Saxonville Sausage

Question1. What is the current situation?

Saxonville Sausage Company was a 70-year-old privately held family business headquartered in Saxonville, Ohio, with 2005 revenues of approximately $1.5 billion. This company produced a variety of pork sausage products. The heart of the business consisted of branded products: bratwurst, breakfast sausage, Italian sausage named Vivio, and Store brand products. These four products provided 70%, 20%, 5%, 5% revenue for the company. Since 2004, the bratwurst and the breakfast sausage have been flat with little or no growth expected in short term. Saxonville’s own bratwurst sales had been flat, but in breakfast sausage the company had underperformed the market, resulting in a double-digit revenue decline. Italian sausage was one category showing growth in the retail sausage market, and having grown at annual rate 9% in 2004 and 15% in 2005. However, the Vivio was only available in just 16% of the nation’s large supermarkets. The management felt that the Vivio was an untapped market in a rising market, so they decided to develop a national product under the Vivio name or as a new brand, and then they hired Ann Bank as the new marketing director to launch this new project, so that the Saxonville Sausage Company can achieve its profit objects for the next year.

Question2. 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 as 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 a consumer session, where the researchers use the language they have heard to develop and gain reactions to different positioning ideas. The third step is to refine all the new learning into actual concepts and have consumers prioritize and improve them. The fourth step is that the concepts...