A Sweet Twist on Apple Branding

Most often, analysis of brand strategy is focused on a name brand consumer product and its conventional efforts, such as John Deere's social marketing strategy, Benetton's scandalized ad campaign, Dr.Pepper's questionable "men only" positioning or Apple doing... anything.

But a new apple story in the latest issue of the New Yorker is one story all those interesting in branding should absolutely not miss. It's about the SweeTango.

Not a new form of dance, but an apple (no, not the iApple kind either), the SweeTango is the subject of a new extensive New Yorker profile titled "Crunch: Building a Better Apple" by John Seabrook.

The article is behind a paywall (so pick up a paper copy). The abstract describes the SweeTango's predecessor, the Honeycrisp: "The patent for the Honeycrisp, which expired in 2008, combined with sales rights abroad, earned the University of Minnesota more than ten million dollars in royalties." But instead of an "open release," the University of Minnesota had made the SweeTango a “club apple," meaning "the university would grant a license to an outside company, which would establish a consortium that could market and grow the apple nationally."

In an interview with NPR, Seabrook explains how the brand strategy surrounding the SweeTango is thanks to lessons learned from the Honeycrisp:

"The Honey Crisp apple was released in an open release and that meant that anybody who wanted to could grow it, anywhere they wanted to grow it, in any way they wanted to grow it. And that meant that the quality of the Honey Crisp varied widely.

So with the new apple, with the SweeTango, the university decided they were going to manage the release and that meant that, in order to grow the apple, you have to be granted the right to grow it by this consortium. And if they don't like where you're growing it or who you are or what your track record is, they won't give you that license.

Also, it means that you can't sell your apples to a supermarket. You have to sell them to the consortium and they do the marketing. Overall, it's an attempt to control the quality of the apple and ensure the long term longevity of the brands."

And just because it's a branding story with an abnormal arc doesn't mean it's outside the conventions of brand strategy. Check out the SweeTango's YouTube and Twitter feeds and Facebook page, where the branded apple has nearly 5,000 fans.

Photo via, what else, SweeTango's Twitter feed.