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Marketing is the HARD PART D When a new apple is launched as an open variety, it risks becoming a commodity. by Geraldine Warner eveloping a new apple variety that beats those already available is far from easy. But market- ing it successfully could be the harder part, Washington tree fruit shippers say. Washington State University has released three apple varieties from its apple breeding program. The first, known as WA 2, is available for commercial plantings to growers in Washington State. "One thing they have to face up to is these new vari- eties are fantastic eating and many of them are very enjoyable, but the marketing of that variety is the hard part," said Roger Pepperl, marketing director at Stemilt Growers, Inc., Wenatchee, Washington. "It's really hard, and however hard people think it is, it's harder than that." WSU's apple varieties are owned by the WSU Research Foundation which has granted the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission the license to commercialize them. The varieties are released as numbered varieties without names. The original commercialization plan allows all Washington growers to plant the varieties, since they have contributed towards their development through taxes and assessments. And it allows any Washington shipper to pack and market them using a trade name of their choice. For the latest release, WA 38, the commission is considering revising the commercialization procedure. Commodity Shippers say there are different models that can be used to launch new varieties, none of them easy. The problem with opening up a variety to everyone is that it risks becoming a commodity in terms of pricing, and there's no incentive for shippers to put extra effort into promoting it, Pepperl says. "If they have more than one marketing company selling the apple—which it sounds like— how do you get people to put some effort behind it?" he asked. If it's available to everyone, then it's likely to take the same pathway as Gala or Fuji, Pepperl said, but it took 20 to 30 years for them to succeed. Consumer recognition takes a long time to develop. Two years ago, Stemilt did a consumer study that showed that only 51 percent of consumers knew what a Gala apple was. Cameo is an example of a good apple that never did make it into the top-ranking varieties, he added. Peter Verbrugge, president of Sage Fruit Company, Brian Sand, sales manager at Auvil Fruit Company, Orondo, said it's probably going to take some marketing push by shippers to make a new variety successful. If the Research Commission is hoping someone will launch the variety with a big marketing campaign, then it could pick one of the top ten apple shippers or mar- keters, convince them that the variety can be their exclusive apple, and let them run with it. Another option would be to have mar- Peter Verbrugge Yakima, said it's understandable that a single shipper would not be entitled to exclusive rights to a variety that was developed with public funding, but he agrees that marketers would be less committed to it than to an exclusive apple, particularly if it had no name. "I would still participate in it," he said. "But it would be a different model, knowing that other companies are growing and planting it. There's a reluctance on our part to invest in an apple anyone can grow and sell under a different name, and the retailer's going to be reluctant to get behind a variety unless there's some consumer pull. I have a hard time believing there's going to be good consumer pull without brand recognition." Given that the Washington Apple Commission is no longer able to promote varieties on the domestic market, Orchard Proven, University Tested Bee-Scent's natural, non-toxic pheromone ingredient induces the foraging behavior in honey bees, increasing the number of bee-to-blossom visits at each tree. The result is a higher percentage of blossom set and increased fruit yields. • Increase Fruit Set on Pears, Cherries and Braeburn Apples! • Increase Size Potential of Gala Apples by Increasing the Seed Complement! • Conforms to National Organic Program Standards • WSDA Organic Certifi ed 610 Central Avenue Billings, MT 59102 (406) 248-5856 1-800-735-5323 www.scentry.com For more information, call 1-800-735-5323 or visit www.scentry.com. 16 APRIL 15, 2012 GOOD FRUIT GROWER Bee-Scent research data obtained from Dr. Dan Mayer, Washington State University keting organizations bid for the rights to the apple, and see who applies, but when the University of Minnesota did that with Minneiska (commercialized as SweeTango), it was sued by disgruntled producers who didn't have full access to the variety. It did prevail in the lawsuit, however. Brand Pepperl thinks that for any variety to succeed nowa- days, there must be a marketing concept and a marketing strategy for the shippers. And there also must be someone to manage the brand and decide on a name. The brand management company could be owned by a conglomer- ation of shippers or by the license holder, he said. Suzanne Wolter, marketing director at Rainier Fruit Company, Selah, said that before making a commitment to a variety, producers will want some proof that it is worth investing in, not only on the grower side, but the sales and marketing side, because it takes a significant investment to get it into the marketplace and convince consumers that it is a good variety. "There are so many varieties in the market right now," she said. "Everybody has at least one." MARKETERS CAN'T promote too many varieties their efforts to just a couple of varieties. Roger Pepperl, marketing director at Stemilt Grow- W ers in Wenatchee, said Stemilt has put tremendous resources into promoting and marketing the two trade- marked apples that it produces and sells: Piñata and SweeTango. It takes so much focus and effort that the company did not have the resources to push any more than those two new varieties, he said. "We have been very selective at Stemilt," he said. "If we had four of them at the same time, we would not have done it. We're doing all sorts of things behind the scenes that people don't realize are happening with Piñata." Suzanne Wolter, marketing director at Rainier Fruit Company, Selah, said Rainier has two club varieties: Lady Alice and Junami. The company spent three years with a heavy focus on Lady Alice before it brought in the second variety, and she'd like to spend another two or three years focusing on Junami before considering a third variety. "It takes a tremendous amount of time and effort both from the marketing staff and the sales staff to get it to go through because it's by no means an easy sell," she said. Before the company decides to go ahead and spend all the money, time, and energy marketing a new variety, it must be convinced that the apple will grow well in this environment and produce consistently good eating quality year after year, she said. —G. Warner www.goodfruit.com ashington's major apple marketers say that promoting new apple varieties is so time con- suming and expensive that they have to limit