Saxonville Case Study

In 2006, the Saxonville Sausage Company found itself in a difficult situation.

One year earlier, this family business had generated revenues of $1.5 billion. Now the

company was facing obstacles in its product sales. Saxonville Sausage produced sausage

products; which consisted of bratwurst, breakfast sausage, an Italian sausage named Vivio

and store-brand items. Saxonville Sausage was encountering a 5% decrease on its sales of

breakfast sausage. The company had hit a plateau on its bratwurst sales. On a promising

note, Italian sausage sales revenues had increased by 15% in the past year. Thus, the

objective of Saxonville Sausage in this case study is to increase sales revenue by

marketing the Italian sausage product, Vivio, as a national brand. The company hoped to

achieve two goals in their marketing campaign: 1.) To make Vivio the leader in the

Italian sausage product category 2.) To generate enough consumer demand for the Italian

sausage that all major retail grocery stores will stock the product.

The company attributed its declining sales in breakfast sausage to two related

factors. After losing competitive market share to the bigger players in the breakfast

sausage market, such as Jimmy Dean and Farmer John, Saxonville decided to internalize

a false [and damaging] assumption about its product. The company assumed that

breakfast sausage is not considered a staple item and marketed the product as both a

special occasion and family breakfast item. Continuing to perform at this rate would

have grave implications that might force Saxonville into a pattern that did not support

achievement of any business objectives. In addition to financial impact, failing out of the

business would risk tarnishing the brand name in the minds of distributors, wholesalers

and consumers alike. Clearly, Saxonville Sausage needed to reposition its products in the

minds of its consumers. Doing so would require a focus on both the internal problems of

the company and solid research on the external values of the consumers.

The root cause of the company’s problem was an internal management issue,

which affected each of its product sale categories. Despite a double-digit decline in

national sales and the fact that over 90% of their national business was coming from

categories that had gone flat for the past two years, management “felt the business was

growing just fine without research and was skeptical of positioning,” which it considered,

“one of those business-school buzz words.” To make matters worse, their offerings in

those categories had underperformed. The lack of current research and marketing for both

the breakfast sausage and the bratwursts meant that these products did not have a distinct

identity in consumers’ minds. If senior management realized the potential of

repositioning the company’s products, they would be better prepared to create a much

better sales opportunity. The company also executed poor judgment in the decision to fire

its bratwurst-advertising agency mid-year. This halted all potential market research for

repositioning the bratwurst product, and the company lost sales because of it. The agency

surely would have discovered that repositioning breakfast sausage from a “weekend

staple” to “a healthy, homemade breakfast that could be added to a casserole or prepared

the night before,” would allow more moms to see the potential for buying that product.

To begin addressing these issues, Saxonville hired a new Brand Manager with a goal of

displaying the amazing potential of the product to a national market.

Despite the difficulties with their other manufactured goods, Saxonville Sausage

had a regional product in a category with an increasing double-digit rate of growth: Vivio

Italian sausage. The Saxonville Sausage Italian sausage was not currently part of their

national distribution, but was doing fine in the New England region, specifically in New

Jersey, New York, Maryland and South Carolina. As a result of the decline in their other

categories, they would need to do exceptionally well to expand their distribution on the

national scale.

Saxonville Sausage knew there was an opportunity for improvement, but market

research had not been done to know what idea was on the hearts and minds of consumers

of the product, causing it to grow so well. Embarking on this opportunity would be

difficult without further market research.  In marketing the brand nationally, Saxonville

Sausage needed to create a distinctive identity for its brand. To do so, the company

needed to know its consumer.

Initially, when considering the brand position, Saxonville needed to choose

between four main positioning concepts, two of which emerged with the highest scores.

They involved positioning the sausage as a product with a “Family Connection” or one

that inspires “Creative Cooking.” Both positions added value to the brand in different

ways. For example the “Family Connection” brand message was meant to connect the

brand with great meals with family, while the “Creative Cooking” message was to draw

the brand parallel with new meal ideas and a personal touch.

Given the nature of the Saxonville brand as a ‘family’ oriented product and the

‘popcorn in a movie theatre’ effect of cooking Italian Sausage, we believe the brand will

ultimately have greater success with the “Family Connection” brand message.

Additionally, upon analysis of Heavy, Medium and Light Italian sausage users, the group

most likely to increase the volume of purchases will identify more with the “Family

Connection” message. This brand approach also exhibits positive externalities by

potentially reaching new users outside of the target market and encouraging them to

incorporate the Vivio brand as a protein substitute in their current nightly meals. Further,

the probability of purchasing the sausage with the “Family Connection” message is 9

points higher in focus groups at 81%, versus 72% with the “Clever Cooking” branding.

While “Clever Cooking” scored higher on the “Definitely Would Buy” question, the

overall likelihood of purchasing the sausage is higher with the “Family Connection”

message.

In summary, through the presentation and utilization of focus group data, Vivio

can realize gains in the Italian Sausage national market space. By presenting leadership

with the facts surrounding brand messaging and positioning the product correctly Vivio

has the opportunity to be a national player. However, without proper support from

leadership at Saxonville to implement the “Family Connection” message, the company

may struggle to realize its potential in this space and suffer from lack of growth. Given

the opportunity in the market, and need for growth, the case for this type of brand

positioning should be apparent.