Saxonville Sausage Case Study Analysis

Saxonville Sausage

Background Information

Saxonville Sausage is a private family owned company in Saxonville, Ohio, with 2005 revenues of

approximately $1.5 billion. Their main focus is on pork sausage products that are always fresh.

Saxonville’s main product is their bratwurst line, which makes up seventy percent of their revenues,

breakfast sausage that consists of twenty percent of their revenues and their small Italian sausage line,

named Vivio that only makes up five percent.

Unfortunately, Saxonville's sales in bratwursts have been flat and their breakfast sausage line has been

steadily underperforming in the market resulting in a double-digit decline in revenue. However, the

Italian sausage was the one category showing growth across producers in the retail sausage market,

having an annual increasing rate of 9% in 2004 and 15% in 2005. The one area where they have been

consistently increasing is their Vivio Italian sausage line, primarily in the New England area. Saxonville

hired a new marketing director in Ann Banks to "make her mark" and launch a national Italian sausage

brand that Saxonville needed to bring to market in order to achieve profit objectives for the next fiscal

year.

Saxonville Sausage needs a well-thought-out positioning marketing plan to move their Italian sausage

brand to national category leader and match up core values in the “hearts and minds,” of consumers with

the attributes of a product portfolios to meet their specific needs.

Goals

Successfully launch a national Italian sausage product in order to meet profit objectives for the next

fiscal year.

Choose the best positioning strategy

Establish a connection between the brand and the customer’s core values

Choose the best positioning strategy: Family Connection, Clever Cooking, Confidence,

Appreciation, Quick and Easy, Tradition

Exhibit 9: Positioning Concept Voting, reveals Family Connection and Clever Cooking as the

top 2

Choose a brand name that appeals to the expanded market

Should Saxonville keep the Vivio name or change to a different name?Saxonville wants to

alleviate concerns about Focus groups revealed that the top-scoring names were “Italy’s Best,”

“Primo,” and “Perfecto.” “Vivio,” ranked seventh. Research shows that there is brand vagueness

under the Saxonville flag, because the name Saxonville appears “too German,” to produce a

quality Italian sausage. The current packaging with “Vivio fresh Italian sausage,” and the Italian

flag in one corner creates some confusion for customers. In order to demonstrate innovation and

quality within Saxonville’s product, a new brand needs to be set up to help with the company’s

positioning. However, such a move will fail to make use of the existing loyalist that have become

accustomed to the Vivio name.

Constraints

Senior management’s lack of marketing orientation

Senior management was skeptical of positioning and referred to it as “one of those

business-school buzz words” (Moore).

They didn’t have a well thought out plan for launching their Vivio product

“Management is not willing to discount the product’s price” (Moore).

Management is not willing to discount the product’s price for initial promotion

Consumer Taste and Preferences

Management needs to consider the change in consumer tastes and preferences. One of the

top global trends is that, “Consumers are increasingly choosing naturally healthy foods

such as fruit, vegetables, salads, nuts and yogurt. Fruit is now America’s second-favorite

snack” (Haynes).

Misallocation of Resources

“Since 2004, brats and breakfast categories across all sausage producers have been flat

nationwide” (Moore).

“Breakfast sausage resulted in double digit decline” (Moore).

Italian sausage was the only group showing annual growth but they haven’t dedicated

enough resources to it.

Freshness By branching out nationally, freshness levels may be compromised because of the time

length of delivery to west coast supermarkets.

Cannibalization Careful consideration must be taken in positioning the Italian sausage line to avoid

cannibalization in Saxonville Sausage’s other brands.

Timing With the following years profit objectives in mind, the time line of the launch should be

carefully thought out, and coincide with peak sausage season.

Peak volume season: October- February

“Each tactic has to be realized by the slated date for the brand’s national launch early in

2007” (Moore).

Before the launch, we have to consider an advertising company to handle a multifaceted

national campaign and the training of regional sales managers and retailers about how our

product is differentiated from the competition.

