A1 Steak Sauce: Lawry’s Defense

Case Recap

A1 is a premier steak sauce produced by Kraft Foods. On April 1st, Unilever will launch their own steak sauce under their brand name Lawry’s. As marketing tool, Lawry’s has requested for the upcoming Memorial Day Weekend, that Publix Grocery Stores promote their new product. The managers of A1 know that it is common practice for the other grocery chains to price match and begin to set their own competitive prices for Lawry’s Steak Sauce. It is the job of A1’s marketing team to come up with new marketing and advertising strategies in order to counteract the new competor’s product.
Problem Identification The problems before A1 begin with the huge financial support (Kevin & Peterson, 2010) of their new rival. The second problem at hand is the competitors lower priced product that looks virtually the same as A1’s product. A third problem which concerns the marketing team pertains to the lack of growth in the steak sauce market and the failing efforts to expand the market. Problem number four that faces A1 is the grooling task of matching the competitor’s pricing while maintaining their own market share.
Identifying the Root Problem Components With 46% of the steak sauce market, A1 is its major player. A1’s profit growth of 10% is being compromised by Lawry’s new product and the added expense of advertising. Another component of A1’s root problem involves, not only the price of the competitor’s product ($1.00 less per bottle) but the larger size of Lawry’s bottle (1 ounce larger). The fact that steak sauce is mainly used for steak lead A1to release a marinade line to be used for other meat products such as chicken and pork. The company has suffered financial decline with their marinade product line, a problem they have been trying to correct. Many of the marketing experitse is being used to boost the