Chad T. Vincent

Background

I had been in a YPO (Young President's Organization) group in Wisconsin for 5 years where I became friends with Jim Sartori and Jeff Schwager.  In 2009 when Jeff joined Sartori as President, I quickly joined the company 'to build the brand and a retail business'.  Initially, I thought I would be with them for 12 months to get the business started, and get the base brand work completed.  BUT it ended up being so much fun, I stayed for 7 years.

Sartori is a 4th generation, family owned and operated artisan cheese company in Plymouth Wisconsin.  Sartori makes some of the finest cheese in the world, and has won over 300 awards including best cheese in the USA, and top awards in prestigious European competitions.  Sartori has an innovative product line highlighted by a cheese branded 'BellaVitano' - a creamy firm aged cheese with parmesan and cheddar-like notes that is then soaked (of manners, from cognac to merlot), or hand rubbed (with ingredients like ground Italian espresso beans, or a hand crafted mix of citrus and ginger spices) leading to extraordinary flavor profiles.  We were blessed with highly talented and creative cheesemakers who churned out magnificent products.

Building the Sartori retail business and the Sartori Brand was truly a startup.  We had a stable of wonderful products, but that's where it ended.  With one experienced marketer and one devoted national sales person, we rolled up our sleeves and set out on our journey.   We spent the initial months understanding the lay of the land - interviewing internal team members, cheese mongers, shop owners, retail buyers, consumers, writers and influencers.  Armed with the insights, we laid out our brand positioning and a very high level strategic direction.  Then the hard work hit.  It was a very fluid period as we had to make significant decisions on a daily basis.  Package size, case and unit size, pricing, margins, brokers, distributors, brand stories, sell-in presentations, prioritizing which customers we called on first and why, packaging, copy, POS materials, brand ID, photo images, website development, writing the website copy,
social media, development and hiring of an expanded sales force, where, why, and laying out the specific roles...the list goes on and on.  We had the project plan laid out on a rolling 2 year basis.  It quickly began to pick up steam.  In November we celebrated with our first ever $1M sales month.  The company recorded a record sales year.  We are now on our 7th consecutive years of annual company record growth.  A very fun environment to be a part of.

KEY TO SUCCESS

Getting the brand positioning and strategic framework completed and bought into by the family early on was critical (more on family business later).  By having the roadmap laid out and agreed upon, we could make decisions much more quickly, and we had good guideposts.  With strategy in hand, developing the short term / 3 month project lists that was part of a rolling 2 year action plan.  Being able to look out 3 months to 24 months enabled us to get the critical elements highlighted and done, and helped communicate organization-wide what was happening and what was coming.

Marketing and Branding played a significant role in the business.  Working with The Great Society - A world class marketing/insight and design group - we created a look and feel that brought forth the brand's authenticity and an incredible visual impact on shelf.  Sartori has so many wonderful stories to tell, the company's heritage and authenticity were brought to the forefront!

The third leg of the stool was the development of a best-in-class sales team that was closely aligned with the marketing group.  We spent a LOT of time in developing the sales roles and hiring and training.  And with sales & marketing as partners, revenue and profits began to flow in.

One of the most challenging and intriguing elements of being the lead marketer for a family owned organization was working with the family.  As a 3rd generation company, with the 4th generation entering the company, there is truly a long term view of the business, and family is very important.  Entering a retail and branded world was a new experience.  And when the family name is on virtually every element, navigating approvals often took longer than I had anticipated. Like any business, there are pros and cons.  The family aspect of Sartori is wonderful.  It permeates every element of the organization (no employees, we are all Team Members - like Family Members), and enables truly long term, do what is best type thinking.  No quarterly loading to achieve a revenue number, or pushing product out the door at year end to hit the number.  The family cares deeply about the company, and thus the branding and positioning.  So some elements that we would take for granted that would be completed in very short order at a public company could take weeks or months longer - getting input and buy in.  While frustrating at times, in the end the work gets completed and programs executed, always at the highest standards.