Wehner Family Cheese: Small Business Marketing Strategy
This paper examines the marketing strategy behind the Wehner family's artisan cheese business in Georgia, tracing its evolution from Desiree Wehner's kitchen hobby to a growing commercial operation. The analysis identifies the transition point between unplanned activity and deliberate business strategy, highlights the key opportunities and financial challenges facing small family businesses, and recommends diversification of marketing channels — including direct outreach to restaurants and event-based custom orders — to help the company sustain its competitive position against larger rivals.
- From Hobby to Business: The Wehner Family Story: Origins of the Wehner family cheese operation
- The Shift to Planned Business Strategy: Year 2000 as the business strategy turning point
- Opportunities and Challenges for Small Family Businesses: Growth potential and financial weaknesses of small firms
- Competitive Threats and Future Marketing Recommendations: Competitor risks and diversified marketing strategies
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper uses a concrete, well-documented case study to illustrate abstract marketing and small business concepts, making the analysis grounded and readable.
- It clearly identifies a turning point — the year 2000 — as the dividing line between opportunistic hobby and planned business activity, giving the argument a logical anchor.
- The final section moves productively from analysis to actionable recommendation, demonstrating applied business thinking rather than pure description.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates applied case analysis: it draws on a journalistic source and a trade publication to build a real-world business narrative, then interprets that narrative through a marketing and small business strategy lens. This technique shows how secondary sources can be used not just for facts but as raw material for analytical argument.
Structure breakdown
The paper is organized into three numbered analytical responses, here converted into titled sections. The first section establishes the factual background and identifies where planned strategy begins. The second weighs the general opportunities and weaknesses of small family businesses. The third applies a SWOT-style competitive lens to the Wehner case and closes with concrete marketing recommendations. The structure moves logically from description to analysis to prescription.
From Hobby to Business: The Wehner Family Story
Al and Desiree Wehner, graduates in dairy science, had begun experimenting with a new style of farming they had encountered in New Zealand, called rotational grazing. This methodology involved moving animals and cattle from "pasture to pasture rather than shed to shed" (Walker) and improved the quality of food through grass grown in soil that had received careful attention.
The cheese business began as a hobby when Desiree made cheese for the first time during an educational project with her son, Kyle. The idea developed further at a dairy conference in 1998, when Desiree tried fresh goat cheese for the first time. On her return from the meeting, she bought 13 goats and began experimenting with cheese making in her own kitchen at home.
The step from hobby to business was made in 2000, when Desiree began selling her cheeses to passers-by and tourists in the area. It was an early phase, and the family had no real plans for growth or expansion in the industry.
Despite this, the product was extremely popular, and some occasional customers became faithful, returning buyers. A third-place ribbon from the American Cheese Society proved the perfect incentive for Desiree to recognize that her cheese was of excellent quality.
Word-of-mouth marketing proved an excellent way to build awareness of the product. Additionally, the product was improved with the help of cheese expert Raymond Hook and Jean Marc Maisonnaire from France. Desiree's son Jeremy and his wife Jessica also joined the business as it entered a period of full expansion. Production moved to a larger plant, and three new employees were hired.
The Shift to Planned Business Strategy
Before 2000, most of Desiree's actions were unanticipated and occurred by chance, not directly connected with any deliberate business idea.
The year 2000 marks a clear benchmark between making cheese as a hobby and turning it into a business. From this point forward, most of Desiree's efforts can be considered planned. Like any well-run company, she began paying attention to research and development, the continuous improvement of product quality, and marketing methods — including effective word-of-mouth outreach in the local area and the presentation of her products to the American Cheese Society.
Works Cited
Kim, June. "New Spins on Old-Fashioned Virtues." Business Week, January 27, 2005.
Walker, Reagan. "Handcrafted Cheese from Georgia? Ask the Wehner Family if You're Dubious… Or Better Yet, Sample the Nationally Acclaimed Products Made from Their Own Goats and Cows." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, August 5, 2004.
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