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STEVE
LAUX
Dot Com Magazine
At the
World's Fair in 1964, Steve Siudzinski, founder of Steve's
Cheese, gained worldwide recognition for his 34,591-pound
piece of cheese. Today Steve's Cheese remains worldwide
but not because of a chunk of cheese as big as a house.
It is because the company has a web site.
"In
1996, talk of the Web and the Internet was rampant," says
Tom Zuleger, current owner of Steve's Cheese. "We thought
it was the right way to go."
After
working as a financial troubleshooter for the company eight
years ago, Tom decided to buy it and operate it, along with
his wife Audrey and son Jason. Soon after, the Zulegers
had a web site developed with a shopping cart, enabling
customers to buy their cheese directly from the Internet.
Initially, sales activity was minimal and the site was viewed
as a supplement their strong mail order list.
"It
is one thing to have a Web site, but people still have to
find you," said Jason Zuleger.
With
this in mind, Steve's Cheese began to market its site to
help maximize it's potential.
They
put the Web site's URL, http://www.stevescheese.com,
on their refrigerator magnets, cards, brochures, stationary,
business cards and order forms.
In
1999, The Green Bay News-Chronicle Online approached Steve's
Cheese with the idea of rebuilding their site and including
it in the Chronicle's Packer Tailgate site, http://www.packertailgate.com.
The focus of this site was aimed and marketed towards out-of-state
Packers' fans who want a slice of home for Packer games
(Wisconsin beer, Packers gear, Wisconsin cheese, Door County
cherries, etc.). This past Christmas, the Zulegers have
seen their online sales increase fourfold.
"Good
Wisconsin cheese is hard to come by," says Tom Zuleger.
"What is called 'Wisconsin Cheese' in other states is not
always Wisconsin Cheese. We have a reputation for quality
and for a good Wisconsin product."
This
is evident by the number of repeat customers that continue
to buy via the web site, mail order and in-store.
"The
Internet has brought us new customers as well as giving
our regular customers another means of buying our product,"
he said.
Although
the Web site has seen increased activity, online sales still
remain a small percentage of the overall business. The Zulegers
insist that they will always have the need for a physical
storefront, but admit that the Internet will have a continuing
impact on their business. One noticeable trend is that customers
are not calling as much but are opting to e-mail Steve's
Cheese with their questions.
"The
Internet has made it simpler for people to find us rather
than having to use other means to search for good Wisconsin
Cheese," Tom said.
Steve's
Cheese has figured out that there are two ways to get noticed:
build a 17-ton chunk of cheese or build and market a Web
site. They made the right choice.
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