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About David Long

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B2B marketing since 1987 - yes really!

Hi, I’m David Long and this is a little snapshot of my career in marketing. And yes, I really did start my marketing career way back in January 1987 when I joined Satchwell Controls – part of the then mighty GEC – a UK manufacturing and engineering PLC
 
It didn’t take me too long to realise that British engineering companies were not really going to invest too much into their marketing. So after a couple of years I took a leap of faith and joined a German computer company called Nixdorf (then bought by Siemens a couple of years later).
 
I worked with a number of the smaller technology based entrepreneurial units within the company. During my time at Siemens Nixdorf, the company grew from £100 million turnover in the UK to over £500 million. I like to think that I played a small part in that growth. When we meet, ask me about the time that I ended up working for a young (pre-Dragons Den) Peter Jones!
 
I then moved on to a small software company based in the USA as part of the European management team preparing for a takeover by Nortel Networks. It was great fun, I built a team of 16 people across 3 countries and spent my working week flying between my teams in Reading, Munich and Paris. During this time I learnt a lot about people management and multi-national marketing campaigns.

And then I became a dad and had an epiphany. 

I didn’t want to spend my working week away from home. So I took redundancy and left the corporate world back in late 2001.
 
Since then, I have worked almost continually as a marketing consultant to businesses of all sizes and market sectors. The one common theme amongst them was that they wanted / needed the marketing function to provide a stronger ROI.
 
I say almost continually because in the middle of all that, I set-up a digital marketing agency in Paris and successfully ran that for 3 years before exiting the business by selling out to my co-founder.
 
Since 2001, I have worked within telecoms, technology and professional services markets, helping SMBs to grow through developing and delivering strategic B2B lead generation programmes using multi-channel marketing.
 
More recently, I have branched out to work with a small number of golf industry start-ups after the success of my own golf accessories business – see below for more info.

Oh, and I run a golf accessories business too!

Babouche Golf is all about high quality golf head covers, towels and other accessories. My aim is to put colour back into your golf game, one head cover or towel at a time.

It all started in late 2017 when I took my 2 teenage daughters on holiday to Marrakech. It wasn’t long after my beautiful, amazing wife had passed away following her battle with cancer. We needed to regroup and start to rebuild our lives, and I needed to find another source of income as I wanted to be able to work from home so I could look after my girls.

An old friend of mine who lives in Marrakech treated me and my girls to a wonderful rooftop lunch and a tour of the medina. She introduced me to a lovely guy called Khalid, who was making leather handbags for her business, and it got me thinking.

I was amazed by the quality of craftsmanship and range of artisan skills on display in the medina. I was really taken by the beautiful leather slippers – called babouche in Moroccan Arabic.

Later that afternoon I was sat by the pool thinking about what I had seen, and I realised that with all the leatherwork on display, I hadn’t seen any golf head covers.

So, I contacted Khalid and asked if he could make me some head covers. When I described what I wanted, he replied: “you want to make leather slippers for golf clubs?” “Yes” I replied – “that’s exactly what they are.”

And that’s how the name came about – Babouche!

That was the birth of Babouche! Golf.

In the spring of 2018, I launched our first range – handmade Moroccan leather head covers.

Golfers loved the quality. Soon after I launched, golfers started asking for other styles and patterns. That’s when I realised that I needed to set up a workshop in the UK. Now all our stitched items are made in the UK.

I want to bring manufacturing back to the UK 🇬🇧. It might cost more to make than in the far east, but the quality is second to none.

Winning the Feefo Platinum award 🏆 (voted for by our customers) for 3 years is proof of this.

 

We use a high-quality faux leather, to give that luxury feel, but at an affordable price for the everyday golfer. It also means that we can create some really funky patterns, like the Sugar Skull, camouflage and tropical flowers designs that we have become known for.

Our head covers won’t make you a better golfer. But they will turn your ordinary looking golf bag into a thing of beauty, to be admired by everyone on the course – slight exaggeration, but you get the point 😉

Over the last few years, 1000’s of golfers have put some colour in their game by adding one of our funky golf towels or head covers. Feeling good about your golf gear makes your feel great about your golf game, and that can only help you shoot lower scores. (🧑‍🔬 not scientifically proven)

My name is David, and yes that’s me in the picture. I’m 100% probably the guy who will pick, pack and drop off your order at the post office. I love playing golf and talking golf and making great golf gear.

Visit the Babouche! Golf shop

Connect With
David Long

Let’s have a chat, could be about anything, would prefer it to be one of the following:

  • Consultancy 
  • Coaching/Mentoring
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Podcast Guest
  • NED
  • A game of golf

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