Central Issue

The central issue facing Saxonville Sausage is the successful launch of a national Italian sausage

brand. The development of a new brand name and positioning strategy will be key to reaching the target

market. Theimplementation of an effective brand is the most important problem because the brand is the

first thing a consumer can relate to. “When a brand taps into what really matters to customers, customers

feel good about using that brand” (Moore). The resolution of the central issue will provide the most

benefit to Saxonville by increasing profits of the Italian sausage brand.

Alternatives

When analyzing the marketing approach there are different choices that have to be made. Careful

thought must be taken to understand which way is the best road for the company. For Saxonville Sausage

and Ann Banks, the new marketing director, they need to focus and develop a strategic plan before

expanding into this Blue Ocean area of the market and figure out a way to differentiate their product from

other companies. The goals have been developed, which include launching a successful line of Italian

sausage and creating a name that appeals to the market to achieve profit objectives. Three alternatives

have been developed to leave Saxonville Sausage Company to success.

Alternative One

Keep Vivio name

Family Connection Strategy

Our first alternative includes keeping the Vivo brand name when launching it nationally,

and also using the Family Connection strategy.By keeping the name the same they can build off the

success experienced in the regional market from the loyalist they already have.

The Family Connection positioning strategy scored the highest in the quantitative marketing

research and seems to best match up core values of the consumers with the attributes of the product.

Female heads of households are the primary purchasers of Italian sausage. The value ladder developed

from focus group of the target audience revealed that they value: feeding her family good food, hoping

her children have happy memories, making home cooked food that all will love, not being remembered

for doing laundry and nagging, bringing a sense of tradition to their lives, gathering people together and

facilitating their experience, and creating the kind of home she wants her family to have.

Disadvantages for alternative one would be not doing anything to make the name Vivio look

more Italian to customers. Customers like their Italian sausage to look as authentic and Italian as possible.

If they kept their name and packaging the same then they could possibly lose the appeal of being an

authentic Italian sausage brand to new customers. Another disadvantage would be not offering coupons or

discounted incentives to retailers or consumers. This does not attract new retailers as well as new

customers.

Alternative Two

Change to Primo name

Clever Cooking Strategy

The second alternative is to change the name to Primo Italian Sausage. Primo was one of the top

names when respondents were given 20 brand names including, Vivio and Saxonville, and asked to select

the names that fit best with their ideal Italian sausage product. Vivo scored seventh. While the Primo

name is more popular and could enhance marketing the product, Saxonville risks confusing and losing the

Vivio following by changing the name.

In this alternative the Clever Cooking positioning strategy will be used. This strategy

complements the product because of the versatility of Italian sausage because it can be used in a number

of different ways. Clever cooking also plays to some of the top values of the target customer such as:

using her creativity to come up with interesting meals, knowing about easy meals she can make quickly.

Ann Banks also thinks that it would be easier to provide tactical support for the Clever Cooking

positioning, and that she can better explain away the risk of cannibalization.

Some disadvantages would be by changing their name to Primo, they would be changing their

already existing customer’s recognition of their brand, Vivio. A disadvantage of the clever cooking

strategy would be that Saxonville is not able to put recipes on their packaging because the package is

relatively small with limited space for such literature. Non Italian consumers might not know any

versatile methods of preparing the Italian sausage.

Alternative Three

Change to “Primo Italian Sausage from Saxonville”, Keep Vivio name in existing market

Family Connection strategy

The third alternative will allow Saxonville to keep the Vivio name in the regional market where is has

had success, but make use of the more popular Primo name in the markets they are expanding into. This

alternative won’t confuse the existing loyalist, and will allow them to appeal more to the broader market.

Sub-branding the product using the Saxonville brand will exploit the perception of quality associated with

their other sausages, and give them recognition on the national stage.

This strategy will capitalize on the benefits of the Family Connection positioning strategy mentioned

above. It should be mentioned that while this strategy runs the risk of being too generic and easily copied,

the risk is mitigated because Saxonville will be the first national player in this category.

Disadvantages would be losing the customers already loyal to the Vivio name but changing the name

to “Primo Italian Sausage from Saxonville” would not be significant as if they were to change the name to

Primo. At least they still have the company’s name in the title of the sausage. In this alternative, they are

not expanding their Primo Italian sausage boundaries outside the New England area.

