Chris Gutzler

Marketing
Noll
09/05/16
DeMarini Bats Term Project Paper
Summary
DeMarini, a sports company that produces baseball and softball
equipment, is well-known and trusting company with its customer and in the
sports world. DeMarini is brand owned by Amer Sports which was established
in 1950 out of Finland, and operated as a tobacco company. DeMarini is
headquartered in Hillsboro, Oregon and was founded in 1989 by Ray
DeMarini. DeMarini is also paired with Wilson, the world leader in
manufacturing sports equipment. Louisville Slugger, the most favored bat in
the baseball market, is part of Wilson. DeMarini was acquired by Amer Sports
in 2000 and became part of the Wilson team sports division. The bat market
is fairly huge considering how popular baseball is. In 2015, the bat market
raked in 190.93 million dollars. With a lot of competition and new technology
rolling out onto the market, integration into this market is fairly hard,
especially when marketing major league players. While DeMarini is not a
preferred choice for the MLB market, it is among the top four top brands for
little league baseball, which is much bigger than Major League Baseball.

DeMarini may not be preferred among the MLB, but through their promotions
and advertisements, DeMarini can successfully target little leaguers.
DeMarini promotes its brand through sponsorships, testing facilities, bat
representatives that attend facilities and games, and through some players
in the MLB that are a bit known. And the bat market for sure comes with its
strengths and weaknesses in which DeMarini is a company which treads
these waters fairly well. In the coming years, DeMarini should become more
popular and continue to dominate among younger players and even make its
way into the MLB more.
Introduction
Amer Sports in one of the biggest sports companies in the market
today, they own ten different branches that cover a variety of sports markets
in the world. Established in Finland, 1950 as Amer Tobacco Oy, the company
owned rights to sell Phillip Morris cigarettes and became one of the biggest
in the market. They invested n buying three ships which imported and
exported tobacco and good. As profits started to tumble, Amer sold its ships
to accompany for the loss profits during this time. Amer Tobacco Oy then
bought several publishing and printing businesses to help boost its
publishing activities. But in 1974, Amer decided to take on a completely
different and new market as they added manufacture of ice hockey sticks
and protective equipment, Koho-Tuote to the family. Amer then acquire the
Koho Sporting Goods in 1978 to be a distributor of products in North America.

Since the addition of new markets and companies, Amer Tobacco Oy decided
to change its name in 1973 to Amer Group LTD. Since its opening, Amer has
become even more successful as time continues earning a listing on the
NASDAQ OMX Helsinki, which is targeted at its employees, shareholders and
members. IN 1984, Amer decides to take another step into a new market as
they majority holders in Korpivaara, the oldest and largest importer of cars in
Finland, with special rights to Toyota, Suzuki, Bridgestone tires, and Firestone
tires. But it is not until 1986 that Amer establishes its sports division when
they acquire eighty percent of Macgregor Golf Company from golfer Jack
Nicklaus. And in 1989 Amer continues to expand its interest in sports as
they buy Wilson, the largest manufacturer of sports equipment. And Fast
forward to 2000, Amer purchases DeMarini and the company becomes part
of the Wilson Sports Team. But lastly, in 2004 Amer Group LTD., changes its
name to Amer Sports, thus beginning the saga of one of the biggest
companies in the market.
As a part of Amer Sports, DeMarini is one of ten brands that specialize
in its own market. DeMarini serves in the baseball market, producing base
and softballs bats, and batting gloves. DeMarini is headquartered in
Hillsboro, Oregon and was found by Ray DeMarini in 1989. As one of the up
and coming powerhouses of the baseball bat market, DeMarini produced the
first multi-wall baseball bat which provides enhanced hitting power.
Markets

