Saxonville Sausage Company
On a sunny March day in 2006, Ann Banks, new product marketing director at Saxonville Sausage
Company, stood waiting outside the executive conference room. The owner, president, chief financial officer, and three functional vice presidents—including her manager, Vice President of
Marketing Steve Sears—would soon hear her plan for launching a national Italian sausage brand that
Saxonville needed to bring to market in order to achieve its profit objectives for the next fiscal year.
Banks reflected back over the lessons of the past six months.

Saxonville’s Background
Saxonville was a 70-year-old, privately held family business headquartered in Saxonville, Ohio, with 2005 revenues of approximately $1.5 billion. The company produced a variety of pork sausage products, predominantly fresh sausage as opposed to smoked or semi-dried. The heart of the business consisted of branded products: bratwurst (70% of Saxonville’s revenues); breakfast sausage, both links and patties (20% of revenues); and an Italian sausage named Vivio (5% of revenues). Storebrand products accounted for the additional 5% of revenues. While the bratwurst and breakfast products were sold throughout the United States via both national and regional brokers and distributors, the products had very little distribution in stores in the Northeastern markets.
Since 2004, both the bratwurst and breakfast categories across all sausage producers had been flat
(0% volume increase) nationwide, with little or no growth expected in the short term. Saxonville’s own brats sales had been flat, but in breakfast sausage the company had underperformed the market, resulting in a double-digit revenue decline; in December 2005, Saxonville ranked sixth out of eight national breakfast sausage brands. Italian sausage was the one category showing growth across producers in the retail sausage market, having grown at an annual rate of 9% in 2004 and 15% in
2005. Saxonville’s Vivio brand had matched that level of category growth; however, Vivio was available in just 16% of the nation’s large supermarkets, primarily in Boston, New Jersey, New York,
Maryland, and South Carolina.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Kate Moore prepared this case solely as a basis for class discussion and not as an endorsement, a source of primary data, or an illustration of effective or ineffective management. Kate Moore is a marketing consultant who specializes in brand identity development and positioning work.
Following eight years in brand management in Fortune 100 consumer goods companies, Kate has run global and domestic projects across a range of industries in both B2B and B2C settings.
This case, though based on real events, is fictionalized, and any resemblance to actual persons or entities is coincidental. There are occasional references to actual companies in the narration.
Copyright © 2007 President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-545-7685, write Harvard Business Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu. This publication may not be digitized, photocopied, or otherwise reproduced, posted, or transmitted, without the permission of Harvard Business School.

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Upon hiring Ann Banks in the fall of 2005, Steve Sears assigned her to assess “the Italian opportunity” for Saxonville and develop a national product under the Vivio name or as a new brand.
Coming from a Fortune 100 packaged goods company, with experience in brand identity and development work, Banks was eager to “make her mark” in a smaller organization. In their first conversation, Sears had told Banks, “Your portfolio shows that you don’t just rely on developing a distinctive product; you know how to match up core values in the ‘hearts and minds’ of consumers with the attributes of a product, so that consumers feel like the brand was designed specifically to meet their needs. Saxonville needs a well-thought-out positioning plan if we want to move from our also-ran position in Italian sausage to national category leader and make our product one that every major grocery account in the U.S. will want to carry.”

Background of Saxonville’s Italian Sausage Business
Banks soon found a willing guide to Saxonville’s business and a partner for her project in Laura
Bishop, director of market research. Bishop gave Banks the results of Saxonville’s Attitude and
Usage research in 2001 and access to the company’s constantly updated, online market database.
In their first lengthy conversation, Bishop frankly explained Saxonville’s challenges. “In the breakfast category we just don’t spend enough to compete with the big players. Besides, fewer people are serving sausage for breakfast; it’s eaten more at special occasions, typically on weekends.” She continued. “The bratwurst division fired their ad agency mid-year. Then it was too late to get a new campaign developed and fielded. Steve knows we need to change the marketing planning for brats.”
Bishop smiled, “But think about the potential for brats—they’re mainly prepared at outdoor barbeques, and there’s only so much outdoor grilling. People eat inside more often.”
“About Vivio. Saxonville first entered the Italian sausage market in 2002 in the Northeast where,”
Bishop laughed, “brats are not a basic staple like here in the Midwest. They made up an ‘Italian’ name because senior management worried that people wouldn’t buy an Italian product from a
‘German heritage’ company. Vivio was priced comparably to other regional Italian sausages, and we gave it the required trade support. For Vivio’s first six months, it went on deal every other month, and also offered some in-store sampling. Shoppers tried it at a discounted price, and a brand was born, at relatively little cost.” She beamed. “The product is great. Now the trade in those areas knows
Saxonville the company, and we’ve established relationships to allow the introduction of brats to the eastern United States.”
“But,” Banks asked, “what about positioning the Vivio brand? What did the company do to create a distinctive identity for Vivio that would stand out amid the competition?”
Bishop responded: “Not a lot. We used a Styrofoam tray covered in plastic wrap, with a label depicting coiled links of sausage next to a head of garlic and an old-fashioned sausage grinder. The label covers most of the package, leaving enough space so you can see the ‘look’ of the sausage inside. It says ‘Vivio fresh Italian sausage’ and has an Italian flag in one corner. That was the positioning—the product was basically lobbed out there.”
Bishop continued. “Regional competitive brands are positioned one of two ways. Some brands like Mama Mia in New York emphasize ‘authentic Italian heritage’—our implied angle for Vivio.
Others, like Hertfordshire in Pennsylvania, say ‘freshly and locally made.’ Paglia Brothers in Boston tries to do both: they have an Italian name but work the ‘locally grown’ angle.”
“Some brands do a little local spot advertising, some TV or radio; others advertise trade deals in newspapers and store circulars. Pretty basic stuff. We’ve only supported the brand with base trade