Alternative Four

Expansion of the entire company west to the Mississippi River

Keep the name Vivio but enlarge the Italian Flag on the packaging to make it more

recognizable that it is Italian Sausage

Offer bulk incentives to dealers and retailers

The advantages of option four is their expansion of all lines of productivity which means that

they can cover more volume and generate more profit. They are expanding into unchartered territory as

far as Italian sausage goes. This would be an example of Red Ocean strategy. Product expansion will

make the marginal value of the product decrease, allowing the company to obtain more profits from

bratwurst and breakfast patty sausage sales or lower prices. Saxonville is also keeping the name Vivio

while retaining the brand name. Keeping the brand name insures the loyalty of their current customers

while attempting to attract new customers. They would be making the product look more Italian with the

increased size of the Italian flag on the packaging of the sausage. By offering bulk incentives to dealers

and retailers, Saxonville is insuring that their products will reach the shelves of local stores for their

customers to enjoy. Also by offering bulk incentives, Saxonville could offer lower prices to their retailers.

With today’s competition in the food industry and threats of new entrants, retailers need incentives to

save money anywhere they can by purchasing Saxonville’s products.

Disadvantages of option four are that the name is still not generically Italian. Primo or Italian’s

best would have been a better name to start off with instead of Vivio. There will be huge short term loses

due to expansion and dealer incentives with unsure profits from new Red Ocean markets. Bratwurst and

breakfast sausage are still declining in sales volume in the New England region so the expansion of these

product lines could have risks on overall profits.

Competitive Analysis

The major strengths of Saxonville are manufacturers have experienced the growth in Italian

sausage across the board as well as within our company.Another advantage Saxonville has is they can be

one of the first companies to develop a national Italian Sausage brand, and the other national players are

constricted by their frozen trucks. Their regional competitors have picked a “local” positioning strategy

hindering their ability to expand and distribute outside their core geography. When Banks questioned the

national sales manager about completion from the other national giants, he responded, “ Ann, those guys

are frozen producers not fresh…their distributors drive freezer trucks. It would mean reconfiguring their

whole distribution network to play in this category” (Moore). It seems Saxonville would be operating in a

Blue Ocean for a time if they developed a national Italian sausage brand.Saxonville also has the benefit

that they have an established a brand name, which will help launch this new line.

Saxonville also has a few weaknesses that will need to be improved if they want to see increased

future profits. One of the biggest flaws is that of an underdeveloped marketing department. Saxonville has

brought in a new marketing director, Ann Banks, who is helping the company in implementing a new

strategy to grow their Italian sausage line. Another problem is their inability to gain market share into the

Italian sausage line, due to the lack of supermarket distributors. As of right now, there is no clear way to

combat this problem but a few ideas could be: offer a discount price to retailers, offer bulk discount prices

to retailers, or give supermarket retailers a percentage of profits of the sales they have participated in.

Anything that will allow Saxonville to gain more distributors will help them in the long run.

However, some external threats to Saxonville include substitute products and the threat of new

entrants. As of 2005, Saxonville was ranked sixth out of eight companies in breakfast sausage brands.

This contributed to the cause of double-digit revenue declines. These declines and flat lines are symptoms

of problems of management. While it seems Saxonville will enjoy a Blue Ocean for a time in the Italian

sausage category, it won’t last forever and new entrants could come in.

Best Alternative

Saxonville Sausages best alternative would be the fourth alternative:

• Expansion of the entire company west to the Mississippi River

• Keep the name Vivio but enlarge the Italian Flag on the packaging to make it more

recognizable that it is Italian Sausage

• Offer bulk incentives to dealers and retailers

Out of all the alternatives we are not changing the name to retain our customers which will insure

brand loyalty. It will help establish a national Italian sausage brand outside the New England area. By

enlarging the Italian flag on the packaging, customers will recognize that it is authentic Italian sausage

and possibly purchase the product for this reason. Unlike alternative one, alternative four offers bulk

incentives to retailers making it easier for expansion. Expansion allows the company, brand name, and

brand equity to obtain more customers and establish a larger market share. Instead of focusing on clever

cooking like in alternative two, they are allowing the Italian flag itself to sell the sausage. The new name

in alternative three is too long and could possibly confuse loyal customers who go to the grocery store

looking for Vivio. These are the reason that alterative four is the best alternative compared to the other

alternatives.

