Manufacturing
Elevated Brand Image Mixing History and Innovation

PING

PING partnered with us to build a brand-focused microsite to strengthen its market position in its new PLD line of putters.
Overview

Expanding Traditions With a New Product Line

Former General Electric engineer Karsten Solheim began making golf putters in his garage in 1959. That endeavor eventually turned into PING, a golf equipment manufacturing company that is still operated by the Solheim family today. In 2020, PING partnered with MentorMate to build a microsite featuring a new premium line of putters for consumers. The Putting Lab Design (PLD) initiative fuses PING’s engineering excellence and decades-long history in the business.

Challenge

PING sought to launch a microsite that builds awareness of its PLD brand, informs top-tier customers of an unmatched custom fitting experience, and drives sales of PLD products.

Insight

As a company founded on putter innovation in the 1950s, PING deemed it important to remind golfers of its inspiring heritage and solidify its presence in the putter market.

Solution

We built a microsite for the PLD brand where golfers can purchase premium putters either directly via a customization option or through the company’s traditional retail partner channel.

The PINGPLD.COM microsite helped us build the PLD brand by sharing PING’s rich putter history while showcasing new Tour-inspired precision milled models.

Jeff Thomas

Product Line Manager of PLD, PING

SOLUTION

Fulfilling Golfers’ Premium Putter Wishes

Aligned with the PING brand, the PLD platform allows golfers to equip themselves with a one-of-a-kind putter that best fits their specific needs. The lineup consists of four options. PLD Custom allows golfers to craft their own putter design with the guidance of a PING Master Putter Fitter, PLD Limited lets users buy a rare and collectible putter, PLD Milled offers a collection of tour-validated models, and PLD Milled Plus offers the PLD Milled putters with customization options. A low-maintenance, high-value digital asset, the PLD web application is integrated into the existing digital infrastructure of the company’s primary website. 

Services
UX / UI Design
Elevate Your User Experience
Web Development
Consistent Experience Across Platforms
Mobile Development
Connect With Your Users
Quality Assurance
Ensure the quality of your software
Business Analysis
Identify Needs & Maximize Value
Technical Architecture
Lay the Foundation for Your Software
DESIGN

Designing To Deliver a Message and a Brand Image

As a design-led effort, we initiated the PLD project by completing extensive research and persona development. Both were crucial as we were engaged with the development of not just a microsite but a message and brand image as well. Central to this was our visit to PING’s headquarters for key stakeholder interviews which informed a distilled set of insights that guided our strategy. 

As a next step, we conducted user research to gather insights into what potential customers look for when choosing their golf clubs. We identified distinct customer personas, ranging from avid to casual golfers. Each persona had varied perspectives on heritage and technology and different goals, frustrations, motivations, and purchasing drivers. 

 

The user research gave us a good understanding of who we should appeal to with the microsite and how we should best position PLD. It drove content creation towards highlighting the aspects consumers find most valuable and gave us an overall look and feel of the visual design concept. In the conceptual phase, we explored multiple design themes. PING’s selection of a concept that harmonized legacy with modernity shaped the final design direction for the PLD platform. 

MentorMate’s user-centered approach was paramount to this project which began with extensive research and a thorough understanding of a very specific audience – dedicated golfers who demand a lot from their game and equipment. This approach helped us to define the positioning and tone for the PLD brand, which eventually translated into a rich consumer experience for golfers looking for the best-milled putter to level up their game.

Chris Klimek

Principal UX Designer, PING

PROCESS

A Fruitful Ongoing Partnership

For the PLD initiative, PING required a full-service partner who could integrate the design and development processes. The design work started as phase one of the project and, a couple of months later, overlapped with the development, testing, and deployment phases. Our team partnered with PING stakeholders on technical solutions and worked in a scrum methodology throughout development. At the end of the project, PING distributed our software and quality engineers across multiple internal projects, and additionally, we continued our collaboration on several new initiatives. 

IMPACT

Boosting PING’s Premium Reputation

The PINGPLD.COM microsite has allowed PING to tell the story of a new sub-brand with specific content, beautiful videos, and graphics. The site has grown as additional products have been added. This sub-brand has become a major focus and opportunity for the company’s growth.

We've integrated the MentorMate engineers into our software development team, and they are one of us. They’re enthusiastic, enjoy working on new projects, and are willing to learn. They’ve allowed us to expand our team and have helped PING bring new applications to the market quicker.

Tom Hadden

Director of Customer and Consumer Business Development, PING

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Everyone working on your project is fully invested in its success. We care just as much about how your software looks and performs as we do about the problem that it’s solving. We work, learn, and celebrate together, measuring success by the duration of our long-term partnerships.

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