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spending,1 but slowly and surely it’s making distribution gains. Field reps report that major supermarket accounts in different areas request Vivio to stay competitive. In a number of accounts, the brand has gained multiple facings.2 Other Italian sausage brands have been pulling consumers in, and Vivio’s growing along with the category.” However, Bishop admitted that Saxonville had not yet conducted market research on the Italian sausage customer, because senior management felt the business was growing just fine without research and was skeptical of positioning (“one of those business-school buzz words”).

Researching and Evaluating the Italian Opportunity
After that meeting with Bishop, Banks spent a week reading through the past 10 years of
Saxonville’s market research results along with the brands’ annual business plans and year-end reports. Then, with her manager Sears’ assistance, she formed a multifunctional task force that would provide input and perspective in her investigation of the Italian sausage opportunity. The team, who named their task “Project Score,” included 10 colleagues from the research and development (R&D), packaging and graphics, marketing, and sales departments.
At the meeting, Banks handed out two documents. The first was a one-page summary of the company’s sausage businesses (see Exhibit 1). She wanted the team to understand Italian sausage in the context of the whole portfolio, partly to reduce the risk that future positioning of Vivio might inadvertently encourage cannibalization of the other products. The second document presented
Vivio’s 2005 sales performance (Exhibit 2) and showed the brand’s available line items by form and flavor. Banks asked for the team’s comments and perceptions of the “Italian opportunity.” The national sales manager immediately spoke up, arguing that Italian sausage had untapped potential with male cooks who might make it a grilling staple for weekend barbecues. Vivio’s marketing strategy, he believed, should dissuade these grillers from substituting Vivio for bratwurst.
Banks then asked the team, “Why has no one realized the opportunity to develop a national
Italian sausage brand?” This time Bishop responded: “These local brands have played up their ‘home grown’ heritage—the whole farm-to-market idea. Plus, there’s a reluctance to think creatively about how to distribute outside your core geography.” Banks mused, “There’s the trap. Pick a ‘local’ positioning, and who are you, if you leave your home turf?” She pushed further. “What about one of the national giants like Billy Bob or Country Home?” This time the national sales manager responded.
“Ann, those guys are frozen producers, not fresh. There is some overlap, but predominantly their distributors drive freezer trucks. It would mean reconfiguring their whole distribution network to play in this category.” Finally Banks was satisfied and she moved the meeting on to describe the methodology they would use to research the Italian sausage consumer.
“There are numerous ways to do positioning work. Typically I follow a four-step process. The first is a round of qualitative research with target consumers to understand their behaviors and needs. The second step is a sequential round of consumer sessions, where we’ll use the language we’ve heard to develop and then gain reactions to different positioning ideas. In the third round we refine all the new learning into actual concepts and have consumers prioritize and improve them. In the fourth step, the concepts are put through monadic3 testing, and in the end, among other things,
1 Money given to retailer accounts to put the product on deal (i.e., at a sale price) and to pay for space in the refrigerator case.
2 A facing is the first in a stack or row of packages on a supermarket shelf or in a freezer or refrigerator case.
3 In monadic testing, a set number of respondents are asked to respond to specific questions about a single concept. They are not asked to compare or choose one concept over another. In this case, two separate groups were each shown a different concept and asked to answer questions, including purchase intent for their particular concept. The responses and scores are then compared.

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we look at the purchase intent scores the testing generates. The three qualitative steps will give us depth and help to surface ideas, while the quantitative piece will validate those ideas across a broader population. To succeed, I believe a brand must find a way to link its product to the core values of their target consumers. When a brand taps into what really matters to customers, customers feel good about using that brand.”
Banks ended the meeting saying, “There’s one other important question we hope the research can help us with. What is the ideal name for Saxonville’s line of Italian sausage? Should a national entrant continue with the Vivio brand name, or have a different Italianate name, or utilize the
Saxonville name to leverage the company’s heritage and brand equity?”

