KAYEM AL FRESCO SAUSAGE Robert F. Young & Raymond M. Kinnunen Northea tern Uni!er ity Ca e Ob"e#ti!

e and U e Matt Monkiewicz, Director of Marketing for Kayem, was looking at the planning sheet for its Al Fresco sausage product. He had to decide whether to implement another " uzz" marketing campaign ! a techni"ue to create word of mouth ad#ertising $" uzz"% for uni"ue products or &rands ! for this small &ut fast growing niche product. 'tudents are asked to assess the impact of the " uzz" campaign, analyze the alternati#e marketing possi&ilities, and consider the market share growth potential of the product in relation to the contri&ution of the product to o#erall company sales and profita&ility. (he case is &ased on field research and appropriate for courses in marketing management at the undergraduate, graduate, and e)ecuti#e le#els. Ca e Syno$ i (his case is a&out a pri#ately held medium sized meat processing company located in the *ortheast. +n ,--. its annual sales had &een appro)imately /0.- million. Kayem1s top selling product was hot dogs and since the company1s founding, the marketing strategy had &een to focus its product offering as high "uality delicatessen meat. Al Fresco was a gourmet chicken sausage introduced in 0222 in order to make a significant entry into the gourmet food category. +n ,--3 sales for Al Fresco were .4- million pounds and in ,--. sales were 0.,5 million pounds. According to A6*ielson, Al Fresco had &ecome the 70 selling chicken sausage in the 8nited 'tates. +n ,--. Monkiewicz had decided to use a " uzz" campaign at a fee of /.9,--- out of the entire Al Fresco marketing communications &udget of /2-,---. Monkiewicz was not certain how much of the sales increase in the &rand had &een due to the : uzz; effort. (he ,--< &udget had &een set at /2-,---. +n addition to another " uzz" campaign estimated at /9-,---, alternati#es included trade ad#ertisements at a cost of /4-,---, price oriented promotions at a cost of /0--,---, and ad#ertising in specialty food magazines at a cost of /0--,---. Kayem1s senior e)ecuti#es were skeptical a&out the a&ility of " uzz" acti#ity to &uild sustaina&le &rand demand and se#eral supermarket e)ecuti#es had said that ad#ertising in specialty food magazines might &e &etter for generating sustained demand for the &rand.

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(he authors de#eloped the case for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effecti#e or ineffecti#e handling of the situation. (he case, instructor1s manual, and synopsis were anonymously peer re#iewed and accepted &y the *orth American 6ase >esearch Association $*A6>A% for its annual meeting, ?cto&er ,9!,2, ,--<, *orth Falmouth, MA. All rights are reser#ed to the authors and *A6>A. @,--< &y >aymond M. Kinnunen and >o&ert F. Aoung. 6ontact personB >aymond Kinnunen, 6ollege of usiness Administration, *ortheastern 8ni#ersity, oston, Ma -,00<, 509!393!.935, r.kinnunenCneu.edu