Head was ahead of the game

[film1]

Out of all the new tech ideas and marketing concepts the racquet companies have used in recent years I think the Liquid Metal head used was the best.
They should have kept going that route and made more advancments with LM but or some reason they went another (flex point) direction. (perhaps cost)

Anyway, look for people outside the tennis world to take the margeting of liquid metal to a whole new level.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Apple-takes-gulp-of-strong-apf-1703700041.html?x=0

 

[Jinx]

Flexpoint was still using head's liquidmetal technology... they dropped liquidmetal when microgel came into play.

 

[film1]

I mainly mean the heavy marketing aspect was dropped.

 

[Outlined]

Out of all the new tech ideas and marketing concepts the racquet companies have used in recent years I think the Liquid Metal head used was the best.

I do not see why. I liked the LM Radical and the LM Prestige but I think the (clever) distribution of mass atributed more to the way it plays. Not the liquid metal.

 

[El Diablo]

The link points out just how lame the liquidmetal thing was -- its only distinctive feature is cosmetic.

 

[vsbabolat]

Out of all the new tech ideas and marketing concepts the racquet companies have used in recent years I think the Liquid Metal head used was the best.
They should have kept going that route and made more advancments with LM but or some reason they went another (flex point) direction. (perhaps cost)

Anyway, look for people outside the tennis world to take the margeting of liquid metal to a whole new level.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Apple-takes-gulp-of-strong-apf-1703700041.html?x=0

Well I thought the Liquidmetal Prestige was one of the worst racquet I ever hit with. But what do I know. Also Liquidmetal was still being used and marketed in HEAD Skis until 2010. HEAD is still using Piezoelectric fibers in their Ski line which was also used in the racquets.

 

[The_Question]

Before HEAD liquidmetal, there was Prince CTS Synergy...same concept, but a different name by a different company...

 

[film1]

I am not talking about the technology as much as I am the marketing.
For example, I don't personally think a lot of things out there that were heavily marketed have been very interesting and/or effective such as:
Micro gel, you tek, cortex, GT, ncode, kfactor etc.
I think much of the added technology is often an attempt to simply offer something new to sell and perhaps at times respond to some complaints like tennis elbow but I thought Liquid Metal could have had more staying power.

 

[vsbabolat]

I am not talking about the technology as much as I am the marketing.
For example, I don't personally think a lot of things out there that were heavily marketed have been very interesting and/or effective such as:
Micro gel, you tek, cortex, GT, ncode, kfactor etc.
I think much of the added technology is often an attempt to simply offer something new to sell and perhaps at times respond to some complaints like tennis elbow but I thought Liquid Metal could have had more staying power.

"Technologies" in the tennis industry have a very short life span. Then they have to have a new one to market to generate sales. The average life span now for "Technologies" is 2 years.

Oh I forgot that before HEAD used Liquidmetal it was used in the Golf clubs.

 

[Keifers]

It's gotta be tough for the marketing people to keep coming up with new names for these new "technologies."

 

[film1]

I think it has more to do with the marketing than the actual technology but I liked the LM and think they could have implimented that into the next technoloy the same way Babalot did Cortex into the GT model.

 

[vsbabolat]

I think it has more to do with the marketing than the actual technology but I liked the LM and think they could have implimented that into the next technoloy the same way Babalot did Cortex into the GT model.

They did with Flexpoint. Then they had to move on.

 

[film1]

I like the way Babalot continues to uses some of the things it has marketed in the past.
Like Woofer and cortex.
Head seems to say, remember all those things we said were great and would help your game?
Forget that, now we have moved on to _______ and babalot seems to believe in the things they have marketed to you in the past enough to keep them around.
Babalot appears to be growth oriented as opposed to pure marketing rotation (out with the old, in with the new).

 

[pyrokid]

I like the way Babalot continues to uses some of the things it has marketed in the past.
Like Woofer and cortex.
Head seems to say, remember all those things we said were great and would help your game?
Forget that, now we have moved on to _______ and babalot seems to believe in the things they have marketed to you in the past enough to keep them around.
Babalot appears to be growth oriented as opposed to pure marketing rotation (out with the old, in with the new).

Yeah, but that's still just a marketing gimmick on babolat's part.

I mean, sure, they stuck cortex on the GTs, but most people disliked the cortex versions compared to the previous woofer ones. And there's no way babolat doesn't know that the cortex wasn't as well liked.

 

[Nuke]

...but or some reason they went another (flex point) direction. (perhaps cost)

For sure, holes are cheraper to produce than metal.

 

[TnTBigman]

How much of that "liquid metal" substance or any technology do you really think was a part of the racquet composition itself? Was it enough to casue the claim's HEAD marketed? We just don't know. All I do know is that the various Prestige racquets within same headsize using the various technologies do play differently. But overall specs like static, active weight, balance, shape of beam etc vary to the point that I can't tell if it is the technology at work.

I remember the Sports Authroity HEAD demo fiberglass gadget where they had a ball of Titanium (so it claims) and a ball containing "liquidmetal" (so they claim) in seperate compartments. And when they were dropped from the same height by tilting the gadget, the "liqiudmetal" ball would seemingly not stop bouncing off the base fiberglass frame. Where as the "titanium" ball dropped dead after 3 bounces.

 

[film1]

For sure, holes are cheraper to produce than metal.

I meant from a research and development point of view smart guy.

 

[saigonbond]

Remember that Head's pedigree comes from being 1st and foremost a ski company. Much of their technology can be attributed to this.

 

[film1]

Remember that Head's pedigree comes from being 1st and foremost a ski company. Much of their technology can be attributed to this.

I know Head has been making skis for longer than racquets but they had some popular racquets starting in the 70s.
They have made many of great frames since then but I have questioned their marketing in recent years.

 

[saigonbond]

I think your overall marketing argument is a valid one, just maybe not with Liquidmetal specifically. Liquidmetal was not invented by Head. They paid to use the technology. With that being said, you obviously first must have technology and innovation to market.

Racquet manufacturing is a huge business where the big dogs (Wilson, Head, Prince, Babolat) are constantly having to innovate to keep up with each other in order to not lose marketshare. This is not unique. Virtually every business in competitive industries (ie. computers, cars, TVs, etc.) understand this. These companies no longer do their own advertising and marketing, but instead hire firms to handle it. Even more prevalent in the US market, its all about "keeping up with the Joneses."

Here's a great article from back in 1999, that discusses your topic touching on R & D as well as marketing:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4070/is_speiss/ai_55727949/

Cheers!