Step One: Planning New Research on the Target Customer
For the initial phase of research Banks and Bishop ran four highly interactive “mini” pilot groups out of a Pennsylvania research facility to get a quick handle on what current Italian sausage users had to say about their use of the product. Each group contained four to six users—men and women aged
25-50—who used either branded or store-brand products. The work served to confirm (or not, in some cases) some of the basic information presented in the Attitude and Usage (A&U) data, and it gave Banks and Bishop an idea of the language consumers used to discuss some of the benefits Italian sausage delivered.
In October 2005, Banks and Bishop began Phase II of the process, engaging two additional colleagues: Liz Keller, a top brand consultant, and a professional from a marketing research company that had local focus group facilities across the country. Over the next five weeks, Keller worked with
Banks and Bishop to develop stimulus materials and a guide for moderating the sessions, while
Bishop managed the research company as they simultaneously recruited, screened, and selected consumers for the focus groups to be conducted in selected locations. To decide which criteria the screener should use for recruiting participants, Banks and Bishop pored over Saxonville’s A&U data
(see Exhibit 3). To keep the number of groups manageable and economically feasible, they had to make decisions about age of consumer, brand use, and other characteristics. Banks had explained her priorities to Keller: “Liz, we’re coming with an empty plate. In this initial phase we need to understand current behaviors, triggers to purchase, and unmet needs; to get a clear understanding of product benefits, attributes and ideals; and to develop a solid feel for core values and the role this product plays, or can play, in these people’s lives.”
At the end of November 2005, Banks and Bishop headed to their first focus group sessions in New
Brunswick, New Jersey. The research company had initially cold-called 437 female heads-ofhousehold and screened them to participate; of this total, 103 women had qualified for the focus groups. Since females were the primary purchasers and preparers of Italian sausage, they were considered the best source of insights for the positioning work. In one week’s time, Keller ran focus group sessions with all 100+ women, with Banks, Bishop, and several Project Score team members observing from a separate room behind a one-way mirror.
At each focus group, Keller stood at a conference table with her back to the glass, waiting for the consumers to enter the room. She would check all her “piles”: forms for the respondents to select their favorite Italian sausage benefits, “slice-of-life” photographs to help articulate their priorities as the female head-of-household, a stack of magazines that different “teams” of respondents used to create mini-collages, and several collections of mocked-up product packages and 5” x 7” cards. After the women were seated, Keller had them go around the table introducing themselves and telling the ages of their children to help them get “warmed up.” Then Keller would say, “Let’s start by talking about how you approach preparing dinner every night.” Typically, a collective groan would go up and a lively discussion would begin.
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Step Two: Building on Learning from the Focus Groups
Upon returning to Saxonville’s Ohio headquarters, for several days Banks, Bishop, and Keller sequestered themselves in a small conference room, putting up materials from each focus group on the walls as they tallied up the voting, and discussed the key conclusions. Banks and Bishop learned much about consumers’ behaviors (see Exhibit 4), and they developed a synopsis of the learning and sent it to every member of Project Score. In their next team meeting they would brief everyone on the values, emotions, social and familial roles, and self-perceptions of Italian-sausage consumers.
Banks set about experimenting with story lines that might capture this psychological dimension.
All the women in the focus groups described hectic family lives. Although they used prepackaged foods, they did not feel good about it. Their “ideal” was to make wholesome and appealing meals that the entire family—adults and children—would love to eat. But few women felt they had the time or culinary know-how to come up with a range of good meals five to seven days a week. Respondents got great satisfaction from their family’s happy faces after a good dinner, but they dreaded “dinner disaster.” One way that Banks and Bishop sought to make this clear to the
“Score team” was by constructing a perceptual map, which in this case visually showed the key stressors in respondents’ stories on an XY axis. Women felt they had to trade off the time and skill to prepare an evening meal against the family members it would please. Positioned in the upper righthand box of both maps, Italian sausage was revealed as a “meal solution,” compared to standard alternative meals (see Exhibit 5).
The next step on the path to positioning involved characterizing the women’s “ideals” of family life. In the focus groups they’d expressed a strong desire to be nurturing mothers and homemakers and to help create happy childhood memories for their children. They longed for the perceived simplicity of their own childhoods, wistfully recalling fathers returning from work dependably at 5 o’clock, and families sharing a meal and discussing the day’s events around the dinner table. They said, “Today we talk in the car,” and “Everyone’s so busy it’s unusual to get the whole family to the table together.” While the typical focus group participant believed a meal could be a magnet to bring everyone to the table, it was difficult for her to “pull it off.”
Good positioning, Banks knew, would tap into the consumers’ core life values and would “uplift” them, making them feel good about using Saxonville’s brand of Italian sausage. In the conversations from the focus groups, six distinct themes resonated with Banks as potential territories (bases) for positioning the brand: Family Connection, Clever Cooking, Confidence, Appreciation, Quick and
Easy, and Tradition (see Exhibit 6).
At the next Project Score meeting, Banks first displayed the perceptual maps to characterize the consumer’s “dinner dilemmas.” “This isn’t to say we have to think about ourselves relative to chicken or mac ‘n’ cheese,” Banks said. “But it does show us the role we can play for these people, and it speaks to a big opportunity out there.” As everyone nodded, Banks went through six Power
Point slides to explain the positioning territories she, Bishop, and Keller had mapped out from the focus group research. Banks commented, “This is the stage of the process where we tease apart the learning to isolate distinct ideas that may be motivating to our target consumers. Together we’ll work to understand which of these needs is the most important, and we need concrete ideas, both big and small, for satisfying that need.”