Implementation Plan

The first part of the implementation plan would be to change the packaging design to where a

large Italian flag is displayed to ensure the authenticity of their Italian sausage. The next part of the

implementation stage would be Saxonville sausage establishing new relationships with dealers and

retailers to ensure that they will have retailers and dealers that will purchase their products after

expansion is complete. Without having the contracts and relationships with these new retailers, expansion

would be extremely difficult if not impossible. The success of this implementation plan relies heavily on

the establishment of agreements and contracts with new retailers. After these relationships and sufficient

contacts have been made, Saxonville would have to start demanding more resources from its suppliers to

be able to produce more sausage. Once demands from retailers exceed the production capacity of

producing in just the New England area, Saxonville sausage would then have to invest more capital into

their infrastructure. This would include expanding their entire manufacturing capabilities which would

include increasing the amount of inputs; purchasing new property; constructing new buildings and

warehouses; and developing a marketing channel functions to cover the companies transitional, logistical,

and facilitative functions. This ensures that Saxonville sausage will be able to handle the expansion

process while maintaining the quality of freshness that customers expect from their product.

Executive Summary

Saxonville sausage is a privately owned company with revenues of $1.5 billion. Their main lines

of products are their bratwurst and breakfast patties. They also have an Italian sausage line that is

showing an increase in recent sales. Unfortunately, sales in bratwurst and breakfast patties have been

experiencing double digit declining revenues as of recent. In order for Ann Banks to make her mark on

the company, Saxonville has to expand to new market areas around the country. The goal of Saxonville

sausage is to successfully establish a national Italian sausage brand in the next fiscal year. Their goals can

be maintained through expansion, development of a new product image through a new packaging design,

and offer incentives for retailers and dealers to purchase their products in bulk. The development of a new

package design will increase the Italian product image, while enticing new customers to purchase Vivio.

Keeping the brand name Vivio is the most important aspect of this alternative because they will be able to

maintain their customers through this name retention. After the packaging has been modified, the next

step will be to target new retailers and dealers to attempt to gain their business through bulk incentives.

Once these relationships have been established, then it will be time to begin the expansion phase. The

expansion phase is the most costly aspect of this alternative for it involves reliance upon an increase in

the Italian Sausage market. This phase is also the most capital intensive phase and will require a large

amount of capital upfront. Once the expansion phase is complete, Saxonville should have new

distribution and manufacturing centers east of the Mississippi River. The marginal value product will

decrease for all of Saxonville’s products making it cheaper to produce their products.

This best alternative demonstrates the most reasonable way to eliminate the constraints

previously stated. If Saxonville sausage goes through with this alternative, then they will obtain new

revenues from different areas of the country, avoiding cannibalization of their own products. By

implementing this plan, Saxonville will not only retain its current customers while gainingnew customers

and a greater market share.

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 was very appalling because both the bratwurst and the breakfast categories showed 0% sales volume increase, in addition the breakfast products resulted in a revenue loss. The only category which showed some growth in the retail sausage market was the Italian, showing an annual rate of 9% in 2004 and 15% in 2005. Saxonville’s Italian brand, Vivio, although matched this level of category growth, it was available in only 16% of the nation’s large supermarkets. The task of Ann Banks was to develop a national product either under the Vivio brand or as a new brand.

2. How was the research methodology determined? Develop a research design and explain what behaviors, demographics, and lifestyle components you deem important and why.

The research methodology was determined by Ann Banks based upon her previous work experience. Saxonville Sausage did not know who their target consumer was and what are their needs and behaviors. So in order to link the Italian Sausage product with the „core values” of their consumers, they needed a method that combined both quantitative and qualitative research to learn everything about the target market. Banks read through the past 10 years of Saxonville’s market research results and then formed a multifunctional task force to help her developing the research design. After a thorough meeting they decided upon a four-step research process. The first thing was the understanding of the consumer behaviors and needs through a qualitative research, then collecting reactions to different positioning ideas and finally turning the learned ideas into actual concepts, letting the consumers to prioritize and improve them. The monadic testing as a last step helped them choosing the best option based upon the purchase intent scores.

