HOSP3075: Brand Extension Case Study and Assignment
Objective:
Using your knowledge from class and your creativity, create a brand extension for an existing (fictional)
brand. You will also plan how it will be promoted.
This case is about a fictional brand. Any similarities with an existing company, brand, or restaurant with
the same name are coincidental.
Brand Information:
Mama Rosina’s Sauce has been around for 50 years. Mama Rosina’s was a popular restaurant in New
York City in the 1970’s through the early 2000’s. In the 80’s, Rosina decided to sell her Marinara sauce in
local New York grocery stores, and it was wildly successful. In 1995, she and her grown children created
a separate company to produce and distribute the sauce, and it was introduced throughout the United
States. Sales continued to grow in the 1990’s, and they added two line extensions in the early 2000s:
Mama Rosina’s Marinara with Basil & Garlic and Mama Rosina’s Alfredo Sauce. Mama Rosina retired
from the restaurant and it was closed in 2010. However, Mama and her family have become very
wealthy from the sauce business.
The brand’s position is: sauces made with all-natural ingredients, and they taste like an Italian
grandmother spent all day making them. The primary market is adults with families; they appreciate
quality food and they like to cook, but they are often too busy to cook the way they want to. The prices
are above average for jarred sauces.
Sales of Mama Rosina’s sauces grew steadily until they leveled off in 2014, and then sales began to
decline in 2017. Increasing competition from high-quality jarred sauces is to blame, along with the loss
of the brand equity that the restaurant provided. The Rosina family thinks that brand extensions will
revitalize the brand and bring new customers to Mama Rosina’s.
Mama Rosina is old, but she is still very much in charge of the business. She wants a
solid idea for a brand extension for Mama Rosina’s. She does not want more line
extensions (sauces); she wants you to come up with something completely new.
Be careful to protect your privacy when discussing your ideas. Rosina has contacted
several marketing experts and will pay the company who comes up with the best
proposal. She will also take four people from the winning company on a food tour to
Italy, with cooking classes.
Above is a drawing of Mama Rosina from about 1985; this picture is on the labels of her products. The jars are recognizable
because of the picture and a distinctive red/white/green pattern on the label and jar lid.
Instructions are on the next page.
Your Assignment:
Create a category extension for Mama Rosina’s, and two marketing communications for your new
product.
Think of an idea for a Mama Rosina’s brand extension. Remember, it must be a category extension.
(Review Chapter 12 to make sure you understand what a category extension is.)
Answer the following questions and submit your answers in a Word document or PDF. Have fun!
1. What is the name of your new product? (For example: Mama Rosina’s Deep Woods Beef Jerky.
Hopefully your idea is better than this one.)
2. Describe your new product, in two or three sentences.
3. identify which brand elements from Mama Rosina’s sauces you’ll use for the new product, and
how.
4. How do you think your brand extension will fit with the brand image in the minds of consumers?
5. Describe two marketing communications methods you will use to introduce the product to the
market. They must be two different types. Give details: what is the message, how will you
communicate it, where will you distribute it? Take your time and be creative.