Step Three: Building Positioning Concepts
As the team meeting moved to the next stage, Banks explained that now they had to build concepts that could tell consumers a cohesive story. Banks indicated her preference for using a
“brand ladder” diagram to capture this thinking, though she acknowledged that other models might
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be employed. She drew a simple ladder on the board and began to fill it in. “We introduced a line of gourmet cooking oils in my last job, and this ‘ladder’ was the basis for our final positioning” (see
Exhibit 7). “Notice how we started with a core value, then moved down to the emotional benefit, the functional benefit, and the product attributes that communicated those benefits. In this work,” Banks continued, “we built several different ‘ladder structures’ that supported the different core values held by the target consumer. For the user of gourmet cooking oils, the reinforcement of her belief in her own discerning good taste was the most motivating positioning, whether she was a gourmet cook or simply wanted to be one.”
“Now let’s try to determine what’s at the top of the ladder for Italian sausage. What is the value held dear by target consumers?” They made a list:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.

feeding her family good food having time to do fun things with her children getting everything done using her creativity to come up with interesting meals helping her children have happy memories making home-cooked food they all will love not being remembered just for doing laundry and nagging bringing a sense of tradition to their lives knowing about easy meals she can make quickly gathering people together and facilitating their family experience creating the kind of home she wants her family to have

Someone in the group suggested that all the ideas were about the woman doing a good job as mother and homemaker. “That’s it,” said Banks. “Even though she’s not concerned with others’ opinions, she holds high standards for herself.” Banks wrote “Job well done” at the top of the Italian sausage ladder, then indicated that the team must next identify how each of the six positioning territories delivered an emotional benefit that paid off to the stated value. After discussion, the majority of the group agreed on four different core ideas for developing concepts to be presented to consumers in a second round of research. They concluded that “Quick and Easy” would work better if integrated into another positioning concept as a “reason why”, rather than as a stand-alone idea.
In the final round of the qualitative research, which took another month, consumers were exposed to four mock concepts (see Exhibit 8) and asked to select and prioritize their three favorites. “Family
Connection” and “Clever Cooking” received the highest total votes, with “Family Connection” receiving the most first-place votes.4 (See consumer group voting in Exhibit 9.)
When the Score team next reconvened in January 2006, Banks asked them to brainstorm potential tactical strategies that would support the two top-voted positionings and optimize brand identity.
She also warned the team members, “Our two constraints are, first, that each tactic has to be realizable by the slated date for the brand’s national launch early in 2007, and second, that management isn’t willing to discount the product’s price, currently set at parity with the top competitors. Discounting programs are inappropriate tactics given who we probably want to be as a brand.” By the meeting’s end, the group had winnowed down their ideas to a manageable list of
R&D, graphics, and sales tactics (see Exhibit 10).

4 Market researchers placed somewhat greater importance on first-place votes because they represented individuals’
“favorites.”

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Step Four: Additional Research Delivers a Verdict – or Two
Based on the qualitative research, Banks faced a quandary. She would prefer to use the “Family
Connection” positioning, closest to the target customer’s core values, but it would be easier to provide tactical support for the “Clever Cooking” positioning. “At least,” she said to Bishop, “I can explain away the fear of cannibalization of our other brands.” Bishop looked puzzled at Banks’s confidence. Banks elaborated, “Trust what we’ve learned. Our consumers may be part of the weekend-barbeque ‘Brat pack,’ but their use of Italian sausage has nothing to do with what happens on the weekends.”
Banks hoped that the fourth phase of market research—quantitative testing—would settle her internal debate. Working with Bishop, a quantitative testing agency field-tested the “Family
Connection” concept with 250 target consumers and “Clever Cooking” with 256 target consumers, who answered a series of questions about the concepts, including their likelihood to purchase.
Testing results (see Exhibit 11) revealed the highest purchase-intent scores that Saxonville had ever seen—both concepts were indeed viable.
Of the two, “Family Connection” had scored better. Banks wondered if that was due to consumers’ familiarity with existing brands’ “authentic Italian heritage” positioning, or was the positioning inherently more motivating? For example, it was clear that “Italian” implied “family”: the stereotype of a large, multi-generational group eating and communing around a table. No existing brand had taken the next step toward communicating that; could Saxonville exploit this seemingly rich opportunity? Or was it too generic, something any brand could do and claim as its own turf? Was the “Clever Cooking” idea more distinctive and durable?
Over the month of February, the Score Team led by Banks had evaluated which available tactics would optimally support which positioning. They discussed how advertising might look and feel, what the packaging could look like under each scenario, what product attributes would reinforce the communication, and how in-store graphics, point-of-purchase materials, and temporary display units might facilitate and support each positioning. They also worked on naming, further evaluating the names they’d already tested, along with considering sub-branding, like “X-brand Italian Sausage from Saxonville,” or even licensing an established name from another category. And then they picked their winner from the two final concepts.
Now, standing in front of the conference room door, Banks patted the documents she was holding. Here was her chance to lay out her case to senior management.