In my opinion, the research design proposed by Banks was effective in understanding the core values of Saxonville’s target audience through qualitative research techniques, but lacked some more information and quantitative data to confirm which route should be taken. It was a good idea to start by understanding the attitudes, the needs and the behaviors of the company’s customers. However, the focus groups used by Banks’ team were too homogenous and the decision to pick woman only as the target audience left half of the potential consumers’ values undiscovered. A different but similar proposed research design would be to create focus groups similar to Banks’ study but with a more diverse demographic. Preferably diverse groups of woman and men which will vary from male and female groups, male only groups and female only groups. This is designed to bring out different conversations and ideas in each of the focus groups and present other opportunities to surface that might never have with a female only group. Other variables could be taken into consideration when assembling the current groups, such as the number of children in the household because more children a family has, more food they need to buy and their income level should also be an important issues. Creating different groups by income level can reveal the effect of the products price on the purchase intention.

Other important variables used in the qualitative research could be people’s behavioral attitudes towards Saxonville brands in general. The answers in a focus group can vary if a person is loyal to their products or haven’t heard about them at all. Other problems that often appear are that regional or national stereotypes might influence the focus groups opinions. At strong Italian sausage markets the Vivio brand can have a bigger customer value than at a part of the country where Italian brands are not so common. Italian foods are sometimes associated with family and might influence people’s opinions positively towards the Italian brand. These are the reasons why another research design would be more suitable which should focus more deeply on the qualitative research

3. What were the research results? Select two different positioning territories identified in case Exhibit 6. Trace back through the case, using Exhibit 4 and other embedded information, to rationalize the development of these territory ideas.

In the first phase Banks, with the assistance of her multi-functional team, used a Pennsylvania research facility to conduct a pilot study to get a quick understanding on what consumers were saying about Italian sausage. From this she used the information to develop guidelines to conduct the focus groups. Working with a research company they selected 103 heads-of-household women to participate in focus groups located around the country. They have chosen only women because they were considered the primary food purchasers and preparers of Italian sausage. They structured these focus groups to bring out different feelings and ideas from the women about the Italian sausages.

Then, by using a brand ladder to show how the core values lead to the attributes of the product, they identified 11 values that characterized the woman’s ideals. 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 children opposed to a quick-and-easy frozen meal. The second most important attribute was “Clever Cooking” because consumers wanted a product that can be combined with other high quality ingredients and can be prepared in numerous ways. This gave women near the good mother feeling also a good „meal-maker”.

4. What alternative do you recommend and why?

While in the fourth phase of the research – the quantitative testing – both the “Family Connection” and the “Clever Cooking” positioning option seemed viable, I would only focus on one of them. The “Family Connection” scored the better points, but very few people said that they would definitely buy the product with such positioning. The reason behind this can be that the majority of Italian foods are associated with the idea of family. Many other sausage brands are already built on the same idea. However, if Saxonville would try a completely new association with the Italian brand, it would stand out from the crowd. Since there is no current “Clever Cooking” marketing campaign yet, it will be rather unique and harder to duplicate. With redefining the whole concept and all the marketing mix elements the company will be able to give people a new thought about Italian brands. Other aspects like creative cooking, self-

confidence in their own meal and the quick and easy attribute should also be emphasized with the help of other marketing mix elements.

5. What tactics should accompany the product launch?

By continuing the idea from the previous question I would say that, before launching the product, further research and pretesting should be done to create the best product possible. Additional quantitative research should focus on the different attributes of the product, like flavor varieties, different packaging forms and advertising. During pretesting the company should develop at first three innovative flavor varieties, distribute to people who took part in the focus groups and then ask them about their opinion. The brand name Vivio should be modified to Vivios, so this should be mentioned instead of Vivio Italian Sausages name, referring to all the Italian sausage products line. The actual launch of the product has to be accompanied with a serious advertising campaign emphasizing the renaming of the brand through multiple channels: TV advertisements describing the feelings related to the “Clever Cooking” positioning, product sampling in the supermarkets and designing a cooking show, where different meals can be prepared with different type of Italian sausages. At the beginning the company should also use in-store promotions with larger packages to boost sales. Targeting cooking shows, recipe books and various other types of elements in the cooking industry will bring more credibility and substance to the brand. The new “Clever Cooking” experience should be presented and emphasized everywhere together with the Italian feeling.

