Consumers love the Callaway Golf Company—and are more passionate it than for any other golf brand in the US, according to the NetBase Brand Passion Index, which measures the intensity of consumer passion for brands among users of online communities.
In anticipation of Father's Day and the US Open Championship final on June 20, the brand passion index measured consumers' emotional involvement around major US golf brands.
Callaway's high love score (large green bubble, below) is a function of the intensity of love expressed for Callaway in online conversations—as well as the high level of online chatter in the context of that emotion—much of it around the X-22 Irons Series.
Though Nike Golf and Callaway are the subject of nearly equal amounts of online chatter, Nike Golf is "liked" by most consumers (yellow bubble)—rather than "loved."
Nike's association with Tiger Woods has apparently not affected the passion level for the Nike Golf brand—as indicated by little negative online chatter in that regard.
Overall, golfers expressed little hate toward any of the major brands (in contrast to last month's Index findings about Wal-Mart).
Titleist registered the least amount of love, due to an abundance of "like only" online chatter about that brand.
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Using measures across a spectrum of emotions—love, like, dislike, and hate—the Netbase Brand Passion Index reads and understands what people are saying online, then surfaces and aggregates those likes and dislikes, as well as the emotions and behaviors associated with brands.
The following excerpts from online discussions capture the passion that consumers feel about the most loved golf brand, Callaway Golf Company:
- "I absolutely love Callaway."
- "I personally love the Callaway gloves."
- "78 today oh yeah!!!! I love my Callaway X-22 irons!"
- "My husband is a golfer and he loves the Callaway golf balls."
Nike Golf had a high like score, a result of a full spectrum of consumer chatter:
- "@Country_Steve I just hate Nike full stop. How on earth did they get into golf? They are the Rupert Murdoch of sports gear."
- "Can anyone recommend a decent golf ball...not too expensive, not too cheap?"
- "I like the Nike Golf Power Distance Soft."
- "I love my new Nike Method Putter!"
About the data: To generate the June 2010 Index, ConsumerBase analyzed golf-related online conversations across the Web over the previous 12 months.