The sports market in America is fairly large, this market including

professional baseball, basketball, hockey, etc., brought in 60.5 billion dollars
in 2014 by itself alone. It is expected by 2019 to bring in 73.5 billion dollars.
The sports market is segmented by gate revenue at 17.7 billion, media rights
at 14.6 billion, sponsorships at 14.7 billion, and merchandising at 13.5 billion
dollars all in 2014. By 2019, Gate revenue is expected to be 20.1 billion,
media rights 20.6 billion, sponsorships 18.3 billion, and merchandising at
14.5 billion all totaling up to be 73.5 billion dollars. Thus with these numbers
alone you can account that baseball is a fairly big market. DeMarini serves a
very specific market, Bats, but it is segmented demographically as it is very
specific and particular. While bats include baseball and softball bats, we will
mostly be focusing on baseball bats in this report. There mostly only four
different kinds of baseball bats: wooden baseball bats, composite baseball
bats (carbon fiber), aluminum baseball bats and half and half baseball bats
(aluminum barrel and composite handle). While this is a very specific market,
baseball bats have a very big targeted market. The target market is Major
League Baseball, High school baseball, Collegiate baseball, little league
baseball, Semi-professional baseball leagues such as the minor leagues and
independent baseball leagues, Colombian leagues, Nippon Professional
Baseball, KBO league, and many more around the world.
Size and Growth of Market

While Baseball bats make up most of the baseball equipment market

now, it is expected to hold 28% of the market by 2020 with wooden bats
being the fastest growing category. In 2009, the baseball bat market was 160
million dollars, the Baseball bat market alone in 2015 was worth 190.93
million dollars, according to wholesale sales. The whole market including
gloves, baseball, batting gloves, softballs, and others came out to be 537.1
million dollars altogether. The market is expected to grow with new
regulations, designs, and prices to change how safe and powerful the bats
are.
Environmental Impact
Most bats in the major leagues are mostly ash wood bats because ash
is harder, and legal than most other woods. With the demand of more and
more wood bats, this means that more and more trees must be cut down in
order to fulfill this want. Along with the pressure of more and more bats on
forest, the cutting of trees are not the only threat, there is another that is
more dangerous. Recently, there have been bugs found in mostly just ash
trees, these bugs are responsible for disappearance of half of ash forests
alone. Therefore, along with demand for more wooden bats, this bug puts a
real strain of forest to produce the woods that are wanted. Aluminum bats
however, are a bit less rough, but still put a strain on the environment.
Whatever the metal bat is made out of, it has to be mined in order to be

made. The upside is that aluminum bats can mostly be recycled and use
somewhere else.
Technological Impact
With demands of new rules and regulation on what types of bats that
can be made (ex. BESR bats to BBCOR bats), there are more technological
improvements to bats so the hitter can get more from their swing. The AXE
Bat is a product of Baden bats, which offers a handle thats represents an
axe for a more natural swing, as it is made to fit the human palm. The
downside to these is that you can only hit the baseball one face of the barrel
which causes the bat to break easier. Another improvement is the Torq Bat.
This bat allows a 360 degree turn of the knob so that batters do not roll their
hands over on the ball, which shortens their swing and cause them to hit the
ball on the ground. Another improvement is the Smart Bat that has a
sensor inside that tracks your swing speed, bat angle when swinging through
to the ball, and offers personal tips for better improvements. While these
could certainly help hitters, these bats have yet to gain traction anywhere.

Smart Bat by Zepp

Torq bat by Easton

Axe bat by Baden

Competitions
The bat market is a tough and very competitive market. There are many bat
brands that are out there that offer you many different things. But luckily,
there is a list of the top bat brands for the Major league market, and For the
Little league market too.
For Major league Baseball, the top 6 brands are as follows with popularity
percentage:
1. Louisville Slugger at 20.25%

2. Marucci Bats at 14.75%

Sales
Louisvile Slugger
Marucci
Old Hickory
Sam Bat
MaxBat
Rawlings

3.

Old Hickory

at 6%
4. Sam Bat at 5.5%
5. MaxBat at 3%
6. Rawlings Bats at 2.5%
These six brands hold the majority of popularity votes at 52%.
*Data from Whatproswear
For the Little League market, the top four brands are as follows

1.
2.
3.
4.