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Saxonville Sausage companies entered the market 70 years ago and found themselves struggling to position and segment one of their Italian sausages in the market. They recently decided to find a new positioning and segmentation plan where they are able to identify and profile distinct groups of buyers who might require varying product mixes by examining their information such as demographics, psychographics and behavioral difference. Through quantitative research such as focus groups. Their objective was to find a new concept to apply to their Italian sausage ‘Vivio’ and appeal to a new market as well as to create a new marketing plan, in order to achieve its profit objectives for the next fiscal year.

1. Through focus groups, Saxonville was able to study and analyze different attitude and consumer behavior towards one of their sausage brands ‘Vivio’, which assisted them to improve on positioning their product in the right place of consumer minds. From the first study (exhibit 4) they came to a synopsis that Vivio was a home cooked meal for the family, mainly purchased by woman who had hectic lives and barely had the time to prepare a home cooked meal. Woman enjoyed preparing this dinner meal because it was convenient and resulted in happiness of the family, furthermore it can be concluded, in terms of positioning that the product should appeal more to the female side, since they are the main purchasers. They also inferred that the Italian Sausage was a seasonal product mainly bought during the months of fall and winter, this can help Saxonville learn to have a stronger promotion and advertisement strategy during that period of time. Vivio had all three types of users; the heavy, medium and light users, Vivio has consumers that a very loyal to their brand. The Italian sausage was a multipurpose meal; it wasn’t only used as meal on its own, women usually cooked it with other meals such as casserole or sautéed with a few vegetables. This emphasizes Vivio’s strong base to its customers, not only do they enjoy cooking the meal, but they enjoy preparing Italian sausage with their other dishes. One of the main problems Vivio had is that it had a poor brand name, it basically confused users because it was an Italian sausage under a German seeming heritage, this might have reflected badly on their sales.

In the second study (exhibit 5)- the perpetual map of Italian Sausage Use; the one dish meal made with Italian Sausage was ranked best under family pleasing as oppose to kids pleasing and adult pleasing. Kids were in favor of hot dogs, beans and mac n cheese. It t Vivio appealed more to woman because it was a relatively easy meal to prepare, easier than a one dish made with chicken. It appealed to them more because it was a meal solution to their problems and they felt they have accomplished something because it is not a frozen meal, but a fresh and nutritious one.

Saxonville later came to a conclusion of several position territories for Italian Sausage use by homemakers (exhibit 6). They presented six different themes where each one portrayed a different purpose. The benefit of such an exhibit creates six different niches that they could possibly target in the future, which later on defines their brand identity and gives them a more precise direction to how the product should be positioned. Each one revolves around homemakers but present a different purpose. These six themes are: family connection, clever cooking, confidence, appreciation, quick and easy and tradition.

2. The additional information from exhibit 9 consumers selected and their favorite theme. Family connection and clever cooking out of balancing act and labor love were prioritized where family connection received 54% of the votes, whereas clever cook and balancing act received less than half of the votes. This brings Saxonville to the conclusion of two different themes where one leans more towards the emotion side (family connection) and the other one leans towards convenience. Exhibit 11 presents a table showing the purchase intent towards which concept.

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32.4 % responded to definitely/ probably would buy to family connection and 28.125 to Clever cooking.

