Cool comes to the humble produce aisle

livemint.com:

First cottage cheese got a glow-up. Then canned fish and olive oil developed a new look. Now inglorious produce is getting its turn in the stylist’s chair.

A wave of branded fruits and vegetables are landing on e-commerce sites and in grocery stores across the country, using snazzy fonts and bright colors that promote their provenance and sustainable credentials. This isn’t “designer" produce with designer price tags, like Omakase Berries. It’s the everyday apple, now with a Pepsi-style marketing strategy.

Outside some enduring brands such as Dole, Chiquita and Driscoll’s, plus a newer player in Avocados From Mexico, most basic produce has usually competed on price and quality but little else. More farmers and produce companies are now moving to a business model they’ve seen work in other product categories: differentiate even the plainest products with fun packaging and an interesting back story, gain customers’ loyalty and sell more units at higher margins. Branding the previously unbranded helps companies use marketing tools that had been unavailable.

“Without a brand we weren’t able to be in shopper marketing, we weren’t eligible for press, we had no partnerships," said Tenley Fitzgerald, the vice president of marketing of Yes! Apples, the marketing arm of grower agency New York Apple Sales. The 105-year-old New York Apple Sales introduced Yes! Apples to retailers around four years ago in a bid to lift sales at retail. Fitzgerald, a marketer who previously worked for direct-to-consumer food brands Blue Apron and Fresh Direct, had posed the idea of a consumer brand to bosses after a contract stint with the organization.