Louisville slugger
DeMarini
Easton
Marucci Bats

As of lately, DeMarini has been dominating the Little League market.

Promotions
Since bats are only for the baseball market and not any other, they do
not air TV ads or have ads in open places. The ads for bats are place in
baseball clubs, their workout facilities, and more. They also use sponsorships
to help them, for example D-1 college teams are a huge plus for bat
companies. DeMarini supplies many D-1 baseball colleges across the country.

They sponsor the TCU horned frogs, Vanderbilt, and South Carolina
Gamescocks for starters. They also have ex MLB players within their team,
for example, Charlie Hayes, former MLB player of 14 years for Yankees,
Pirates, Phillies, and World Series winner, coaches a younger segment of
Team DeMarini and still has MLB connections. Another MLB player that is still
playing is Brandon Phillips of the Cincinnati Reds. DeMarini facilities also lets
players test out demo bats before buying, you can test as many as you like.
They also extend their to let players try demos by sending out
representatives to different little league clubs, facilities, games, schools,
summer teams and well known up and coming players.

Methods of Distribution
Bat manufacturers are just like any other company when it comes to
distributing their products. They use retailers, wholesalers, online sales,
catalogs, mail order and door to door. When using retailers, stores like Dicks

sporting good, Johnny macs, Olympic sporting goods, Hibbett sports, and
sports authority until they closed. Retail stores are very popular when buying
bats because you are able to pick up the bat, swing it, weighed it, see it and
have it right away. But online sale are becoming a bit more popular too. Of
course the retail store offer online buying, but some other websites are
justbats.com, cheapbats.com, closeoutbats.com, baseballexpress.com, and
eastbay.com. When using wholesalers, it is more so for the use of local sports
stores, such as Johnny Macs. And just like every other big retail store, Dicks,
Johnny macs, Olympic sporting goods, even online store such as
eastbay.com, and baseballexpress.com, send out catalog to people who sign
up for them, you can mail order from these catalogs too, or even call in an
order. Door to Door happens when dealing with a representative of the
company who shows up at games, schools, academies, and etc. Mail orders
are also used when dealing face to face with a representative if you are
wanting to buy later.
Pricing Methodology
With new technology, rules, and better bats coming out on the market,
bats can range anywhere from 40 dollar to upwards of 500 dollars and over.
Aluminum bats are of course more expensive ranging anywhere from the 40
dollar to the 500 dollar range. Pricing can vary on the different type of
aluminum bats, composite bats are anywhere from 70 dollars to 500 dollars.
Half and half bats range from 50dollars to 400 dollars. Aluminum bats can be

anywhere from 40 dollars (cheap aluminum) to 500 dollars (more expensive

aluminum). Wood bats however, are not as expensive as 500 dollars; they
can range from 40 dollars to 300 dollars. Pricing of wood bats are the same
as aluminum, the cheaper and less durable the wood, the least expensive,
the hard and more durable the wood is, more expensive. Also, the price can
vary depending on the type of wood, for example ash, bamboo, and maple
wood bats are usually the harder woods (that are allowed to be used in
games) and are most popular and therefore are usually more expensive.

Financial sales and margins

The chart below shows the manufacture sales of baseball bats from
2009 to 2015. In the year 2009, sales were up to 201 million dollars. Up until
the 2011 there was a decline in sales due to players loving their bats and
using only the bat they had. But in 2013, new rules come out issuing that
only BBCOR bats are to be used and BESR bats were thus banned, allowing
sales to be picked up again. And in the year 2015, sales have become better
and will continue to get better with new technology and regulations coming
into the scene.
*Data according to Statista.

