Stemilt gears up for start of Rave apple season

Stemilt Growers is gearing up for the start of Rave apple harvest in early August.

“Rave kicks off the apple season with flying fuchsia colors and can impact the apple category in a way other varieties can’t because of its limited-time availability,” Brianna Shales, Stemilt’s marketing director, said in a news release. “Rave’s outrageously juicy flavor and refreshing, snappy zing has yet to be discovered by many consumers and will present the opportunity to offer them something new.”

Rave apple variety volume is increasing, and the expanded output gives retailers a window to promote and sell the apple in August and September, according to the release.

Tight summer supplies from the 2021 apple crop, combined with later start to Washington’s 2022 apple crop harvest, make Rave an ideal variety to promote, Shales said in the release. Stemilt said it will support the apple with experiential marketing activities in multiple city locations in August.

“Retailers that get behind the limited-time offering of Rave have successful seasons that drive dollars and volume to their apple category,” Shales said. “Stemilt has had success in the past with experiential marketing activations around Rave, and retailers who bring it in for the limited time will get a boost from the consumer marketing we will be doing.”

Stemilt has positioned Rave as the “social/word-of-mouth” apple and the consumer marketing activations fall right in line with that, Shales said in the release.

“Because Rave is still emerging with consumers, we have to create a display destination for it,” Shales said. “We ship it in these high-graphic boxes which will be perfect for building displays at retail. With so many new apples out there, having a unique experience with the variety they are trying will resonate with them and encourage future purchases.”

Building out a secondary location for Rave and drawing people’s eye to it will help impulse sales at retail, Shales continued.

“Ads are still the most effective way to make sure consumers are trying Rave,” Shales said. “Rave ranked as the No. 1 club apple and the No. 6 apple overall at one regional retailer in the first six weeks of apple season, with nearly 100 pounds sold per week. A really big key for retailers to understand is that Rave can have category impact because of its limited season that other apples can’t. When you stretch out the season of a variety, it’s not going to show the pound or dollar impact of that variety.”