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Exhibit 1 Saxonville Sausage Brand and Market Facts
Breakfast sausage

Saxonville Brats
•
•

•

•

•
•

•

•

•
•

Casual, friend- and familyoriented eating occasion
Cooked on the outdoor grill usually by males, weekend afternoon, 65% weekend evening, 30% other, 5%
Peak volume season – May to September (86% of volume) Adult male target through the FHH (female head of household) who buys what the “chef” wants
Men and beer outdoor
BBQ positioning
Supported annually with television advertising and a popular 10 year “Harry
Brat The BBQ Guy” campaign A 15% higher SRP
(suggested retail price) than competitors’ brands,
20% higher price than store brands Trade support – three deals annually versus competitive four annual price reductions
1 national player,
5 local/regional brands
Key consumer verbatims harvested from prior research: “…it’s considered a fancy hot dog…an adult hot dog”
“…for a cookout…only in the summer” •
•

•

•
•

•

•

•

•
•

Breakfast-time eating occasion Cooked by females, 75% by males, 25% morning meals, 99%
Peak volume season –
November to March (69% of volume)
FHH target
Hot family breakfast in minutes positioning is the category standard
Supported by small print campaign with limited reach three years ago
A 5% higher SRP than competing brands, 12% higher price than store brands Trade support – two deals annually at parity with competition 3 national players,
9 local/regional brands
Key consumer verbatims harvested from prior research: “Sometimes I just love to make a big breakfast for everyone” Vivio Italian sausage
•
•

•

•
•

•

•
•

Dinner time eating occasion Peak volume season –
October to February (42% of volume)
FHH target, implied
Italian heritage positioning Not supported by advertising Comparably priced with competitive brands with a
20% higher SRP than store brands Trade support – four deals annually at parity with competition No national players, 29 local/regional brands
Key consumer verbatims harvested from prior research: “It’s something you always have in the house because you can always do something good with it”
“…pizza, soup, I use it like ground beef and they love whatever I make with it”
“Everyone loves it”

“…it’s the weekend, with everyone relaxed and around the table and we have no agenda and nowhere we have to be”
“Add a little sausage and it feels like a real homemade breakfast” “I would never have a cookout and just serve brats…they’re variety, another choice if we’re cooking out”
“No, kids don’t eat them”

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Exhibit 2 Vivio 2005 Sales Performance
CURRENT 52 WEEKS ENDING DEC 2005
TOTAL US $2 MM +

UPC a

$ Vol

Sweet, Hot, and Mild varieties, links and ground Italian sausage

Vivio Italian Sweet Sausage Link 24.41 oz

33990082141

$3,714,499

Vivio Italian Hot Sausage Link 24.41 oz

33990082147

$18,858,587

Vivio Italian Mild Sausage Link 24.41 oz

33990082144

$42,414,884

Vivio Italian Mild Sausage Link 55 oz

33990082319

$2,829,047

Vivio Italian Sweet Sausage Ground 14 oz

33990082010

$2,019,310

Vivio Italian Hot Sausage Ground 14 oz

33990082013

$34,685

Vivio Italian Mild Sausage Ground 14 oz

33990082019

$1,351,313

Vivio Italian Cheese Sausage Link 14.7 oz

33990082412

$870,081

Vivio Italian Pepper Sausage Link 14.9 oz

33990082411

$160,232

Vivio Italian Garlic Sausage Link 14.7 oz

33990082419

$833,067

Vivio Italian Mix Sausage Link 55 oz

33990082345

$1,235,193
$74,320,898

a. Universal product code for the specific product

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Exhibit 3 Research Design Variables
Relevant data from latest A&Ua study:
•
•
•
•
•
•

Female heads-of-household are primary purchasers of Italian sausage.
Six out of the last 10 purchases given to a particular brand is considered “a loyalist.”
Heavy users used Italian sausage three + times a month.
Mean Italian sausage usage constituted two times every six weeks.
Heaviest usage is among consumers aged 20–50 years.
Age differentiation tends to manifest in 10 year increments.