Bat Sales (2009 to 2015 in millions)

205
200
195
190

Bat Sales (2009 to 2015 in

millions)

185
180
175
170
165
2009

2011

2013

2015

Marketing Strengths
The biggest strength of the bat market is that baseball is one of the
biggest sports in the US. A lot of people call baseball Americas pastime, if
you are a diehard baseball fan anyway. If the baseball bat market was not
around, then baseball would not be baseball. It could very well be something
else or even not exist because in order to play baseball, you need to hit the
ball and put it into play, so as long as baseball remains a popular sport the
bat market will always be around. DeMarini is an established bat company,
but they are still up and coming as they are more popular among little
league players. And normally players are loyal to their favorite baseball
brands until they are dissatisfied. DeMarini also have a lot of sponsorship
with colleges that allow players to swing their bats and players can fall in
love with these bats or not. One thing that makes players fall in love with a

bat is the quality. So questions like how big is the sweet spot? How much pop
does this bat have? Is it the right size? How balanced is the bat?, are very
important when choosing a bat. DeMarini have done very well in the
category of all these questions. They produce great quality bats for the price
and continue to strive.
Marketing Weaknesses
A big weakness for this market is that bats are targeted for a very
specific market. There is only one intended use for a bat, to swing during a
game. This is the only intended use for a bat and will continue to be so
forever as bats are only made for baseball and softball markets. A
consequence that comes with this problem is that sales of bats level out very
quickly. When a player buys his/hers bats they use them for years to come as
they are very durable. More sales come as rules of bats change or if players
grow tired of their current bats. And also while there are more technological
advances on the horizon, they normally take a long time to gain traction. The
reason is because people love the traditional bat and wouldnt want anything
else. But DeMarini has done a great job to tread these waters, they continue
to make balance, durable bats with the traditional style and change with the
market as the baseball population wants.
Recommendations
There is no doubt that DeMarini has integrated the little league market
well; especially because they make great aluminum bats. But DeMarini

should take a bigger step and try to integrate into the MLB market more.
They should try and sign big name players to sponsorships, as most of the
sponsorships are with colleges. If they can get more big name MLB players to
swing their bats more will follow. Also, advertisements would be more
persuasive with big name athletes. As far as technological advances,
DeMarini has not really brought out a new product for the bat market. They
continue to make reliable bats, but the market will eventually change, as
smart bats are to be the future of the sport if allowed by the rules. Another
step DeMarini could take is to ask and evaluate players wants and needs in
a baseball bat. Most players just go to the store and test a bat and continue
to buy that brand because they trust it. If a bat is made to our needs and
wants, it will do better.

Citations
http://www.nj.com/sports/njsports/index.ssf/2009/03/innovative_new_jersey_batmak
er.html

http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/smart-bat
https://blog.cheapbats.com/2015-easton-slowpitch-softball-bat-lineup/
http://blog.justbats.com/blog/index.php/3292/the-science-behind-the-badenaxe
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/methods-distributing-product-45501.html

https://priceonomics.com/baseball-bats/
http://www.statista.com/statistics/258578/baseball-softball-sportsequipment-wholesale-sales-in-the-us/
http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2016/04/11/baseball-bat-is-finallygetting-tech-upgrade.html
http://planetsave.com/2013/02/03/environmental-impacts-of-baseball-bats-2/
http://teamdemarinibaseball.com/index.html
http://www.justbatreviews.com/top-rated-baseball-bats-2015/
http://www.whatproswear.com/top-3-bat-brands-swung-by-mlb-stars-and-thebrands-chasing-them/
http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2016/04/11/baseball-bat-is-finallygetting-tech-upgrade.html
http://www.mbaskool.com/brandguide/sports-teams-and-events/6236-mlbmajor-league-baseball.html
http://www.technavio.com/report/usa-general-retail-goods-and-servicesbaseball-equipment-market-us-2016-2020
http://www.forbes.com/sites/darrenheitner/2015/10/19/sports-industry-toreach-73-5-billion-by-2019/#76168c561585
https://www.amersports.com/about-us/our-business/our-history/