Saxonville Sausage is a private family owned business that has been facing the attempts of counteracting the financial issues in the sausage market as the company had about 1.5 billion dollars revenues in 2005. The company focuses on the fresh pork sausage products and generates seventy percent revenues from its bratwurst line, twenty percent from the breakfast sausages, and just five percent revenue is generated from their small line of Italian Sausages that are named as “Vivio”. The main concern has been the flat sales of the bratwursts and the declining image of their breakfast sausages. However, the company has the benefit of increasing demand (from 9% to 15% during 2004-2005) of its Italian Sausage. In this regard, there is a high need for an ingenious plan for positioning marketing, so that the Vivio can serve the consumers’ demands and expectations in a substantial manner. It demands the intense level of consideration as the consumers’ satisfaction, and loyalty receives direct impacts of the brand. If a brand accommodates all the demands of the customers, they feel good about choosing that brand over others. Therefore, if the branding concerns are catered carefully, the company will attain maximum benefits of its Italian Sausage brand.
Alternative Solutions
The company should use the Positioning strategy of Clever Cooking, which means that the “Saxonville” should not be there with the brand name. The uniqueness of the brand will make the competition distinctive along with influencing the national distribution. Additionally, the consumer buying behavior will also be directed towards the new brand position. However, the healthy and fresh meals tend to attract more customers, and therefore, it will advantage the company significantly in yielding the hedonic and functional benefits. On the contrary, this approach is easier to be replicated by the competitors. Additionally, it lacks in delivering high standards of the consumers.
Likewise, the company may also position it as a company with ensured family connections through maintaining its Saxonville brand along with Vivio. It will fulfill the high standard concern of the consumers as it is regarded as the best solution for position marketing. It will also leverage the Saxonville’s brand equity yielding a competitive advantage to the company. Besides, it will entail the association in between the culture and family values through their desired food.
However, the company may face aggressive competition from the local producers as they are aware of the family trends. On the other side, the family connections may not yield effective competitive advantage as the competitors do not consider traditions. Another solution that the company can implement is of expansion. For better assessing the reliability of the proposed solution, 4Ps are evaluated as follows.
Product: The Company deals in the class consumer product that is homogeneous.
Packaging: Large sized Italian flag for representing the dedicated branding, recipes included for providing the quick meal ideas, and large windows for making the fresh ingredients visible.
Place: The expansion will ensure the maximum presence in all the national retail stores.
Promotion: Advertising, sales promotion, interactive media, and personal selling will assist the successful position marketing of the company.
It might result in losing the already loyal customers if the brand name is changed. Therefore, changing the brand name or making it entirely family-oriented is going to cause the company certain risks that will not benefit the company in the long run. The incessantly increasing competition in the market demands the company to react aggressively towards attaining their objectives. Therefore, if the company expands its productivity lines, it will be able to cover more volume that will yield increased profits and revenues. It reflects the use of Red Ocean Strategy as it is a competition that decides the prominence of a company in the market. Besides, through expansion, obtaining increased profits from its breakfast sausages and the bratwurst sales, even at lower prices, will decrease the marginal value of the product.
Additionally, the retaining of the brand’s name Vivio will ensure the consumers’ loyalty along with attracting more customers that are the essential elements in determining the company’s competitive advantage. For keeping the Italian brand recognized even at the consumers’ level, the size of the Italian flag on the packaging will be increased. The element of expansion will also include the incentive offers to the retailers and the dealers. Therefore, the company is going to ensure that the products reach the maximum local stores, making it a national product. The threats of new entrants in the industry require the company to offer lower prices or incentives to the retailers so that they buy more Saxonville’s products.
Although the declining sales of breakfast sausage and Bratwurst are alarming towards the revenues generation, and however, risks need to be taken in order to assess the profitability of expanding the lines of productivity. Consequently, a national Italian sausage brand will be established outside the New England area. For this purpose, the company will have to establish contracts and agreements with the retailers. Additionally, the company will also require more resources along with the expenses on the infrastructure expansion. Therefore, it requires the company to handle the expansion process along with maintaining the products' quality and freshness strategically.
