Cheesemakers Encouraged to Bring Right Products to Market

By Ron Johnson, Dairy Editor
Thursday, May 8, 2008 10:43 AM CDT

Walk into any decent-sized grocery store and chances are you’ll find cheese n lots of cheese. It’s in the dairy case; it’s in the deli n and it’s in shoppers’ carts.

But cheesemakers still face challenges in marketing their products. Three cheese company representatives talked about “Bringing the Right Product to Market: Cheese Marketing Challenges,” during the recent International Cheese Technology Exposition in Madison.

Belgioioso Cheese

When it comes to cheese, the “right product” starts with quality milk, said Mark Schleitwiler, vice president of operations for Belgioioso Cheese, Denmark. That’s why the company’s founders chose Wisconsin as the home base in 1979.

“You come to Wisconsin to make cheese. If you want to make movies, you go to Hollywood,” Schleitwiler compared.

Belgioioso now has five cheesemaking facilities and has found the right products to market by increasingly turning to “specialty” cheeses, Schleitwiler pointed out. Its product lineup now includes some 25 “specialty” cheeses.

Among them are proprietary styles, like Creamy Gorgonzola, American Grana, and Peperoncino. That’s in addition to the company’s three original cheeses n Parmesan, Provolone and Romano.

Besides adding cheeses, Belgioioso has altered its mix of cheese sizes. Twenty years ago, much of its cheese was sold as wheels and other big, traditional cuts.

But now the company has abandoned some of those sizes. No longer does it sell 70-pound “wheels,” but instead wheels cut into quarters, Schleitwiler explained.

While it once sold bags of its grated American Grana weighing five pounds, it has gone to offering this cheese in a much wider size range. Now, customers can get Belgioioso American Grana in packages all the way from one ounce to 20 pounds.

Belgioioso has not entirely left the traditional sizes and shapes of Italian-style cheeses behind. Schleitwiler noted that the company still makes “sausage” cheeses, so named because they look like overly large sausages when they are hanging.

Still, “We’ve listened to our customers,” he asserted.

That listening to its customers has changed the way Belgioioso packages its fresh mozzarella, too. While the company still offers fresh mozzarella in 3-pound tubs, some buyers wanted that style packaged in a way that would extend its shelf life beyond 37 days, Schleitwiler said.

Now Belgioioso offers 2-pound blocks of fresh mozzarella that carry a shelf life of 60 days. It also sells that same 2-pound block already sliced.

Fresh mozzarella has become so popular that some buyers ask for it in even smaller packages. “Club” stores like Sam’s Club want Belgioioso fresh mozzarella packaged as two 8-ounce balls.

Want something smaller yet? Belgioioso has accommodated by making 2.5-gram “pearls” of fresh mozzarella n “the ultimate in convenience,” according to Schleitwiler.

The company also sells packages of Fontina that are already priced, adding one more layer of convenience for grocery stores. And, Belgioioso was “one of the first” in the U.S. to offer 1-pound cups of Mascarpone n “just the right size,” according to Schleitwiler.

Besides becoming more flexible with its cheese sizes and adding varieties, Belgioioso has found that giving potential customers tours of its cheesemaking facilities is “very successful” in attracting buyers, he said. For one, thing, plant tours let customers “see the dedication.”

DCI Cheese

“We’ve been very busy, “assured Tim Omer, president of DCI Cheese, Richfield.

For one thing, the company, a blend of five others, has been busy amassing a wide range of cheeses, from mild cheddar to triple-cream Roquefort. And it has compiled a list of several cheese brands, including Salemville, Black Diamond, Organic Creamy, Goldy’s and County Line.

DCI Cheese likes to build its grocery store sales of cheese around what Omer called the “four pillars.” These pillars are Brie, blue, cheddar, and Parmesan.

In addition, DCI likes to assist retailers by managing for them their specialty cheese categories. That means tailoring efforts to individual retailers and even individual stores.

Each retailer, he explained, has a different mix of cheese display cases. That means DCI has to be able to customize its programs.

To do that, DCI uses what Omer called the “SCORE” program. It stands for “specialty cheese optimizing results every day.”

SCORE efforts can include “cheese-of-the-month” promotions in stores, along with providing signs to point shoppers to the specialty cheeses. It also includes booklets telling the stories of the cheeses, their country of origin, and characteristics, along with recipes and serving suggestions.

Some specialty cheese categories are doing especially well. Omer said the category of fresh mozzarella is “booming.”

What’s more, interest in cheese made from organically produced milk is picking up. Omer said DCI Cheese has been marketing organic cheese for a decade, but now it is seeing “double-digit” growth.

It’s about time, he indicated. “We lost money selling organic cheese for a long time,” Omer admitted.

DCI Cheese is tapping into the movement to slow or prevent global warming by people and companies shrinking their so-called “carbon footprints.” It’s doing that with its Salemville cheese brand.

That brand of cheese is made from milk produced on farms owned by the Amish. Their cows are milked by hand and the milk is shipped in the old-fashioned cans.

Cabot Creamery

Cabot Creamery, a farmer-owned cooperative at Cabot, Vt., is being creative with its marketing, said Jed Davis, its director of marketing. It uses the long histories of its brands and the organization in coaxing shoppers into buying its cheeses.

Cabot Creamery itself dates to 1893, he pointed out. It was organized as a cooperative the next year. Its McCadam brand dates back even farther, to New York in the 1870s.

Things have changed since 1894, Davis pointed out. Then, farmers who wanted to be members of the co-op had to pay a $5 yearly fee plus “a cord of firewood to run the furnace in the winter.”

To get its marketing messages across, Cabot Creamery limits them to just four. Number one, said Davis, is “quality milk.”

The second key message is “owned by dairy farmers.” Davis reminded, “People don’t necessarily understand what the heck a ‘co-op’ is.”

Cabot Creamery’s third key message is “craftsmanship.” And its fourth n but very important n key message is “Vermont.”

Though its cheeses are sold in “all 50 states,” it still is a “strong regional brand,” Davis pointed out. To reinforce the regional connection, Cabot Creamery often uses a depiction of a Vermont license plate n with its “Green Mountain State” slogan - in its marketing.

Davis offered several suggestions to cheese companies wanting to hone their marketing skills:

- Marketing is expensive. But it’s not “more” expensive.

- “Know your core competency.”

- “Invest in research.”

- “Optimize your marketing mix.”

- Packaging is important, since it’s involved in giving shoppers that vital “first impression.”

- Public relations costs little or nothing and is “very credible.”

- “Get folks to try your product.”

Davis wrapped up with this reminder: “Quality matters,” he insisted. “It has to matter.”

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