, like other activities, becomes a lifestyle for the people who participate. Surf fans, for example, wear brand names such as Billabong and Quiksilver on the street, according to Dunning, whose own background is in triathlon.

“If you’re into golf and you’re a player, it’s a huge part of your life. Your whole life revolves around your game. You build traveling and everything around it,” he said. “They want to wear brands that are a reflection of their life, but it hasn’t been positioned that way before.

“I think the lifestyle element is a reflection of the game and guys want to wear logos that are associated with the sports they’re passionate about,” he said. “If you sit in the airport, watch the number of guys who are wearing Titleist caps. It’s incredible,” said Dunning.

Broadening the appeal of his brand will obviously pay dividends for Dunning, but he says it will also work well for golf shops if they embrace the lifestyle aspect of apparel.

“When you come here, you get an experience of the golf side of what we do and then, there’s a story that goes along with it that relates to what you’re wearing day to day,” said Dunning.

“Even if (golf shops) aren’t interested in carrying our brand, golf as an industry needs to learn how to sell product in the categories that we just talked about. Whether they’re carrying us or competing brands, if their businesses are going to be successful, then we need to do something like this,” he said.

“Moving forward, it’s going to be critical. If you’re doing $300,000 in apparel right now, I don’t see why you couldn’t take it up to $500,000 by just explaining to members this is how it works as a system. It’s not just important, it’s critical to keep the business surviving and growing,” he said.

Being able to offer a broader variety of products has the potential to expand sales, simply by selling as a system, according to Dunning.

“Instead of having someone buy a $50 shirt, if you can move them into a $150 purchase by saying, `Here’s a shirt, but here’s a short that’s technical.’ We see it all the time. They’ll buy a tech shirt, but they’re playing in cotton shorts and cotton boxers,” he said.

“If you take a player and put him in technical underwear, technical socks, a pair of tech shorts with a tech shirt, like they do in running and cycling, that member comes back in and says, `That completely changed my round. I’m not going to be croaking on the 15th hole.’

“There are so many technical reasons to do it, but from a business perspective, that sale’s $200, so your days start to change as retailers if you’re doing multiple sales with multiple groups,” he said.

“Our catalogue is done by collection, which means there’s a colour story and there are also multiple fabric stories, which is critical,” he says of the various tastes among consumers.

Communicating the message of lifestyle branding to their customers and reaping the benefits of multiple sales are two reasons that Dunning hopes golf professionals will break with tradition and come down to his retail outlet to see what his company is up to there.

“The merchandising aspect is key,” he said.

“Understanding about group buys by fabric application, colour application and then, explaining to members about different fits, that your body type might be geared towards certain fits,” explained Dunning, adding that the company will walk golf professionals through the fitting process.

“That’s what we do for the tour players, so if golf professionals come down here, we’ll take them through the exact same process as a tour player so, in turn, they can explain to their members how you should be wearing this stuff,” he said.

“There are just so many ways to generate revenue if you’re giving them an education process here and then, in turn, they go back t the members. There are a lot of ways you can educate people and we can do that upstairs here in sportswear and we can do it downstairs in (the golf section).”

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