Other potential demographic considerations:
•
•
•
•
•

Working out-of-the home, part- or full-time vs. working at home as a homemaker
The number of children in the household
Ages of children in the household
Education level
Household income level

Other potential behavior considerations:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Vivio loyalists
Competitive-brand Italian sausage loyalists
Uses/does not use private label and store brands (degree of price sensitivity)
Uses/does not use Saxonville Brats
Uses/does not use Saxonville Breakfast Sausage
Frequency of every-day dinner preparation
Use of other sausage products; bratwurst, breakfast, kielbasa, etc.

Geographic considerations:
•
•
•
•
•

Strong Italian sausage markets where Vivio is distributed
Markets where Vivio is particularly strong
Strong Bratwurst markets where Saxonville is well developed
Strong Saxonville markets where Italian sausage is distributed
Strong Saxonville markets where Vivio is distributed

a. Attitude and usage

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Exhibit 4 What the Focus Groups Revealed

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Three groups of Italian sausage consumers clearly emerged. Heavy Users purchased at least once a week during fall and winter months and once every two weeks during the spring and summer. Light Users purchased at least once every six weeks with the same seasonal variations as the heavy users. (Earlier A&U data had revealed that Negligible and Non-Users seldom if ever purchased Italian sausage).
Heavy, Medium, and Light Users alike reported that Italian sausage made their lives easier because it was a meal that their husbands and children enjoyed. It was the one meal they prepared that they did not need to call the family to the table to eat.
Respondents were consistent in reporting that they did the cooking versus their partners 93% versus 7% of the time, and that cooking was done primarily for evening dinner meals.
Most respondents were very passionate in their descriptions of cooking and eating Italian sausage. The said it “had the same effect as popcorn at the movie theater,” in that “the minute you smell it you have to have some.” Many of the consumer sessions ended with respondents saying they would go home and make Italian sausage for dinner that night.
Italian sausage was considered a great “meal-maker.” Unlike bratwurst and breakfast sausage, respondents reported using Italian sausage as an “ingredient” food in sauces, soups, and casseroles, or sautéing it with a few vegetables and then combining with pasta or rice.
Users reported feeling they always “had a quick meal in the house” if there was Italian sausage in the refrigerator.
The Vivio brand was considered by loyalists and competitive users alike to be of exceptionally high quality, with good color, an above-average ratio of solids to fats, and great taste and texture. On the brand name issue:
- 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. The top-scoring names across groups were “Italy’s Best,” “Primo,” and “Perfecto.” “Vivio” ranked seventh. - “Saxonville Italian Sausage” did receive a lot of votes among Italian sausage users whether or not they used the brats or breakfast products. Consumers stated that they knew Saxonville by its moniker, “The Family Company,” and believed it was a wellestablished business that would make good products.
- In geographies where Saxonville Bratwurst was distributed, “Saxonville” was considered a poor brand name among Italian sausage users because of its more “German-seeming” heritage. - Among heavy Saxonville Brats users, “Saxonville Italian Sausage” received a mixed response: while consumers thought it might not “go with” an “Italian” product, they believed anything from Saxonville would have exceptional product quality.

HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL | BRIEFCASES
This document is authorized for use only by Dany Gauthier in MRK6004H_A12 taught by Isabelle Garnier from
September 2012 to December 2012.

11

For the exclusive use of D. GAUTHIER
2085 | Saxonville Sausage Company

Exhibit 5 Perceptual Map of Italian Sausage Use
The map details trade-offs experienced by users and shows how Italian sausage fits in meeting core target needs.

Perceptual Map of Women’s Evening Meal Preparation Trade-offs
Time and skill required

Easy To Do
10

• Hot Dogs &

5

• Hamburgers
• Meatloaf

10

• One-Dish
Meal Made
With
Chicken

0

5

5

10

•

5

Homemade
Spaghetti

Family-Pleasing
Family-Pleasing

Kid-Pleasing

Sauce

Meal Made
With Italian
Sausage

Everyone Loves It & Eats It

Kids Love It & Eat It

• One-Dish

• Spaghetti
With Jarred

Beans
• Mac N’
Cheese

•
Homemade
Chicken
Soup

10
Hard To Do

Perceptual Map of Women’s Evening Meal Preparation Trade-offs
Time and skill required

Easy To Do
10

• Lasagna
• Breaded Chicken

Adults Love It & Eat It

Rice

5
• Sautéed Chicken With Salad

•Roast Pot Roast

10

5

•Roast Chicken with Gravy

0

5

5

• Beef Stew

10

Everyone Loves It & Eats It
Everyone Loves It & Eats It

• Broiled Salmon With

Meal Made with Italian
Sausage

Family-Pleasing
Family-Pleasing

Adult-Pleasing

with Vegetables

• One-Dish

• New Recipe

10
Hard To Do

12

BRIEFCASES | HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL
This document is authorized for use only by Dany Gauthier in MRK6004H_A12 taught by Isabelle Garnier from
September 2012 to December 2012.