3. Family connection is a very direct name, attracts its targeted customers and is very straight to the point; it immediately attracts a homemaker who is shopping for a healthy fresh meal. A mother would definitely go for family connection than clever cooking. She wants to feel as if she is preparing a healthy meal for the family, it also comes with an emotional benefit. Choosing family connection will also benefit Saxonville as a company because it won’t cannibalize Saxonville’s other products such as bratwurst. It highly distinguishes itself from other sausages. Family Connection is a name that stands out because so many of other brands do not specify a theme, thus seizes the attention of homemakers. Advertising for family connection would be so much more easier because they are targeting market is much specific and smaller. On the contrary targeting a family only excludes individuals who take up a huge percentage of the market such as single, divorced, widowed and college students. The name itself might be unattractive to homemakers because the name ‘family connection’ might seem to be a bit too sophisticated and do not have the time to prepare a meal that sounds will take up a lot of their time. On the other side, the concept Clever Cooking is a very self-explanatory concept, easy to make, seems less complicated. It attracts a larger market, however Clever Cooking might cannibalize Saxonvilles other line of sausages such as Bratwurst, since it does not have a main target market. Advertising for Clever Cooking arises several conflicts; whom do they aim to target since there is a larger market for individuals? How do we appeal to different individuals at the same time? Therefore Clever Cooking has such a broad name that might seem attractive but at the same time work against Saxonville. And finally the name itself does not depict a healthy meal; it conveys a quick and easy meal to cook on the go. Quick and easy meals to cook depict a frozen meal where Vivio is not.

4. The alternative chosen for this marketing plan would have to be ‘Family connection’. Choosing this concept triggers new ideas and separates this sausage apart from all of Saxonvilles sausages as well as other competitive brands. The name of the product shall remain: Vivio, Saxonville’s Italian Sausage, with the positioning of Family Connection. This should not be changed because it already has positioned itself in the market, has its customers and created its brand identity, and by changing the brand or product name, Vivio would have to prove itself in the market from the very beginning, there fore this is a way of improving. The new positioning plan of this brand would be for family’s looking for a home cooked meal to gather all members of the family around the table. The product should highly appeal to the women since they are the ‘female head of household’. The tagline for Vivio should be have ‘Family Comes First’, it shows an immediate depiction of a meal for the family and is attractive to homemakers. During the launch of the first month, samples should be given out to customers in store from employees looking as a housewife, it appeals to women, creates an in-store experience and gives Vivio a chance to expand to customers who have never tried there product, and refresh old customers. As for the communication approach, Saxonville would be using both the ‘pull’ and ‘push’ marketing because a balance of both creates a great marketing mix that powerfully entices costumers moreover to react to each one differently, however Saxonville is concentrating more on the pull aspect. There will be massive advertising (pull) to build up consumer demand, through advertising in the newspapers, radio and TV commercials, to be able to capture consumer’s attention in every different way. As for the push communication strategy the producer of Vivio will be promoting the product to wholesalers, the wholesalers promote it to retailers, and the retailers promote it to consumers.

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The key functional benefit of Family Connection will basically is a very convenient, healthy fresh meal, which can be cooked with various different meals. It is an extremely tasty dish that will satisfy the entire family. The key emotional benefit is explanatory through the title, family connection attaches an emotional benefit to it, all the family loves it and creates a certain time of the day were a family can meet up and spend time together.

Vivio’s Italian sausage will expand their line by adding mild, medium and spicy. Saxonville will not expand with the flavors because this might cause family members to fight over wish sausage to buy and cook for the family, by keeping it simple and traditional the Italian will expand a little bit. On the packaging Saxonville will add different recipes on the box so that a woman can feel creative every time she uses Vivio but in a different way. Saxonville’s packaging can be described in this way it has the same colors and idea as the packaging however ‘Saxionville’ will be place on the right bottom using a very small and discreet font, and on the center of the box ‘Vivio’s Italian Sausage’ will be place in the center with a small Italian flag. The tag line ‘family comes first’ will be writing in italics in a smaller font under Vivio. The transparency of the package will remain in order to maintain the fresh look of the sausage. Inside the store Saxonville will have huge signs in the sausage area with billboards and pictures of housewives cooking their favorite meal. This is a way to catch consumer’s attention and inform them about our new theme for our Italian sausage. As mentioned previously free sampling will be going around in the store to give consumers a chance to try their new product. Saxonville was close to choosing coupons, however coupons is a waste, consumers think they will be using them but they never will. Saxonville does not need coupons to attract customers, because they have a strong customer loyalty and base.

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