Johnsonville Sausage: Welcome to Johnsonville, Wisconsin
This is the story of how we made a small town in Wisconsin matter to Canadian sausage eaters.
In spite of a strong trend toward buying local, Johnsonville overcame ten years of flat sales to win over Canadian cooks and become the national share leader in sausage. We did this all without maple-leaf-washing (that thing where outside brands plaster maple leaves on their products to appear more Canadian) and without disparaging competitive brands. We did it the old-fashioned way—through a powerful insight uncovered by embedding ourselves with our target audience. The big aha: The...