Saxonville Sausage Company
Case study analysis

1. What is the current situation?
The current date is March 2006 and Ann Banks, the new product marketing director of the Saxonville Sausage company has to present her plan, developed after a serious research process, for launching a national Italian sausage brand, in order for the company to achieve its profit objectives for the next fiscal year.
Saxonville was a 70-year-old, family business, which produced a variety of pork sausage products. The company had the following branded products: * Bratwurst: 70% of the company’s revenues * Breakfast sausage: 20% of revenues * Italian sausage, named Vivio: 5% of revenues * Store brand products: 5% of revenues
The current situation …show more content…

Summarizing we can say that most of the women work outside of the home and want to be able to prepare a home cooked meal for their families that is easy to make, tastes great and that everyone gathered around the dinner table will enjoy. Many of these women considered Italian sausage as a great „meal-maker”, and the Vivio brand was considered to be of exceptional quality. So from the 11 values they selected as a core value the “Job well done” and they wrote it at the top of the ladder. The team then developed 4 mock up concepts and exposed consumers to them asking to vote on which one they like best.
Of all the positioning territories “Family Connection” was selected as the most important one because most women expressed a strong desire to be passionate mothers and homemakers and to create happy childhood memories for their children. Exhibit 4 states that the Italian Sausage “had the same effect as popcorn at the movie theater”. This positioning would easily attract women who want to bring the family together for dinner. As the smell of popcorn draws people in, the smell of the Italian Sausage would bring the family to the table with little or no effort from the mother. Also, Saxonville Italian Sausages has a home-grown image. This image could make a more home-made feel to the meal. This would attract mothers who want to cook a more authentic meal and create happy memories for their