Publicity

When Brad Holder was in high school, making posters with classmates for a Friday night football game, he had no tolerance for the color yellow. "It's the truth. It always drove me nuts, when something wasn't readable from a distance." That's the mark of someone destined for P-O-P.

Now visual marketing manager for adidas Golf, Carlsbad, Calif., Holder began with Arthur Andersen as an I.T. business consultant. However, he's always wanted to be in marketing — or playing for the San Diego Padres. Working for a sports company at least, Holder leads a charge in revamping a global look for adidas Golf P-O-P. He says the look will scream performance. Beyond that, Holder wants to focus on P-O-P as science — measuring sell-through to make it a viable sales tool.

Describe the new global look you're working on.

I inherited the tail end of a program, so one of my main tasks was to revamp it going forward. In January we will be rolling out across the board a new in-store look and feel. The Carlson Group is driving it.

I don't want to disclose a massive P-O-P rollout three months prior to it hitting stores, but it is more technical, more progressive. It reflects the heritage of adidas much better with black and white, and has a performance focus.

With the golf category, you're juggling two classes of trade, the classy pro shop and the vinyl-floored sporting goods store, right? Definitely, but we don't want to create two completely independent programs, we want a unified look. So, if a consumer is in a pro shop or walking into an off-course store such as Golf Galaxy or Golfsmith, they'll see the same brand from adidas. With the new launch, we tried to create a color palette that looks classy and upscale in a pro shop, and techy and progressive in a sporting goods store.

Anything you still want to learn in this industry?

The next big step is retail science, the ability to apply some analytics to how you look at square footage in the store and the dollar turn per square foot. Try and quantify a before-and-after snapshot of the sell-through, the sales results after a certain P-O-P program.

Thus far, my focus has mainly been on development, the look, engineering and working with vendors. But once we get it in store, I want to start measuring the effect. That's really my next step because, "making stuff look pretty" is what salespeople think of marketing, but I want P-O-P to be thought of as a tool in their kit of sales tactics.

How important is licensing in golf?

It's key because the philosophy in golf is called the "pyramid of influence," starting with tour players. If a player isn't on the leader board, he's not on camera Saturday and Sunday. So, to a certain extent, your dollars aren't being used right.

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