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Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP)

At Ballard Cheese, The Only Thing Better Than Cheese is More Cheese

With the help of: TechHelp

About

The Ballard family started their 35-acre dairy farm in Gooding, Idaho, in 1995. Like many dairy farms in Idaho's milk-rich Magic Valley, the Ballard’s initially made a living by supplying milk to large cheese operations, such as Glanbia, in nearby Gooding. In 2004, the family began producing farmstead cheese in a production facility adjacent to their barn. The cheese business helped diversify the Ballard’s product offering, added value to their milk and offset swings in the price of milk. The Ballards' hard work resulted in an award-winning line of cheeses sold in regional stores, restaurants, farmers' markets, and online through a Yahoo Web Store. In 2020, as the cheese side of the business grew, the Ballards decided to exit the milk sector and focus exclusively on producing and selling more cheese. 

The Challenge

Exiting the milk business allowed the Ballards to refresh their brand as they pivoted from Ballard Family Dairy and Cheese to Ballard Cheese. The company’s Yahoo Store, built in 2004 on one of the web’s first e-commerce platforms, needed a major overhaul and Ballard brand elements, including logos, imagery, videos, fonts, wording, and colors, needed to be updated to create a fresh modern theme for packaging, branded clothing, marketing materials and a new Shopify website.
Working with Techelp and the studio\Blu students was great. The new brand and website helped us increase sales by making us look and perform better. We are confident we can survive and thrive making cheese and more cheese. You are the best!
— Stacie Ballard, The Boss Lady

MEP's Role

TechHelp, a member of the MEP National Network™”, helped the Ballards build their first Yahoo Store and worked with the family over the years on food safety and web issues. When it came time for a brand and web refresh, TechHelp was a phone call away. The timing was fortuitous as TechHelp was working with Boise State University to create a new program known as studio\Blu that hired and mentored Boise State students with a wide range of skill sets and gave them opportunities to work on client projects. TechHelp assembled a studio\Blu team of student designers, copywriters, and business majors to work on the Ballard project. The team worked closely with the Ballards to create all elements needed for the new Ballard Cheese brand and the Shopify website. 

The new Ballard brand makes it clear that the company is focused exclusively on producing quality cheese products. The modern Shopify website helped Ballard Cheese elevate the quality of its public image to that of its award-winning cheese products and stands shoulder-to-shoulder with those of top farmstead and artisan cheese makers and helps the Ballards compete and sell nationwide. The project also created opportunities for Boise State student employees to earn money and do meaningful work that helped prepare them for their careers. Though the Ballards still have Jersey cow milk running through their veins, they are now living up to their motto, “The Only Thing Better Than Cheese, Is More Cheese.”

Created April 28, 2023