For the exclusive use of D. GAUTHIER
Saxonville Sausage Company | 2085

Exhibit 6 Initial Positioning Territories for Italian Sausage Use by Homemaker
FAMILY CONNECTION
Family and friends around the table with good food, sharing and enjoying themselves and each other, is what good living is all about. Everybody loves Italian sausage and the meal it makes – and she is the magnet that pulls everyone in.
CLEVER COOKING
Using fresh, high-quality ingredients and making a recipe her own way, she puts a little of herself into the meal. Italian sausage is so versatile it can be used in a number of different ways and it always adds a little zest to her dishes.
CONFIDENCE
She’s not a confident cook especially when it comes to making things that are new and different. She wants to make meals that her family will not only eat, but will love. With Italian sausage she knows that whatever she makes will taste good and that she can’t go wrong. Italian sausage is a sure-fire thing that enables her to “pull it off.”
APPRECIATION
Her family knows that her efforts in the kitchen are a true labor of love as she works to make things that will keep everyone interested in “what’s for dinner.” While she doesn’t measure herself by praise or their appreciation, she’s happy to be recognized by them; it’s a nice affirmation.
QUICK AND EASY
Italian sausage is quick and easy and so versatile that she can pull a delicious and wholesome meal together in less than 30 minutes. She can take nearly anything she happens to have on hand—dry pasta, rice, fresh peppers, tomatoes, etc.—and make a quick homemade meal.
TRADITION
She remembers simpler times when everyone came together at the table every day and shared good home-made cooking. She’d like to provide a home environment where her children can have those same feelings and grow up with happy memories of their childhoods. Italian sausage has always been a part of her life and is the main ingredient in a number of her mother’s recipes that she makes today. Exhibit 7 Brand Laddering for Roberge® Gourmet Cooking Oil
VALUE:
EMOTIONAL
BENEFIT:

Discerning good taste
_____________________________________
Makes me feel like a gourmet cook
_____________________________________

FUNCTIONAL
BENEFIT:

Flavor enhancement that makes even the best recipes taste unbelievably better
_____________________________________

ATTRIBUTES:

Smooth and light texture
Pale green natural coloring
Higher melt temperature
Emulsifies instantly
Sophisticated taste

HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL | BRIEFCASES
This document is authorized for use only by Dany Gauthier in MRK6004H_A12 taught by Isabelle Garnier from
September 2012 to December 2012.

13

For the exclusive use of D. GAUTHIER
2085 | Saxonville Sausage Company

Exhibit 8 Italian Sausage Potential Positioning Concepts
In unique language, each concept focuses on different emotional and functional benefit “links” that pay off to the target customers’ core value of wanting to feel intrinsically that she is doing a good job. The concepts include product attributes that might successfully communicate to her that a particular brand will deliver the functional benefit.

“Family Connection” concept

“Love”
“Love” concept

Introducing “Brand”

Introducing “Brand”
Delicious Italian Sausage

Delicious Italian Sausage
DISCOVER A CROWD-PLEASING
FAVORITE THAT BRINGS
THE FAMILY TOGETHER
Warm Family Visual
Photo depicting a group gathered around the dinner table, eating, talking, passing plates, looking happy and very engaged. Includes parents, children, grandparents.

An irresistible taste and aroma draws people together because some of life’s best times are shared over a great meal.
The perfect blend of fresh herbs and natural spices create a flavor that appeals to all ages.
Finished Dinner Visual
Photo of a steaming serving dish filled with pasta, chopped vegetables and sliced sausage in tomato sauce

“Brand” -- It Welcomes You In

“Balance”
“Balance” concept

NOW YOU CAN MAKE YOUR “LABOR OF
LOVE” EFFORTS IN THE KITCHEN FEEL
LESS LIKE LABOR AND MORE LIKE LOVE
Mother & Daughter Visual
Photo depicting a woman standing at the kitchen counter slicing vegetables smiling and talking to her daughter who is also talking while dropping sliced cucumbers into a salad bowl.

Sometimes the more time you spend doing things for your family, the less time you spend with them. With “Brand” you know you can make a wide range of nutritious familypleasing meals without spending all that time.
“Brand’s” delicious flavors and convenient forms satisfy a range of ages, tastes, occasions and recipes. So you can easily put together one meal everyone will love, time after time.
Finished Dinner Visual
Photo of a steaming serving dish filled with pasta, chopped vegetables and sliced sausage in tomato sauce

“Brand” -- For All You Do

“Creative Cooking” concept

Introducing “Brand”

Introducing “Brand”

Delicious Italian Sausage

Delicious Italian Sausage
SIMPLY ADD YOUR OWN PERSONAL
TOUCH TO CREATE MEALS THAT
MAKE ANY DAY A LITTLE SPECIAL

BALANCE THE DEMANDS OF YOUR
EVERYDAY LIFE WITHOUT CUTTING
CORNERS
Serving Dinner Visual

Cooking Visual

Photo depicting a boy’s smiling face as he sits at the table waiting for his plate to be filled from a rectangular casserole dish that contains green and red vegetables, ground sausage and rice.

