Pink Lady America Makes Apples a Family Affair

Pink Lady America (PLA) is starting the new year with a program designed to focus on those families at the orchard level doing the hard work it takes for consumers to enjoy the high quality apples readily available in the supermarket produce department. “With the apple section in stores being a feast for the eyes which naturally leads to a tasty and healthy treat for the fans of this very popular fruit, the real reason it’s there can sometimes be lost,” says Alan Taylor, PLA marketing director in Yakima, Washington. “Those apples didn’t just fall out of the sky or magically appear from the back of the store. Most consumers understand this but it doesn’t hurt to remind them where this fruit is grown and who is doing the growing.” The program is called ‘My Family Grows Great Apples, and while its message is being delivered through one or more of the youngsters in the apple grower’s family, it also shows they’re really not different than the folks buying the fruit they grow. “We’ll be showing this very clearly through professionally-produced posters to be used in our social media and retail programs,” Taylor says. “In addition to the headline on the posters, there will also be an interesting ‘fast fact’ at the bottom of the page, referring to something involved in the growing process.” An example, again coming from one of the kids in the poster, will be “there are what look like windmills in our orchard which bring the warmer air down during cold spring evenings to help keep the tender fruit buds from freezing.” “There can be no doubt that today’s consumers are blessed by the results of a complicated and sophisticated delivery system which puts these fresh, tasty and healthy apples in the produce department,” Taylor says. “However, it should be worthwhile for these same consumers to actually see what may even look like familiar family faces who work very hard to take to grow these high quality fresh fruit products.” (In The Photo: Sean, Anna and Amelia Gilbert of Gilbert Orchards which markets through Oneonta Starr Ranch Growers.)