Saxonville Sausage Company
A. Current Situation
After revenues of approximately $1.5 billion in 2005, Saxonville Sausage Company felt they needed to bring their Italian sausage brain to a market in order to achieve its profit for the next fiscal year. Saxonville currently had three main branded products: bratwurst, breakfast sausage, and Italian sausage named Vivio, which currently accounted for only 5% of revenues. The Italian sausage market was one showing an annual growth rate of 9% across the retail market in 2004 and 15% in 2005. In addition, Vivio was currently not supported by advertising with no national players in this untapped market. Based on these results over the past two years, Saxonville believed there was a need to develop and implement a positioning plan to move their Italian sausage brand to a national brand across every major grocery account in the US.
B. “Finalists” Strategies
Following the testing done by Saxonville Sausage Company marketing team, the results concluded that there was a market to be entered in with the target audience of female head-of house shoppers, and focusing on six distinct themes that presented themselves numerous times during focus groups: Family Connection, Clever Cooking, Confidence, Appreciation, Quick and Easy, and Tradition, as found in Exhibit 6. After condensing these six themes, four mock concepts were tested on consumers, with Family Connection and Clever Cooking receiving the highest total votes of 52 and 49 respectively, as found in Exhibit 9. Focus groups revealed that users considered Italian sausage, “easier because it was a meal that their husbands and children enjoyed” as seen in Exhibit 4, implying both the concepts of bringing family together, as well as clever and easy cooking. In addition, results of the perceptual map (Exhibit 5) showed a one-dish meal with Italian sausage ranked under categories of “easy to do” and “family pleasing”, supporting the two top voted mock concepts of Clever Cooking and Family Connection. Based on these results, Family Connection and Clever Cooking should be considered as “finalists” for positioning of Saxonville’s Vivio.
C. Positioning Ladders
Based on the results of focus group testing, a positioning ladder could be developed to further support the positioning of both Family Connection and Clever Cooking territories developed from the six themes, seen in Exhibit 6. When examining the value of Family Connection, results showed that all users reported that Italian sausage was a meal that pleased all members of the family, as seen in Exhibit 4, stating that “they did not need to call the family to the table”, implying a meal made with Italian sausage was one that not only pleased but also brings the family together for dinner. Additionally, consumers reported Saxonville was known by its moniker of the “The Family Company” further supporting the uniformed theme of Family Connection, and a meal to bring the family together. Emotional benefit of the positioning of Family Connection supports the feeling of the cooker being “the magnet that pulls everyone together”, as stated in Exhibit 6. Furthermore, functional benefit would continue to support the Family Connection in that the meal brought the family together, pleasing all members, and not requiring multiple meals to please the crowd at the table. Finally, attributes would include meat that could be used in a “One-Dish meal made with Italian sausage”. When examining the positioning of Clever Cooking, the value of this positioning of a “quick meal” that pleased all, was reflected in the results of focus group reports, listed in Exhibit 4. Emotional benefits of Clever Cooking are the ability to put a personal touch on each meal, supported by reports of being considered a great “meal-maker”. Functional benefits included being classified as an “ingredient food” that could be customized to create many varied dishes, as reported results from Focus groups in Exhibit 4. Attributes of