We have Pristine apples or sale from the farm for the first time this year, but they are not selling as well as expected. Although we like the apple a lot for a summer apple, so far its not a big hit. We have tried selling them U-pick from the orchard as well as pre-picked in pecks and 1/2pecks or even allowing customers to select their own apples from bushel baskets. We are also giving a few yellow ripe apples away to our better blue/black customers. Although we have received some positive feedback we need to sell a LOT more apples! Our customer count is good and we are selling a bunch of blue and blackberry but not enough apples.
A good salesman can sell ice to Eskimos
Giving away free samples is smart, like a good cocaine dealer, perhaps partner with local restaurants and bakeries, give them the apples on the house, split the profits or something to that affect.
what are the pros and cons of selling this apple?
I imagine one con is the influx of other farm fresh berries and stone fruit not available in typical cooler apple months
Have you ever been to a Costco? They have folks with carts in the aisle giving samples of product
to taste. They pair them with complimentary condiments (maybe caramel).
They could sell a box of rocks.
I would use the âsurpriseâ factor. I think people are so set in their ways, âApples are a fall fruitâ. Well these apples are not and are very special and talk about the taste, which is crisp and juicy. Great in salads too! Really perfect for summer!
As a customer of apple u-picks and CSAâs direct marketing emails are what I look for. On social media you can also pay to get priority placement on peopleâs feeds both in the traditional right hand side and in the center news feed in FB (not sure how that works with Twitter).
I might start singing the praises of the rest of your main crop apples now to get the word out to folks that you are now in the apple business. That you are expecting a good crop of great apples and when you expect them to ripen.
Also, I went to your webpage. I would suggest moving apples up into the top row and since you donât have peaches, move that down to the mid-page right. (I know that is very nit-picky, but I didnât see the apples link right away on my computer.)
grow more attractive better tasting varieties. Name recognition goes a long wayâŚwho outside of here has even heard of Pristine? The name itself sounds like a toilet bowl cleanser.
The world is addicted to facebook and twitter as levers says. Almost nobody goes to a orchard site to check things outâŚthey just donât.
Thanks everyone for the good advice! Hope to implement many of these idea.
We planted the 60 Pristine trees knowing the fruit would ripen around July 4 which is a huge time for U-pick black, blue and peaches when the weather cooperates.
We boosted our facebook posts with good pictures devoted to Pristine Summer Apples several times before the 4th this year. The boost worked great! Had a huge customer turnout. Almost too many folks to handle comfortably, but everyone wanted blue and black! Only a few customers came for the apples. Got some positive comments about the apples and word of mouth is working. The other fruit almost sells its self, but its going to take a while to get the momentum to sell the Pristines.
Wonder if the Pristine would make a hard cider that would be drinkable?
Get creative on facebook. Make ads featuring the apple. Maybe run recipes featuring how to use it.
When we were overloaded with donut peaches mid June we ran promotions like the one below. Anything to get the customer to pay attention. And yes as you have seen, paying on facebook is about the only way to fly. But I will warn you, once you start paying for boosts, facebook will start to limit the reach of you unboosted stuff to get you to pay more often. They wont admit it, but thats my feeling.
Boy it didnt take long for someone to worry about the copyright. I doubt fox is gonna get all worked up about a photoshop and use by a tiny orchard. Just my opinion. Its a goof. My point is to just get creative.
really like your creative art work! I need something like that to catch folks attention.
Cooking apples donât seem to be popular which is the real source of my problem. When the apple doctor from NC State was visiting and noticed my summer apples, I could tell he was not a big fan of summer apples. I explained that the summer apples ripened when large numbers of folks were picking blueberry and blackberry on the farm. He suggested that peaches would work a lot better for my situation, so I planted an acre of peaches. He was right about the peaches! They sold like crazy last year, but the freeze killed them this year. The Pristine apples were effected by much less by the two major freezes this year compared to the any of the other apple variety.
After Pristine comes Williams Pride, followed by Ginger Gold and Gala. I have a lot more Gala than Pristine, so its going to be interesting to see how well they sell.
That is a handicap.
Needs something to make it sound special. âNew, available for the first time!!â or âFirst farm fresh apple of the seasonâ or âDelicious new variety!â Sell some to the people that want the latest new thing.
, the Simpsons are famous for poking fun at its parent company 
