Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 35

Marketing - Essay Example First, the strengths of the company must be identified. One of its strength is that it has been in the sausage business for 70 years. It is known for its company’s heritage and there is brand recognition already. Another strength of Saxonville is the nationwide distribution of its products, particularly its brats and breakfast sausage, through their national and regional brokers and their distributors. Aside from the company’s good reputation, the Vivio brand is considered to be of exceptional quality with great taste and texture. In terms of weakness, although Saxonville has nationwide distribution, it has very little distribution in stores in the Northeastern markets. Another drawback with the Vivio sausage is the customer’s perception that it may not be a good quality Italian sausage, since its manufacturer is of â€Å"German heritage†. It could be noted also that Saxonville does not spend much on advertising and market research which are very important for the success of a product. The packaging of the product needs a lot of improvement too. In terms of pricing, a weakness of the company is that management does not allow a decrease in Vivio’s price so it is unable to compete with other brands in terms of pricing. The Italian sausage market is a category which has shown an increasing growth rate. This is an opportunity for Saxonville to focus their efforts at further enhancing their Italian sausage line. An opportunity exists for Vivio because currently there is no national player for fresh Italian sausage. A major threat is that there are 29 local and regional brands of Italian sausage. Furthermore, some consumers prefer to purchase sausages which are â€Å"home-grown†, meaning produced in their own locality. The objective of Saxonville is to be able to launch a national Italian sausage brand which will help them achieve their profit objectives for the next fiscal year. The company wants that their Italian sausage be a