Photo depicting a plate of sliced orange and red peppers being tipped into a sauté pan cooking on the stove.

Today it’s not easy to regularly come up with nutritious homemade meals. That’s why “Brand” makes it simple to put together dinners that cover all the important food groups in one dish.
“Brand’s” delicious blend of seasonings and spices helps you add a little zest to all your everyday meals.

A delicious way to express your creativity with original meals everyone is sure to love. Each variety of “Brand” comes with “family approved” one-dish recipes for a wholesome real meal in minutes. You’ll know they are eating well - - all they’ll know is, they love it!

Finished Dinner Visual

Photo of a steaming serving dish filled with pasta, chopped vegetables and sliced sausage in tomato sauce

“Brand” -- The Taste Of Home

14

Finished Dinner Visual

Photo of a steaming serving dish filled with pasta, chopped vegetables and sliced sausage in tomato sauce

“Brand” -- Creative Meals In
Minutes!

BRIEFCASES | HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL
This document is authorized for use only by Dany Gauthier in MRK6004H_A12 taught by Isabelle Garnier from
September 2012 to December 2012.

For the exclusive use of D. GAUTHIER
Saxonville Sausage Company | 2085

Exhibit 9 Italian Sausage-using Consumer Positioning Concept Voting

F
N=

1st votes
2nd votes
3rd votes

TOP TWO
VOTES
•
•

B

L

FAMILY
CONNECTION

CLEVER
COOKING

BALANCING
ACT

LABOR OF
LOVE

69

CONCEPTS:

C
69

69

69

37

14

9

9

15

35

12

7

16

12

9

1

52

49

21

16

54% of first place votes went to “Family Connection”
Less than half as many went to “Clever Cooking” and “Balancing Act” respectively

*Note: not all respondents selected a third favorite

HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL | BRIEFCASES
This document is authorized for use only by Dany Gauthier in MRK6004H_A12 taught by Isabelle Garnier from
September 2012 to December 2012.

15

For the exclusive use of D. GAUTHIER
2085 | Saxonville Sausage Company

Exhibit 10 Supporting Tactics Offered by Other Functional Groups
R&D

•
•
•
•
•

GRAPHICS

•
•
•
•
•

SALES

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

16

Kid-friendly-shaped pre-cut sausage pieces; dinosaurs, goldfish
Different flavor varieties: spicy mustard, sweet “Oriental” style, gourmet cheese and smoked flavors, macaroni & cheese flavor, jalapeno pepper
& cheese-infused “stuffed” varieties
Insert fresh herbs that would be visible through the sausage casing but not impact the taste of the sausage
Frozen sausage pellets, both raw and pre-cooked
Different forms: uncooked pre-sliced “disks,” mini-patties, mini-links, and precooked “meatballs,” “salami” slices and “disks”

Label size and shape changes to maximize the product visibility window and provide in-case differentiation
Alternate label graphics using background photographs, fresh ingredients depictions, the Italian flag
Faux labels used as tip-ins in magazines to reinforce the brand
Labels with “back-placed” recipes
Different label-copy stickers that “pop”

Larger package size with dinner-plate shaped trays
Running more frequent BOGO’s (buy-one get-one promotions)
Famous potential spokespeople like Rachael Ray
Refrigerated display units placed in the produce and dry grocery sections Celebrity recipes
Celebrity store appearance program with on-site sampling
Temporary Merchandising Display units that carry recipe cards, great cooking-with-sausage graphics, and can hold store merchandise, given with new account authorizations and / or increased facings

BRIEFCASES | HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL
This document is authorized for use only by Dany Gauthier in MRK6004H_A12 taught by Isabelle Garnier from
September 2012 to December 2012.

For the exclusive use of D. GAUTHIER
Saxonville Sausage Company | 2085

Exhibit 11 Italian Sausage Concept Assessment
CONCEPT

PURCHASE INTENT
Family Connection
(A)
(250)
%
81

Clever Cooking
(B)
(256)
%
72

23
58 (B)
15

41 (A)
31
26

Probably/Definitely Would Not Buy

4

2

Probably would not buy it
Definitely would not buy it

1
1

1
1

Base Total Respondents
Definitely/Probably Would Buy
Definitely would buy it
Probably would buy it
Might or might not buy it

Note: letters in parentheses denote relative statistical significance at the 95% confidence level

HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL | BRIEFCASES
This document is authorized for use only by Dany Gauthier in MRK6004H_A12 taught by Isabelle Garnier from
September 2012 to December 2012.

17